Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel Celebrates Opening With Four $3,500 Donations to Area Nonprofits
Oak Grove, KY (October 2, 2020) – To celebrate its grand opening, Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel made four donations of $3,500 each to area nonprofits with operations near the property. The funds were raised during a VIP pre-opening event on location on September 16 and then split among the planned recipients. Oak Grove is one of two Churchill Downs Incorporated properties to open recently, with the other being Newport Racing & Gaming.
The organizations honored included a local branch of United Services Organizations, which strengthens America’s military service members by keeping them connected to family, home and country throughout their service to the nation; Aaron McNeil House, which promotes the well-being of families in the Hopkinsville/Christian County community through crisis relief and adult educational programs; Oak Grove Community Cares, which provides free holiday programs, educational and outreach opportunities to the citizens of the community of Oak Grove; and Fort Care, which honors our military soldiers, families and veterans for their tremendous sacrifice and service to our country.
Representatives of the nonprofits were welcomed at Oak Grove and were able to get one of the first looks at this exciting new destination. These deserving organizations were chosen based on their dedication to the greater Oak Grove area and their service of our military, and Churchill Downs was proud to in include these donations as part of its celebration around the opening of Oak Grove.
“We like it when our actions benefit multiple constituents,” said Oak Grove President and General Manager Darold Londo. “In this case, we wanted to showcase our new facility, programming and team to the community and in so doing also practice our prescribed way of doing business with our community partners, local officials, Churchill Downs executive team and other VIPs. The proceeds of their patronage we wanted to transfer to our new community-based nonprofit and charitable organizations as a small testament to their cause and our commitment to supporting them going forward. We were pleased our VIP guests were so generous with their contributions on September 16.”
Kari Moore, center director of USO Nashville and USO Fort Campbell, shared, “Truly, to be recognized as Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel joins the community is humbling. We’re thrilled to have the support of what we know will be an entertainment and employment powerhouse. We’re passionate about our USO mission and proud of the work we do, and it’s exciting to have Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel on board to support that mission. A gift this size can support programming like the annual Great Gift Giveaway in December, the annual Female Soldier Day Out in the summer or about 350 Redeployment Kits throughout the year.”
“It was truly an honor and pleasure to tour the amazing facility,” said Tamara Watts-Hunter, administrative assistant at Aaron McNeil House. “I realize there are a lot of agencies doing phenomenal work in our community. Aaron McNeil House is so overwhelmed with gratitude to be acknowledged for the hard work we do and to be one of the recipients of this donation. We have many residents of Christian County who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 virus. There are some hard-working people who have not received their unemployment benefits and are unable to return to work. This donation will be used to ensure these same hard working people can remain in their homes, with running water, heat to keep them warm on cold nights and food to feed their families while they struggle to get back on their feet.”
Finally, Amberlee Martin of Oak Grove Community Cares remarked, “Being recognized by Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel is an honor for Oak Grove Community Cares. It is amazing to have their support before they even opened their doors to the public. Community partnerships are what drive our mission, and this partnership is a blessing. With this partnership and this donation, we will be able to reach more children in our community during the holiday season and bring the spirit of Christmas to the citizens of Oak Grove. It will also lead us into the new year so we can get back to our mission here in this beautiful city of Oak Grove, Kentucky!”
Oak Grove looks forward to further developing community partnerships in the years ahead and strengthening these important relationships already formed.
About Churchill Downs Incorporated
Churchill Downs Incorporated is an industry-leading racing, online wagering and gaming entertainment company anchored by our iconic flagship event, the Kentucky Derby. We also own and operate three pari-mutual gaming entertainment venues in Kentucky: Derby City Gaming; Oak Grove Racing, Gaming, and Hotel; and Newport Racing and Gaming. Our online wagering business owns and operates TwinSpires.com, the largest and most profitable online horse racing wagering platform in the U.S., and BetAmerica, an online sports betting and iGaming platform in the U.S. We are also a leader in brick-and-mortar casino gaming with approximately 11,000 slot machines and video lottery terminals and 200 table games in eight states. Additional information about CDI can be found online at www.churchilldownsincorporated.com.
Information set forth in this news release contains various “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”), which provides certain “safe harbor” provisions. All forward-looking statements made in this news release are made pursuant to the Act. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the use of terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include the following: the effect of economic conditions on our consumers’ confidence and discretionary spending or our access to credit; additional or increased taxes and fees; public perceptions or lack of confidence in the integrity of our business or any deterioration in our reputation; loss of key or highly skilled personnel; restrictions in our debt facilities limiting our flexibility to operate our business; general risks related to real estate ownership, including fluctuations in market values and environmental regulations; catastrophic events and system failures disrupting our operations; online security risk, including cyber-security breaches; inability to recover under our insurance policies for damages sustained at our properties in the event of inclement weather and casualty events; increases in insurance costs and inability to obtain similar insurance coverage in the future; inability to identify and complete acquisition, expansion or divestiture projects, on time, on budget or as planned; difficulty in integrating recent or future acquisitions into our operations; costs and uncertainties relating to the development of new venues and expansion of existing facilities; risks associated with equity investments, strategic alliances and other third-party agreements; inability to respond to rapid technological changes in a timely manner; inadvertent infringement of the intellectual property of others; inability to protect our own intellectual property rights; payment-related risks, such as risk associated with fraudulent credit card and debit card use; compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or applicable money-laundering regulations; risks related to pending or future legal proceedings and other actions; inability to negotiate agreements with industry constituents, including horsemen and other racetracks; work stoppages and labor issues; changes in consumer preferences with respect to Churchill Downs Racetrack and the Kentucky Derby; personal injury litigation related to injuries occurring at our racetracks; weather and other conditions affecting our ability to conduct live racing; the occurrence of extraordinary events, such as terrorist attacks and public health threats, including the ongoing impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19 virus); changes in the regulatory environment of our racing operations; increased competition in the horseracing business; difficulty in attracting a sufficient number of horses and trainers for full field horseraces; our inability to utilize and provide totalizator services; changes in regulatory environment of our online horseracing business; number of people wagering on live horse races; increase in competition in our online horseracing; uncertainty and changes in the legal landscape relating to our online wagering business; continued legalization of online sports betting and iGaming in the United States and our ability to predict and capitalize on any such legalization; inability to expand our sports betting operations and effectively compete; failure to manage risks associated with sports betting; failure to comply with laws requiring us to block access to certain individuals could result in penalties or impairment with respect to our mobile and online wagering products; increased competition in our casino business; changes in regulatory environment of our casino business; and concentration and evolution of slot machine manufacturing and other technology conditions that could impose additional costs; and inability to collect gaming receivables from the customers to whom we extend credit.
Press Contacts
Nick Zangari
Vice President, Treasury, Investor
Relations & Risk Management
Phone: (502) 394-1157
Email: [email protected]
