Construction to begin this summer on horse racing facility in Corbin, sister facility in W'burg

CORBIN — After seven years of anticipation, Corbin is down to being months away from seeing construction of a horse racing track in the city.

On Tuesday, Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce members heard an update on the future of Corbin's harness racing facility and Williamsburg's sister facility from Keeneland's Chief Operating Office Vince Gabbert. Gabbert said the plan is for construction to begin in mid-June at the Williamsburg location off Exit 11 on Penny Lane near the Whitley County Health Department.

Corbin's facility would begin construction a month or two after, he said, with plans for both to be open July 2022.

The racing facility will keep the name announced in 2017, Cumberland Run. At that time it was planned that Churchill Downs and Keeneland would open a quarter horse track. Now Cumberland Run is owned by Keeneland and its new partnership Kentucky Downs, which is located in Franklin, Kentucky and is majority owned, controlled and managed by a partnership led by Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone.

Gabbert explained that the track was changed to harness racing because horse racing is a very migratory business. Gabbert explained that Kentucky tries to not have any racing overlaps because it's a migratory business so the decision was made to try to create a circuit.

Corbin would host meets for three weeks in July that lead up into the Red Mile meet in Lexington which goes from August to October and then the Oak Grove meet is in the middle of October into November. A lot of the horsemen go to the northeast for the winter, Gabbert said.

"It's a great way to capture a lot of those horses that are coming down and it builds into what's happening at Red Mile," he said, noting Red Mile opened 30 days early because of demand.

Gabbert said on Tuesday that the Williamsburg facility will have 400 historical racing machines, a restaurant and he said they were looking at some entertainment options.

"It won't be quite the size of a Dave and Busters but some of the elements of a Dave and Busters type family atmosphere to capture off some of that tourism that's coming to the waterpark" and the growth of the University of the Cumberlands.

The Corbin facility would also have historical racing machines and a restaurant. There is hopes to eventually have a hotel on both sites as well.

Gabbert noted that Senator Robert Stivers had worked some road improvements into the state budget to get turn lanes and stop lights for Cumberland Run off the Corbin Bypass.

About 200-250 full time jobs are expected to be created with the facilities, from maintenance to culinary to IT to finance positions. During the meets, Gabbert said an additional 300 to 400 jobs would be created as help will be needed to maintain the stables, do drug testing and other jobs needed to host a meet.

"There really are diverse jobs," Gabbert said. "There is really not a sector that we don't touch."

The horses for the races would stable at Red Mile and ship down for races at Corbin.

Red Mile will host the Corbin meet in July 2021 and Corbin will host the 2022 meet in the Cumberland Run facility.