Dziurek - Fotolia
Network built for champions keeps the Derby on track
The Kentucky Derby is known for speed, and needs a network to keep the tech running as smoothly as the horses. Look behind the scenes at how Churchill Downs stays connected.
On the first Saturday in May, "the most exciting two minutes in sports” take place at the historic Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville, Ky. Behind the scenes, a highly sophisticated network infrastructure ensures everything at the Kentucky Derby runs smoothly -- from thousands of real-time wagers to the digital experience for over 150,000 attendees.
"Horse racing is a real low-latency sport. You want to know right when that first horse hits that finish line," said Nate Simon, senior vice president and CTO at Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI).
With a mix of temporary and permanent infrastructure, the Derby network must handle peak traffic, ensure reliability and adapt to the growing demands of a weeklong event. CDI partnered with networking vendor Cisco recently to modernize its infrastructure. Find out how CDI has embraced standardization, automation and proactive maintenance to keep fans focused on the excitement of the race, not the technology behind it.
The network challenges of Derby Day
The Kentucky Derby, which this year occurs on May 2nd , presents a collection of network challenges. First, not all the network infrastructure at Churchill Downs is permanent. The facility sets up temporary infrastructure to serve the massive influx of guests during the event. The Kentucky Derby has expanded from a one-day event to a whole week, including Winsday and Thurby racing days.
Nate Simon
The temporary infrastructure, which is "mothballed" for the rest of the year, must be as strong as the permanent IT setup for Derby week. This requires a hybrid approach to connectivity, including extensive trenching for fiber, as well as temporary copper cable (50,000 feet annually), expanding to cellular and employing distributed antenna systems (DAS), which help improve cellular coverage and capacity.
The Kentucky Derby experiences a volume of network traffic greater than a typical Saturday event. Bandwidth demands in its core network infrastructure at the Derby go up by about 60%, but that does not include all patrons’ personal device traffic that DAS partners handle as well as as temporary connections for specific purposes during the week. At peak times at the Derby, the system processes almost 4,000 wager transactions per second. Betting on horse races in North America is predominantly pari-mutuel, in which all bets are pooled together, with odds calculated on the fly based on the total amount wagered. These wagers must be processed in real time and require constant network connectivity globally to ensure that the odds are accurate.
Over 150,000 attendees move throughout the facility -- Churchill Downs spans 175 acres -- on Derby Day. Attendees deal with network-related technology the moment they get to the gate, whether presenting their ticket, purchasing a signature Mint Julep via point-of-sale systems, placing a bet and even simply using the Wi-Fi. This constant movement, crowd density and extended duration necessitate widespread network coverage and capacity.
Building for growth
CDI’s network infrastructure strategy has evolved significantly, driven by the need to scale rapidly and consistently across new acquisitions and construction projects. Currently, it includes 12 regional casinos, 18 live and historical racing venues and various wagering services, including TwinSpires.com.
"To grow as fast as we knew we had to grow, one of the first things that we needed was the standards; we needed the consistency. We needed to pick an architectural model that we could rinse and repeat," Simon said.
This standardization helps IT organizations to move from a reactive to a proactive approach, planning for capacity and future uses, and spotting potential issues before they cause outages. When companies have heterogeneous configurations and infrastructure at such a large scale, they are often dealing with more patching and firefighting than they need to. With standards in place, the company no longer has to start from scratch at every site and encounter the same issues.
Austin Lin
"For a large organization, like CDI, standardization doesn't mean they have all the same thing," said Austin Lin, vice president of product management for the network platform at Cisco. For example, there might be distinct templates -- with specific configurations, best practices and policies -- for a site with a casino, a racetrack or even back-office operations. This modular approach promotes agility and faster time-to-value for technology, enabling teams to set up new network infrastructure quicker.
"The reality is, when you're taking a company that’s small over that threshold, you really have to start thinking about how you do your work. Not just what you need to get done, but how you do it so you can keep up with that efficiency," Simon said. Part of that was getting the CDI team to see how adopting a common standard can create better resiliency and better reliability.
CDI tapped Cisco for a multi-year partnership, announced in April 2026, covering a network refresh that comprises more than 7,000 switches and a modernized routing fabric. For new sections as well as renovations at the track, CDI is installing modern wiring and Cisco infrastructure from the ground up. This included fiber for Internet Protocol televisions (IPTV), which were introduced a couple of years ago, to improve efficiency for advertising, sponsorships and emergency announcements.
Additionally, CDI is focusing on using automation and zero-touch tools to manage the increased scale, specifically Cisco Catalyst Center. This allows local IT staff, even those without specialized network skills, to efficiently roll out and refresh switches. With standards in place, CDI ensures that changes roll out with the right configuration and security, eliminating the need to send network engineers from corporate to other sites.
"We've been fortunate that a lot of our growth has been through those constructions from scratch, so we can build in these new standards right into the walls, in the bones of our facilities," said Simon, which is a stark contrast to the extensive standardization conversions at their acquisition sites. "It's tough, and it's time-consuming, but once you're there, it's beautiful."
Contingency planning for high-stakes moments
To ensure the most exciting two minutes in sports is focused on the horses, not the network, Simon notes that they build everything to be "as bulletproof as possible." The key is to be prepared.
To prevent downtime, the IT team performs extensive testing, including backups and uninterruptible power supplies for the track and load testing for TwinSpires.com due to increased traffic. Another layer of preparedness stems from proactive maintenance. Network engineers cycle through and test every piece of equipment, and they consistently ensure they have refresh and upgrade cycles scheduled. CDI also put contingency plans in place, and IT teams regularly conduct scenarios to prepare for potential issues, especially regarding physical and technical security.
Once the starting gates open, all the drama -- and attention -- belongs on the track, not on the network.
"It's about this bucket-list experience ... nobody notices Cisco, nobody notices Churchill IT," Simon said. "Everybody's having a blast with their friends."
Kathleen Casey is the site editor for SearchCloudComputing. She plans and oversees the site, and covers various cloud subjects including infrastructure management, development and security, as well as networking.
