Track Menu



cal

cal



 Home of the Junior Derby !     

Miles Park Miles Park started life as Fairgrounds Speedway a half mile night time harness track back in 1949. The opening night mutual clerks were made up mostly of co-eds recruited from the nearby University of Louisville. From that inaugural meet many changes would take place over the years.

Miles Park Over time just about everything changed at the track, the lights went away, then came back. Both the original clubhouse and grandstand, were demolished and rebuilt. The track surface itself was expanded three times. When everything was said and done, the grandstand would seat 3,500 the clubhouse another 3,000. The clubhouse also had a dinning room that seated 400. There was parking for 7,000 cars  and stables for 900 horses. The track surface was expanded to three quarters of a mile. The track was known for running the Junior Derby. 

Miles Park In 1974 the track changed hands and was renamed Commonwealth Race Course. It opened under the lights, with a new glass enclosed grandstand and a new racing surface. Opening night produced a record attendance and handle, but it wouldn't last. Commonwealth only lasted one meet, in 1975 the Kentucky Racing Commission questioning to values of the new owners denied race dates for a spring meet. Legal battles begin but Commonwealth never got back on track.

 In 1977 new owners ran a short Quarter Horse meet but in 1978 five juvenile arsonists torched the track heavily damaging the new grandstand. It was never rebuilt, but the 1978 quarter horse meet went on as scheduled. It's a little ironic, the old wooden grandstand lasted around thirty years and the new steel and glass one only makes it a year. That year the property was sold to a local company looking to expand, racing was done. The grandstand was razed in 1989. Today the property is an industrial site and there is no indication that a race track ever existed.

By the time Miles Park or Commonwealth passed into oblivion it looked like a Swiss army knife. Starting out in 1956 with one chute, Miles Park ended life with four chutes, one on every turn. I guess it was a unique way of lengthening the track without having room for expansion. Another interesting event that happened during the Commonwealth days, was when the judges misinterpreted a photo finish and made the second place horse the winner.