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3 8 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.14 40 TIP 41 TIP J O C K E Y NATIVE HABITAT Backside, Paddock, Sauna ( aka "the Box"), Scale OVERACTIVE GAG REFLEX BAG OF BONES INTERNAL CLOCK (ticking down to Derby) INTERNAL GYROSCOPE (forever going in ovals) LESS THAN FIVE FEET TALL ONE TIC TAC (today's lunch) NERVE OF STEEL T he intersection is a topographical pit, surrounded on the north, south and east sides by railroad underpasses and on the west by a quick rise in elevation of some 18 or 20 feet. During fash fooding, the signs say, you do not want to risk driv- ing your car through here. Seventh Street is a line of demarcation for Magnolia Avenue. On one side is Central Park and the toney restaurant 610 Mag- nolia; on the other, with railroad tracks running right down the center of the roadbed, is near desolation: warehouses, chain-link fences topped with razor wire, streets little wider than alleyways, discarded polystyrene-foam cups and plastic bags. Te only trace of the once-vaunted Oakland Race Course, which took up 55 acres of the high ground to the southwest of the intersection, is a crude little brick-paved lane inappropriately named Oakland Avenue. In 1832 — long before the Southern and L&N; railroads, which crossed paths at Seventh and Magnolia, destroyed wagon and foot trafc — an organization called the Louisville Associa- tion for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses built a glori- ous precursor to Churchill Downs here (on land owned by its president, Samuel Churchill). Tere already were workingman's racetracks at two locations, but this was upscale racing, with a three-story Greek Revival clubhouse that included fancy women's accommodations, as well as stables for 120 Toroughbreds. In 1839 the most prestigious American horse race of that era — a match race between Louisiana powerhouse Wagner and Ken- tucky's own Grey Eagle — took place at Oakland before a crowd of 10,000 people, who had to get there by steamboat and horse carriage. Seventh Street itself was called Oakland Plank Road and then Oakland Turnpike well into the 20th century (I've seen it marked as such on a 1922 map), even though the high-roller playground — Henry Clay was a customer — faded away by the mid-1850s, its cache to be semi-replaced by St. Matthews' Woodlawn Race Course (whose famous vase is now presented to winners of the Preakness Stakes) and then Churchill Downs. — JW You should fnd something beter to do at Derby than visit this site, historic though it is. SEVENTH STREET AND MAGNOLIA AVENUE ROADS cross SHAKE HANDS WITH A JOCKEY. Any jockey. You'll understand how they control thousand-pound beasts running 40 miles an hour. PRAYING FOR REINS Photo by Aaron Kingsbury 26-43.indd 38 3/20/14 11:31 AM