Brown: Sierra Leone owner from Oldham County making difference during Kentucky Derby 2024

Brook T. Smith grew up in Oldham County but was into his 30s before he got hooked on horse racing. The moment for him came on Derby Day in 1995 when he joined a former roommate who knew somebody, who knew somebody involved in a syndicate ownership of filly Laura’s Pistolette .

Smith stood trackside with their group and vicariously celebrated as the 30-1 long shot in the 10-horse, Grade 3 Humana Distaff Stakes won by a nose over Morning Meadow, who placed by a nose over Traverse City.

“I watched the excitement and kind of stood back,” Smith recalled. “It was amazing, and that was the end of that. I was like, ‘OK, this hook’s set.’”

He hasn’t been the same since.

Sharing ownership in a Kentucky Derby favorite

Smith delved into the ownership side of the industry. He has a 16% share of Sierra Leone , a Chad Brown-trained colt that’s one of the favorites in Kentucky Derby 150 . He also owns horses under Rocket Ship Racing .

But he doesn’t buy horses just to make himself richer. Where Smith goes, philanthropy usually follows.

As a kid living in Westport, he got his entertainment from trying to catch crawfish in a nearby creek. His family didn’t have cable television and even working the rabbit-ear antennas on the set couldn’t pick up coverage of the Kentucky Derby.

“A big night for me was Chef Boyardee boxed pizza and a jug of Welch’s grape juice, and we thought we were living — and it’s still not so bad,” Smith said.

Those memories are what he keeps in mind when Smith looks to make donations.

When he found out that Churchill Downs’ Backside Learning Center — a nonprofit organization that provides support for track workers and their families — had what he considered an “anemic” budget given the amount of money floating around the industry, he moved to do something about it.

Helping others with Purses For a Purpose

Smith views the backside, filled with the groomers, hot walkers, exercise riders and blue-collar workers who do it for the love of horses, as the backbone of the industry. He believes that owners should do more to help the people that help their horses.

That’s why Smith helped launch the Purses For a Purpose program in 2020.

Owners are asked to enroll a horse and donate 1% of their winning purse to the learning center. Smith said he ups his donation to 10%.

It’s already working. The budget has increased for the center, which helps it expand into more programming. Smith said he wouldn’t be surprised to see them be able to raise a new building in the next couple of years.

Sierra Leone is the first Derby horse enrolled in the program. If he wins the Derby, the learning center would get nearly $50,000 of Smith’s cut from the race. And he pledged an additional $100,000 while attending an annual handicap seminar that the center hosts.

A donation of $150,000 is substantial from one owner, and he tried to make a similar splash in 2022. Smith put a $10,000 future wager on Tiz the Bomb in the Derby with the winnings going directly to the center. But that colt finished ninth in a year that Rich Strike won at 80-1 odds.

Here’s where Smith wants to get a little greedy.

He’s issued a challenge to try to get 150 owners — to symbolize the 150th Run for the Roses — to join the cause. It’s not just about the economic gesture; Smith wants the people who take advantage of the center’s programs to understand there are owners who are supportive.

“A little bit goes such a long way like with the backside learning center,” Smith said. “I've been fortunate, and I want to share that with other people that maybe didn't get the same breaks that I did.”

Now there’ll be a whole lot more people rooting for Sierra Leone to get the break from post No. 2 that he needs so the backside learning center can catch a much-needed break financially.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com , follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his column s.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Brown: Sierra Leone owner from Oldham County making difference during Kentucky Derby 2024