Churchill Downs, located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, is a Thoroughbred racetrack most famous for hosting the Kentucky Derby annually. It officially opened in 1875, and held the first Kentucky Derby and the first Kentucky Oaks in the same year. Churchill Downs has also hosted the renowned Breeders' Cup on eight occasions, most recently in 2011. Churchill Downs Incorporated owns and operates the racetrack.

In 2009, the Horseplayers Association of North America introduced a rating system for 65 Thoroughbred racetracks in North America. Churchill Downs was ranked number 5 on this list.

The track is named for John and Henry Churchill, who leased 80 acres (320,000 m²) of land to their nephew, Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. (grandson of explorer William Clark). Clark was president of the Louisville Jockey Club and Driving Park Association, which formed in 1874. His father-in-law, Richard Ten Broeck, was an accomplished horse breeder and trainer, and introduced Clark to horse racing, attending the English Derby at Epsom Downs outside London.

Patrick Henry Hughes (born March 10, 1988) is an American multi-instrumental musician from Louisville, Kentucky who was born without eyes and unable to fully straighten his arms and legs, making him unable to walk.

Patrick Henry Hughes was born March 10, 1988 to Patrick John and Patricia Hughes. Upon his delivery, the medical staff noticed physical anomalies. These were diagnosed as bilateral anophthalmia with pterygium syndrome and congenital bilateral hip dysplasia.

His father, Patrick John Hughes, introduced him to the piano at the age of nine months. Patrick has studied piano in the years since and later began the study of trumpet. He has two younger brothers, Jesse and Cameron.

Patrick Henry's national fame began in 2006 while a student at the University of Louisville. At the suggestion of Louisville's marching band director, Dr. Greg Byrne, Patrick Henry joined the Louisville Marching Band, playing trumpet while his father pushed him in his wheelchair through the marching routines. This visible commitment attracted increasing crowd and media attention throughout the fall football season, and the pair of Patricks were featured in a variety of television and newspaper coverage. Patrick Henry was subsequently invited to play piano and sing in musical performances throughout the country, including two performances at the Grand Ole Opry, and onstage performances with Pam Tillis, Lonestar, Lane Brody, Chad Brock, Faith Hill, and Bryan White. Also in 2007 he played solo trumpet on stage in performance with the Louisville Orchestra.

Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770s. A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.

Henry led the opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 and is remembered for his "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" speech. Along with Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine, he is remembered as one of the most influential exponents of Republicanism, promoters of the American Revolution and independence, especially in his defense of historic rights. With his first marriage, he became a landowner and slaveholder, and later owned thousands of acres of land in Virginia.

After the Revolution, Henry was a leader of the anti-federalists in Virginia. He opposed the United States Constitution, fearing that it endangered the rights of the States as well as the freedoms of individuals; he helped gain adoption of the Bill of Rights. By 1798 however, he supported President John Adams and the Federalists; he denounced passage of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as he feared the social unrest and widespread executions that had followed the increasing radicalism of the French Revolution.