Live racing season kicks off at Ellis Park

Live racing season kicks off at Ellis Park

Time for the cleaning.

Tonight at five --- less than a week --- after 7 people tested positive for covid-19 at ellis park --- live racing is back.

44news reporter marisa patwa is in henderson -- with a look at the safety measures in place -- as the park keeps to their opening day time-line.

It wasn really a matter of how do we keep covid -- 19 out?

Ellis park staff -- already preparing for the virus -- when seven individuals testing positive last weekend..?we sterilized everything on the backside -- which as you can see behind me -- this is a mile long track so there quite a bit of space on this two hundred acres between front side operations and backside operations.

So none of our front side employees were really at risk because there minimal contact?

The pandemic isn the only obstacle ellis park has had to face while gearing up for the first day of racing -- with 8 inches of rain over the past few days making it tougher on the tracks for jockey to safely ride.?we needed it a little bit more firm so i decided to take them off the turf and put them all on the dirt track until the turf track gets a little bit more time to dry?

As for fans -- they can reserve seats to view the races in more private areas -- but the stands are off limits for now -- to encourage social distancing.?that going to be a little depressing.

Not having everybody out here.

But the good news is we are racing -- wee trying to keep our protocols and try to keep everybody safe?

Masks are already required for staff members -- but new protocols could be rolling out?we may ultimately make masks mandatory for guests next week?

As for this assistant horse trainer -- she says it a small price to pay for getting to do what she loves.

I don t feel like anybody has been mad about it or anything.

Wee willing to do whatever we have to do to go racing -- this is how we make a living?

And for this jockey -- it was a fast start to the season -- winning the first race of the day.

"always happy to be here at ellis -- especially on opening day."

And as the races resume-- everyone here can back to doing what they love... reporting from ellis