Education Experience The Klein Family Learning Center and WinStar Library and Classrooms quietly opened its doors on the backstretch of Churchill Downs in May. The side that formerly housed the track’s racing office was transformed into a learning center specifically for backstretch employees and has two classrooms, a large resources room with two computers, and a small library. Twenty-year-old Eziquiel Paddille spends several hours a day at the center learning English. The native of Guatemala started working as an exercise rider at Churchill Downs in early May. Prior to that, he galloped horses on a farm near Ocala, Fla. With the help of Spanish-speaking volunteer Mireya Riecken, Paddille navigate the Pimsleur Language Program. Donated by trainer Kenny McPeek, it is a series of audio compact discs that students listen to, and then type out sentences in English using a computer. Riecken and the benefits of the Pimsleur Language Program go beyond teaching English to students. “He’s using the computer keys, which will help him with our next class,” Riecken said. “It will be about computers, step father was a Thoroughbred trainer who followed the racing circuits in the South and Midwest. Riecken said she wishes programs like the ones being offered at the learning center has been available to her. “We used to go to Minnesota and they had classes, but they used to focus on what I call elite classes,” Riecken said. “They talked about areas of the horse.” Staffed by about 35 volunteers, the Klein Family Learning Center was initiated by the Kentucky Derby Museum. Support also comes crom the Richard Klein family and WinStar Farm. Lynn Ashton, executive director of the Derby Museum, said the new center was a necessary response to the changing face and nature of the horse industry. “Most people don’t realize it, but between all the trainers at Churchill Downs, they collectively employ one of the biggest workforces in town, and the biggest operation of its kind in the United States,” Ashton said. “At any given time, we may have between 1,000 to 2,000 stable support people working, and up to 1,400 horses stabled.” Besides offering tutorials in English and Spanish, the center also holds personal holds personal finance classes in which participants can learn basic things, such as how to open a checking account and begin establish credit. Home-buying seminars also are held. Donations for the center came from throughout the racing industry and the local community, Ashton said. “The response from the horse racing industry and the local community has just been amazing,” she said. — Kathleen Adam, The Blood-Horse, July 17, 2004