‘A Horsemen’s Track Manager,’ Ellis Park’s Jeff Hall Dead At 75 – Horse Racing News

Jeff Corridor — Ellis Park’s well known director of racing operations who began his a lot more than 50 many years at the Henderson, Ky., monitor by parking automobiles as a teen — passed away Saturday morning at University of Louisville Health and fitness-Jewish Healthcare facility. He was 75.

A lifelong resident of Henderson, Hall was known for his robust local connections in the Tri-Point out location, his deep enjoy of horse racing and his understanding of how the diverse components of a keep track of worked and ended up interrelated.

“When we dropped Jeff Hall, we misplaced on each sides of the river,” said Ellis Park-primarily based trainer John Hancock, who had a significantly near association with Corridor, such as with his function as a Kentucky HBPA board member. “Jeff Hall was a horsemen’s track supervisor. His doorway was open at all times. He would hear at all occasions, and he would do his ideal to get completed what desired to get carried out. He often experienced a smile. He was constantly there when we needed him.”

“I commenced nearly each individual working day at Ellis by acquiring myself a cup of coffee and paying out my first 10-20 minutes with Jeff,” claimed Ellis Entertainment LLC basic supervisor Jeff Inman. “Just because his optimism and power gave me a raise to start out the day off. He cherished this position and he liked the activity but most of all, he beloved the persons here. I appreciated his expertise, but it is his friendship that will usually keep with me.”

Corridor liked to handicap the races and relished driving his golfing cart close to the backstretch interacting with trainers. His most well-liked attire was denims, boots, ball cap and a T-shirt or golf shirt (particularly of the Uk persuasion). If the celebration demanded, he’d put on a dress shirt and sometimes even a athletics coat.

Hall’s wardrobe reflected his down-property temperament that was among the explanations he was so well known among those people with whom he labored.

“Jeff was Ellis Park’s rudder for racing and an institution,” stated Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky HBPA. “He understood everybody, knew how almost everything required to work. He also viewed the horsemen and the Kentucky HBPA as companions, with absolutely everyone owning the aim of placing on the finest racing attainable at Ellis Park. Jeff acquired such a thrill each time an Ellis Park-raced horse went on to gain a major stakes. He took so much pleasure that (Horse of the 12 months) Knicks Go and (Kentucky Oaks winner) Shedaresthedevil educated there very last summer time.”

“Jeff was very dedicated to Ellis Park, dedicated to the horsemen and the enthusiasts,” stated Henderson Mayor Steve Austin. “I feel his most significant contribution in the last couple of yrs had to do with track servicing and turf class upkeep. The keep track of was just currently being praised by all the horsemen how good of form it was in and how superior it was for the horses. Just matters like that.”

Marc Guilfoil, govt director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Fee, mentioned he and Corridor first met when he was functioning for the commission and Hall was mutuels supervisor at the extended-since shuttered Riverside Downs harness observe in Henderson in the mid-1980s.

“Personally and skillfully, there was not a better person out there,” Guilfoil stated. “Above almost everything else, he was a very good good friend. He really cared. He cared about horsemen and he cared about the group. You know at just about every race monitor the human being you can connect with to get matters finished, and Jeff was our dude. He was our dude at Ellis Park and for a lengthy time he is been that dude. Jeff acquired matters accomplished, or he’d notify you that it are unable to be completed. A lie was not in him. It might not be what you wished to listen to but he would convey to you 100 % the fact: I can do that or I are not able to do that.

“If you needed a purple left-handed monkey wrench, you’d simply call Jeff and he understood exactly in which one was at. He’d accomplished a favor for anyone in 1987, trading Bobcats or something, and the man owed him that furthermore a drinking water pump. And he would get it.”

Hall graduated from Henderson (City) Substantial College and Western Kentucky College. He worked for yrs at Black Products providing hefty devices and at a single phase worked in the oil business. By means of most that time, Corridor also labored summers at Ellis Park, setting up out as a mutuel clerk and advancing to entire-time function as mutuels director to general supervisor to concentrating on the racing element as director of racing operations.

Hall’s profession in racing spanned 6 possession groups at Ellis Park, courting again to when Lester Yeager ran the track for the heirs of James C. Ellis.

“Jeff knew every thing about the observe: where by the wiring was, the pipes,” mentioned Henderson businessman Bill Latta, a horse proprietor and buddy who was two many years at the rear of Corridor in school. “He’d been there very long enough that he knew a whole lot about the total facility and, for deficiency of a better time period, the politics of the horse small business and any idiosyncrasies of them. That’s a great deal of institutional knowledge that is dropped now.

“And he was just a great dude, and I consider that’s about the greatest thing you can say about a particular person.”

Survivors incorporate his spouse of 38 decades, Raini Smith Corridor two daughters, Kristie Corridor Watson and her partner, Mark, of Lexington, Ky., and Ashley Harper Smith of Nashville, Tenn. brother Tim Corridor and his wife, Susan, of Sturgis, Ky. and granddaughters Charlie Watson and Margot Watson.

A celebration of existence will be held from midday until eventually 2 p.m. CT on Saturday, June 11, at Rudy-Rowland Funeral Dwelling, 604 Heart Avenue, Henderson, Ky., 42420.

“To connect with him a pricey friend isn’t going to do justice,” explained Ellis Park racing secretary Dan Bork. “He was a satisfaction to do the job with and just to be close to. He will be skipped. He meant so a great deal to the racetrack and the group.”

Jimbo Liles, Hall’s college or university roommate at WKU, recalled his lifelong mate as a person who cherished his loved ones and was normally ready with a serving to hand. And, he claimed, “He truly liked Ellis Park. He was a unique male.”

The Kentucky Equine Instruction Undertaking, the state’s equine financial advocate, mentioned of Corridor: “KEEP was saddened to listen to of the passing of Jeff Hall. We mourn the decline of our board member and steadfast supporter of KEEP’s mission and the work of The Race For Training. His initiatives ended up tireless. Jeff was a true pal to everyone in the horse marketplace and he will be deeply missed. Continue to keep extends our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to Jeff’s household and pals.”