Behind the scenes: Churchill Downs' sign maker has his own race with the clock on Derby Day

Todd Herl has a prime view of every race at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day except for the Run for the Roses itself.

For the first 11 races on the first Saturday in May, he's near the finish line waiting to swap one race's sponsor sign for the next.

But by the time the crowd starts singing "My Old Kentucky Home," Herl is on his way to the Churchill Downs Sign Shop, where he'll watch the race alone from a television screen. Among the sign shop manager's many, many jobs is to ensure the newest Kentucky Derby winner's name is already hanging when the horse's owners make their walk from the Winner's Circle out the runway and back into the Paddock.

Ahead of Derby Day, he prints out every potential winner's name in vinyl. Once all the results are official, it takes about 10 minutes to secure and laminate that name to a board. Then he has to maneuver the sign through a dense crowd funneling out of the stands — and some years that's more complicated than others. When Giacomo won in 2005, he only had to protect about 5-feet worth of sign. If a horse's name has as many letters as American Pharaoh's did in 2015, he's lugging a board nearly twice the size of him through the chaos.

"You've got to walk through (everyone) and when people realize what you're carrying they want you to stop, and they want you to take a picture," he explained.

"No, no, no, I just keep focused. And like a horse, I put blinders on."

That trek to the Paddock is one of the biggest moments of his year, but if you look around his sign shop, it's clear Herl's role at the Churchill Downs is so much more than trading one Derby winner's name for another. For the past 20 years, he's been the reason Kentucky Derby-goers can find their way to the wagering window to place a bet or concession stands to buy a hotdog. When they’re in dire need of a bathroom, he’s quietly directing them to the closest one.

And what happens, if after all his guidance, track goers still get lost?

“Then that’s your fault,” he explained, with a jolly, kind chuckle. "Because I've got plenty of signs."

Every year, Herl prints, mounts and installs upward of 1,200 signs at the storied track where the Kentucky Derby runs each year, but — as he'll candidly tell you — it's up to the track's visitors to read them.

He began working at Churchill Downs 28 years ago at the encouragement of his father-in-law, former Churchill Downs Vice President of Operations David Sweazy. Herl left his job as a fireplace salesman in 1994 and started at the track in maintenance doing carpentry work and painting.

"He was marrying my daughter, and I said 'I've got to get you a better job,'" Sweazy, who now works for the Kentucky Derby Museum, said. "We wanted good people, and he ended up being one of the best."

From there he took an interest in the sign shop, so he helped out whenever the manager was on vacation. He tinkered around with the computer programs and read the book on how to use the track's cut vinyl machine, which could print out letters but not graphics.

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He started crunching numbers, and he realized that if the track invested in a printer, he could save Churchill Downs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. In the early 2000s when Herl took over the sign shop, it cost more than $40,000 to outsource the printing needed to set the stage for the red carpet on Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby Day. With the new technology his father-in-law gave the shop, he was able to do the project himself for about $500.

In almost no time, the machine paid for itself.

"I told my father-in-law that I could save this company money, and I do it, and it's not always fun. Sometimes it's long hours and late nights," Herl said.

Then Herl paused.

"He's asked me many times before 'why do you do this' and I say 'because I promised you I would.'"

Sweazy left the track in 2012 but Herl is still in the sign shop, which is tucked behind the scenes on the northeast side of the track, carrying on that promise all these years later.

"You know, you don't work for me anymore," his father-in-law tells him.

"But I gave you my word, and I was raised, you keep your word," Herl finished.

"He saved us six figures a year making all those signs," Sweazy said. "His heart and soul is in the place, and he makes me proud."

His craftsmanship has touched seemingly every corner of the track. If your eyes are reading directions of any sort, it's safer to bet that Herl made that sign than it is to put money on the Kentucky Derby favorite.

Herl's job involves being right in the middle of the action and also quietly working in his shop behind the scenes. He's the careful hand behind the "no smoking" signs and voltage warnings that linger in the background almost unnoticed, and he's the man on the cherry picker swapping out numbers as the iconic sign over the grandstand shifts from "Derby 147" to "Derby 148."

That cherry picker, and Herl's backside, have ended up on national news several times over the years. Last year, as the track continued to update its pandemic protocols ahead of the 2021 Kentucky Derby, Herl crafted more than 5,000 extra signs than usual to help block off boxes and to encourage social distancing and mask-wearing. In the minutes before Maximum Security was disqualified from the 2019 Kentucky Derby, Herl had already printed out the sign declaring him the winner. He was just about to run out the door and hang it in the Paddock before the news flashed across his screen and he had to readjust and make a different sign for Country House.

His biggest moment at the track, though, has nothing to do with Kentucky Derby itself.

He and his wife, Julie, were married at Churchill Downs on Aug. 5, 1995.

That day and moment stick out to him more so than any sign he's hung or any champion he's seen cross the finish line.

It's worth more than the millions of dollars he's saved Churchill Downs over the years.

Starting his life with Julie, Herl says, is the best thing that ever happened to him at the track.

Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4053. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @MaggieMenderski.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Derby 2022: Meet the man behind the signs at Churchill Downs