Proven Winners Dresses Up The Derby

Proven Winners brought beauty to Churchill Downs as an official sponsor of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks races over the weekend. Greenhouse Grower’s Editor Delilah Onofrey and garden celebrity P. Allen Smith got a behind-the-scenes VIP tour. Our hosts were Sharon Gravitt of EuroAmerican Propagators, one of the Proven Winners founders and partner growers, and John Backert (right), director of horticulture at Churchill Downs. Gravitt’s husband Jeff Warschauer of Nexus Greenhouses also joined us, but happened to be taking this picture.

Backert already was a customer of Proven Winners, buying liners from EuroAmerican for Churchill Downs and years before, when he and his wife ran a small growing operation. For the spring kickoff, he grows 30,000 plants to decorate the grounds. A few years ago, he and Gravitt discussed taking EuroAmerican’s and Proven Winners’ participation to the next level as an event sponsor. This is the third year Proven Winners has been an official sponsor of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks races. In addition to purchasing prominent ads in the official programs for the races, EuroAmerican supplied plants for more than 130 mixed containers in the Marquis Village, where corporate sponsors entertain guests in hospitality suite tents.

The Kentucky Derby is one of the largest sports spectacles, drawing more than 155,000 people to the event itself from all walks of life and a wide economic spectrum. It’s one of the biggest parties in America with mint juleps being the drink of choice.