New staff members join Red Mile Team

Lexington, KY…February 22, 2024… Gabe Prewitt, Vice-President of Racing at Lexington’s Red Mile has announced that Emily Gaskin-Ratcliff has been named Director of Sponsorships for the harness racing track and Scott Freeman has been appointed Track Superintendent.

Gaskin-Ratcliff graduated from the University of Kentucky with her degree in agricultural communication and comes from a family long associated with harness racing.

About Gaskin-Ratcliff, Prewitt said, “Emily is a multi-talented addition to our roster whose experience in marketing and promotions along with her journalistic skills are lauded throughout the industry and we are fortunate to have her skills here at The Red Mile.

In accepting her new role, Emily said, “It is truly an honor to become a part of The Red Mile team. This is an iconic racetrack with 150 years of history and home to many of harness racing’s greatest moments and it will fulfill a dream to witness and participate in its future.”

Charles “Scott” Freeman, a Michigan native with a history going back four decades in the sport, has experience on all shapes, sizes and track surfaces, most recently, as the Track Superintendent at Pinehurst Trotting Center in North Carolina.

Prewitt, in announcing the appointment of Freeman to this important post, lamented, “Scott is one of the most important people at any racetrack and we are very fortunate to have his services and expertise for our upcoming meeting.”

About his new position, Freeman said, “This is a position that I do not take lightly. The paramount responsibility is to make a racing surface safe and secure and, with the weather so changeable these days, it’s a 24-hour-a-day commitment.

“You know the tracks here—the great mile oval and the training track–have different needs to keep them up-to-snuff as their iconic clay oval can change in a heartbeat as fast as the weather while the training oval has needs of its own as their surfaces are different. I’m looking forward to the challenge. After all, The Red Mile is where the ‘kings and queens’ come to play!”

Freeman joins Grand Circuit longstanding “track masters” Greg and Dan Coon.

The Red Mile meeting gets underway on July 21 and continues through Grand Circuit week in early October.

by John Berry, for The Red Mile