Services & Businesses
Tom Scherz:
Since 1993 I have been and independent contractor with Turfway Park to run the restaurant on the backside called The Home Stretch. We also run the Jock's Kitchen for the racetrack.
We are open 7 days a week, 365 days a year with 8 employees (down from 13 employees two years ago). There are approximately 350 horses here in the summer and 800 in the winter.
I started life as an accountant, working for the large furniture stores in Northern Kentucky. At that time my father-in-law had a truck catering business that serviced construction workers who were working on the airport expansion and the backside workers at Turfway Park. This was in the early 1980's.
This was when Turfway Park was expanding and building new facilities, and they requested my father-in-law run a 24 hour service. He did and that went very well, which led to an agreement with the current operators to open the full time restaurant. The contract was signed in 1993 and they have been in business ever since.
In 1995, Turfway build a new Jockey's quarters and came to me to provide service to the Jockey's kitchen. So the contract was re-written and they now have an option until 2015.
I love my job - the people and the friendships are wonderful. Recently, however, the economy has been bad and fewer race dates mean fewer horses, which mean fewer horsemen to take care of them, etc. It is a trickledown effect. Business has been down 46% in the last two years. The biggest blow to our business was when management took out live tellers in the restaurant due to budget cuts. No one wants to use those machines.
Business has been slow, but I love it and will stay here for the end.