• Churchill Downs held a “Sunday Funday” event, marking the first Sunday of racing during Derby Week since 2010.
• The additional day of racing attracted both Kentucky Derby regulars and first-time attendees.
• Many visitors, including some from out of state, took the opportunity to dress in traditional, colorful Derby fashion.
• The event drew in tourists who were in Louisville for other reasons, such as bourbon tastings or family history research.

Sunday racing during Kentucky Derby Week returned on April 26, drawing both Derby regulars and newcomers.

Organizers dubbed the event “Sunday Funday,” marking the first time horse racing had been held at Churchill Downs Racetrack on a Sunday during Derby Week since 2010.

With gates opening at 11:30 a.m. and the first race post time at 12:45 p.m., it seemed some staffers and attendees came straight to the racetrack from church. 

“Some of us have to go to church and get blessed before we come,” said a woman dressed in her Sunday finest by the Paddock Gate, with 10 minutes to go before the gates opened for the day. 

“Some of us stay blessed,” another worker responded.

Billy and April Bensing were among those who took in the day’s racing from the Stakes Room & Balcony.

Speaking outside the Paddock Gate, the Shively couple — dressed in bright fluorescent orange and pink — said they typically attend 502’sDay, the Tuesday of Derby Week, each year with family and friends, largely because the crowds are thinner.

But when they heard Churchill Downs was adding a seventh day of racing to the eight-day Kentucky Derby schedule, they jumped at the chance to come for a second day without the kids. 

For Chad and Leslie Cooper of Jonesville, Louisiana, another day of racing meant another outfit to put together. This year marked their second visit to Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby Week, after having such a good time last year. 

“We came so far to do this, we’re going all out. It don’t matter if it’s low-key or not,” Leslie Cooper said.

She added, “Our kids are all grown and gone, so we can just enjoy ourselves.”

In contrast, Taiya Hardy was attending her first horse race. She also took the opportunity to wear a brightly colored spring dress on what started out as an overcast, chilly day that later turned abundantly sunny.

“Colorado doesn’t have clothes like these,” she said of the outfit and hat, the latter of which she purchased at Pix Shoes at 210 S. Preston St. in downtown Louisville.

Also coming to Churchill Downs for the first time were Jack and Kathy Arzooyan and their cousin, Wendy Franz. The Minnesota and Michigan residents, along with seven other family members, traveled to Kentucky this past week to search for a common ancestor.

Louisiana police say a podcast helped them solve the decades-old killing of a 16-year-old girl and announced Friday that four men now face criminal charges in connection with her rape and murder.

In 1982, teenager Roxanne Sharp was killed in the woods of St. Tammany Parish, about 30 miles north of New Orleans. Police struggled to solve the case due to a lack of evidence and witnesses willing to come forward. But then, investigators approached a local media company, which agreed to produce a podcast, “Who Killed Roxanne Sharp?” renewing public interest in the case after its six-part series aired last year.

Louisiana State Police spokesperson Marc Gremillion credited the podcast with generating crucial tips from the public and prompting new witnesses to approach investigators.

“It helped our investigators piece together where Roxanne was days before to the time she died, to where we’re at now,” Gremillion told The Associated Press. “It was a very large help with getting that message out to the public, and then, therefore, those witnesses getting back to us.”

Over the past few days, police charged four men with aggravated rape and second-degree murder: Perry Wayne Taylor, 64; Darrell Dean Spell, 64; Carlos Cooper, 64; and Billy Williams, Jr., 62.

Cooper and Taylor were already in prison on unrelated charges, and Williams and Spell were arrested earlier this week. Sharp was an acquaintance of the four arrested suspects and was known to frequent the neighborhood where they lived, Gremillion added.

“We appreciate the hard work and love that has been shown to Roxanne Sharp’s case,” Sharp’s niece, Michele Lappin, said in a statement on behalf of her family. “We hope that with justice will come healing and closure for our family, her loved ones, and the community.”

Billy Williams Jr.’s son, Billy Williams III, said his father is innocent of the crime.

“He thinks they’re putting him in for something he didn’t do,” the younger Williams said. “He says he would never in his life hurt anyone.”

The St. Tammany Parish clerk of court did not have attorneys listed for any of the suspects. Family members of Spell, Cooper and Taylor did not respond to requests for comment via phone numbers associated with them.

“When we started the podcast, we kind of thought nobody cared – we were quickly corrected,” said Charles Dowdy, vice president of Northshore Media, which produced the podcast. “A lot of people stepped up and said they knew Roxanne, they remembered her, they were friends with her.”

Dowdy recorded audio as investigators recreated the crime scene using measuring tapes to mark the exact locations where Sharp’s body was found and where other pieces of evidence were uncovered.

“It clearly showed that she’d been grabbed on the street and dragged into the woods,” Dowdy said.

Police had once thought the case solved after serial killer Henry Lucas claimed responsibility for Sharp’s murder. But Lucas, known for making false confessions, later retracted his claim, and other evidence disproved his connection to the murder.

St. Tammany Parish resident Justin Joiner, 39, told the AP that his father, a Covington police officer, had been one of the first law enforcement to arrive at the scene of Sharp’s death and remained frustrated about the lack of closure for the rest of his life. He kept a briefcase full of his notes on the case until he passed away last year.

“It’s been a big black cloud on the community,” Joiner said. “Nobody would talk about it — it was hush, hush, you talk about it in your house, not in public.”

Joiner added that the podcast opened up discussion about the case across generations and throughout the community.

“Cold cases don’t close themselves,” Covington Police Department Chief Michael Ferrell said in a statement. “They close because people show up, year after year, and refuse to quit. That is exactly what our agencies did, and today, Roxanne and her family finally have the justice they have waited so long for.”

District Attorney Collin Sims echoed that sentiment.

“This case is a powerful example of what persistence, collaboration, and advancements in investigative technology can accomplish. For more than four decades, this victim and her family have waited for answers,” Sims said in a statement. “Today’s arrests reflect our unwavering commitment to pursue justice—no matter how much time has passed—and to hold those responsible fully accountable.”

Podcasts have helped law enforcement solve other cold cases recently. Last year, detectives in Illinois solved a missing person’s cold case and credited the podcast “Somebody Knows Something,” which the Elgin Police Department itself launched.  In 2024, a sheriff in South Carolina credited a podcast with helping to identify a 1975 cold case victim, formerly known as “Mr. X.”