When the 131st running of the Kentucky Derby is held Saturday at the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, bettors and other horse-racing aficionados will have access to more live statistics and Web-based information than ever before, thanks to expansive technology upgrades by the track"s owners.

A new enterprise content management (ECM) system now offers Web updates throughout the Kentucky Derby weekend. And for the first time, race watchers can get up-to-the-minute data on race entries, horse workouts, past races and more on the Churchill Downs Web site. Technology upgrades also include a new CRM system and new computer hardware.

"There"s a lot of focus on trying to do new stuff in our industry," said Atique Shah, vice president of CRM and technology solutions at Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), the parent company of the Churchill Downs racetrack. The Churchill Downs racing organization has been around since 1875, he said, and has undertaken a modernization program in the past four years to focus on making the racing experience better.

"We"re just setting out an example in the horse-racing industry that no one has done before," Shah said.

Since 2001, the company has been looking to technology to make its marketing and communications efforts more efficient, he said. Direct mail and other advertising campaigns were no longer bringing in new customers, so the company began exploring how to bring in bigger crowds at its seven horse-racing tracks around the U.S.

Last year, CDI brought in ECM vendor Percussion Software Inc. in Woburn, Mass., to rework and improve 17 Web sites to provide more timely updates on its racing activities around the country. CDI had staff members at each of its tracks who wanted to update their Web sites more frequently, but there weren"t enough IT people to handle the updates using the company"s old, custom-built FTP and HTML Web update applications.

That led to delays in Web site updates and frustrated staff members, Shah said, prompting CDI to look for a system that would allow any worker to update a Web site at any time.

"What we did was make the systems more efficient," he said. Some 25 vendors were initially reviewed, and the list was culled to three finalists before Percussion was tapped for the job. CDI is using Percussion Rhythmyx 5 ECM software.

"As soon as the content comes out from any one of the various departments ... they can post it right straight to the Web site as it happens," said Jeremy Borseth, director of Internet services for CDI. The Rhythmyx 5 deployment began in late February and was completed early last month. The new Churchill Downs racetrack Web site was launched April 1, with other site launchings still under way.

Integrated with the ECM rollout is a new CRM deployment from San Mateo, Calif.-based Epiphany Inc. The offering is designed to provide real-time database information that can instantly react to customer activity on CDI"s Web sites, including the delivery of banner ads to select customers, Borseth said.

The ECM and CRM projects are being done in four phases that stretch out through the end of the year. "The end of Phase 1 is Saturday," with the completion of the Kentucky Derby, he said.

Other IT projects CDI is working on at its tracks include a new clustered enterprise data center hosted by Electronic Data Systems Corp., as well as new television monitors, servers, PCs, tablet PCs and storage hardware from Gateway Inc.

CDI also owns Arlington Park racetrack in Arlington Park, Ill.; Calder Race Course in Miami; Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.; Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif.; Hoosier Park in Anderson, Ind.; and Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans.