Organizations celebrate hundreds of employees who care for horses, maintain track ...

Ever wonder why backside tuberiding is nicknamed “pigdogging?” Well, the term comes from Australian slang for pit bulls, specifically when hunting wild boar. The dogs crouch down on all fours, bite ...

Behind the Kentucky Derby's glamour, unseen workers keep racing’s biggest stage running. Immigrant grooms work year-round on the hidden “backside” of Churchill Downs. Rising before dawn, they care for ...

Seventeen years ago, Odilia Castillo, now 37, traveled from her home in Chiapas, Mexico, north to work as a "hot walker" on Kentucky's race tracks. Every morning she wakes up at 3 a.m. and heads to ...

The backside of Churchill Downs houses 1,400 thoroughbreds and serves as a home for trainers, jockeys and staff. See the ...

This fall, the Speed Art Museum will host screenings of "Backside," a compelling, observational documentary by Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana that honors the primarily immigrant workforce quietly sustaining the ...

As Sierra Leone charged across the wire first in the Breeders' Cup Classic Saturday at Del Mar Racetrack in California, he had a large cheering section extending back to Louisville, Kentucky. The ...

Premieres Monday, April 13, 2026 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream with KPBS+. Set at Churchill Downs, Backside is a portrait of the immigrant grooms who care for Kentucky Derby racehorses year-round.