The Race for Grace has a big time guest speaker coming to town

Tony Estes, President of the Kentucky Racetrack Chaplaincy, and Stacey Murphy talked about the history of the chaplaincy, what they do for the track workers, and the upcoming Race For Grace event with special guest Tim Tebow...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to news Radio eight forty WHS. I'm Terry Muners. That's the invertries.
Tony Estes is also in the studio. This guy I've known for a
long long time. Good to seeagain, brother. It's good to see
you too. Terry like treating allright? It is. Yeah. My
wife's good to me and she's waytoo good for you anyway. Well,
I know I didn't marry up,There's no question about it. We haven't

(00:21):
played golf in years or whatever,but I hope you're still out there swinging
the clubs now and again. Well, I had to stop about three years
ago. Had a bone taken outof my wrist, and I broke these
two bones. So I can't takea club back. So what do you
do sitting in a cart and tormentpeople la swinging? I do like to
drive around and have a few laughs, but I don't like to do that
at other people's expense. You cando a commentary, running commentary. My

(00:43):
wrist is out of action. Therefore, I'm going to jaw you guys.
Our buddy Ron Carmichael and I doa lot of that. You know,
he's not playing much, you know, but yeah, Ron does it in
a very subtle way, very quiet. Yes he is. Stacey Murphy also
in the studio. Let's high Stacey. It's good to see you. Hello,
good to see you, Terry.I know Derby Week's got all kinds
of amazing things happening this year becauseit's the one hundred and fiftieth Kentucky Derby.

(01:08):
But the two of you are inhere regarding the race for Grace.
First off, Tony, are youthe president of the racetrack Chaplaincy. Yes,
it's the Kentucky Racetrack Chaplaincyy, Andwe supply chaplains to five of the
tracks in kent well, four ofthe tracks in Kentucky and one in Cincinnati
Bell Terra, but we have ChurchillTurfway Ellis Park, and then when Kentucky

(01:34):
Downs Is open down in southern Kentucky, we supply a chaplain there for three
weeks and Keenland's only one we don'thave, but they have their own chaplain
and they do their own thing.What do the chaplains do? They have
services and then they're there for whatother purposes? Well, the chaplaincy was
formed by a gentleman by the nameof Salty Roberts, and he was an

(01:55):
old horseman. Now, they didsay that on his birth Certificate's Salty was
that you'd have to ask Pat Daythat mom and dad were like, what
shall we how about Salty? Yeah, well that could have been I don't
know what they'd have called me.But now he uh, he realized that.
You know, it was a difficultthing for the backside workers and a

(02:16):
lot of the horse people in theindustry, uh to go to church because
it's a seven day a week job, that's right, and they they're up
at three o'clock in the morning gettinghorses ready for workout, and then after
that they bathe them, put themin a stall and feed them, and
then later on that afternoon they workwith them as well. And of course
that's seven days a week. SoSalty said, we got to bring church

(02:38):
to them. If they can't leavethe track, can't leave the backside to
go to church, then who wantsto go to church will make it happen
for them. So he started theRacetrack Chaplaincy and it is a national chaplaincy.
Yeah. Pat Days talked to meabout this before, and I know
it's close to his heart as well. Well. Pat was our president for

(03:00):
a few years and he needed tostart backing out of that. And he
tapped on my shoulder one day andsaid, Tony, I'd like for you
to think about being president. Chaplainsays a Pat. I don't have I
don't know anything about theology like Ishould. I don't have any education.
I'm not a minister, I'm nota priest, and he says, I

(03:21):
know that, but the Lord hasother things for you to do. And
you know when the when no Pat'stapping on one shoulder and Lord's tapping on
the other, you better listen.You better answer are important shoulder taps,
that's for sure. So Stacy,this event that happens on Monday sounds pretty
amazing considering you have a rather prominentkeynote speaker. Yes, we are excited.

(03:44):
Our Race for Grace event is alwayson the Monday before Derby. This
year it's on April twenty ninth.Tickets and tables are on sale now.
You can go to ky Chaplaincy dotorg and we're super excited to announce we
have two time national champion and sevenHeisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow coming to our
event to be our keynotes. Thatis fantastic. Yes, we're super excited.

(04:06):
He's been so kind of various peoplein this city multiple times, and
he's called I know, my brotherwas coaching a grade school team and he
got him on the speaker and thent Bow was great. I mean,
it's just it's astounding the stuff hedoes. He gives of himself. I
just saw him. But was hetestifying in Congress? Yes? Yes,

(04:28):
last week he was testifying in Congressto champion or lobby for a bill that
was to help children that were unidentifiedand in human trafficking. Oh my goodness.
Yeah, And I think he's testifyingagain this week somewhere over in Europe.
He's just a phenomenal human being.Still working too. I think he's
still doing some game called analysis orelse. He's on the set right on

(04:51):
the SEC I believe SEC network.Yeah. Well great, So you have
him coming in on the Race forGrace and what is this a dinner or
it is our door open at fivepoint thirty. We have a plated dinner
that begins at seven pm. Hewill be our keynote speaker. We also
have a live auction and silent auctionand amazing items such as trips to Mexico,

(05:14):
Montana Lake Montana cabin that overlooks FlatheadLake. We have Orange Beach,
Alabama. We've got something for everybodybetween our silent auction and live auction.
So that'll happen after Tim Tebow speaks. So I was in Montana once and
my best friend we were driving downa road and he said stop, he
said, turn off the headlights.We were on a busy highway. We

(05:35):
were on a private road and Isaid what and he goes, you got
to see this. It's unbelievable.I mean, it's like you're in a
planetarium. Absolutely, whatever that packageis, you're going to get a good
dollar on that one. That stuffout there, the fishing trips and the
staying in a Montana cabin is justunbelievable to different universe. It is absolutely.

(05:56):
You realize there's no ground lights.So everything you see in this gy
a billion stars. You're talking aboutthe Lord, there's a lord's playground right
there staring at you. Well,somebody, somebody can bid on it and
get a week out there and anunbelievable Rich Gimmel you know, Oh yeah,
no, Rich Rich is awesome.Well, our he's our director of
ministry for all the tracks and it'shis place, it's his his business's place

(06:21):
out there, and I mean it'sit's it's big, it's really nice.
I've known him a long time.He's never once mentioned that to me.
He doesn't want me out there.Of course, I'm not much of a
fisherman. The first time I caughta fish, I was disappointed. It
wasn't on a bun. I waslike, wait a minute, doesn't never
seen a fish like this before?Where's the tartar sauce? Well? This

(06:45):
is fantastic. So how do peoplefind tickets for this event? So you
can go to ky chaplainc dot orgor you can search on Kentucky Racetrack Chaplaincy.
I do want to mention too.Next week will be putting out an
announcement on Facebook and on our websiteregarding Tim Tebow and Race for Grace.
So follow us on Facebook, goto our website. We'd love to see

(07:08):
you there and can't wait to makeour big announcement. That's an important exercise
that you have for these folks,because you're right, Tony, the community
that works the racetrack, and thenthey move on from meat to meat and
it's like there, it's a bigfamily that's right. It is. You
know, when when the meat istaking place at Churchill, there's about a

(07:29):
thousand workers and that includes the frontside as well as far as the guys
that handle the gate and the jockeysand so forth and so on. But
our chaplain praise with the guys thattake care of the gate before each day
of racing, and also praise withthe jockeys. It was, you know,
it was so cool when I wentto down to Kentucky Downs that the

(07:54):
chaplain asked me if I would liketo go with him to you know,
Kentucky Downs. You got all thetop jockeys in the in the world,
I mean Ortiz Junior definitely, yougot all of them there. And to
be in the middle of that andbe with him while he's praying with them,
and they all really wanted to bethere. I think there's only one
that couldn't be. And afterwards theycame over, they'd hug him and they

(08:15):
shake his hand and think because theyknow they're in a you know, it's
a fairly dangerous business that they're in, oh no doubt, And to have
the Lord bridon with them is abig deal for these guys. And you
know, it's it's really interesting tobe a part of that. But the
chaplains work with them, they walkthe barns, and they're all bilingual.

(08:37):
All of our chaplains are bilingual becauseabout eighty eighty five percent of the backside
workers speak Spanish and the other onesspeak Irish. That's exactly right. Uh.
And then we have a director ofWomen's Ministry here, Melanie Case.
She's bilingual, and so is ElenaMignon and she's bilingual as well. Keep

(09:01):
up the great work, guys,hope it goes well. For it's Monday,
April twenty ninth. And what's thevenue Millionaire's Row. It is at
Churchill Downs at Millionaire's Row. Yeah, that's some good living right there.
Tim Tebow the featured keynote speaker,And you can look up Kentucky Racetrack Chaplaincy
to get ticket information. But itshould be a great night, Stacy.
Great talking to you. Great talkingto you, Terry, mister Astus,

(09:24):
we'll see again. I'm gonna Iwant you in a golf cart, harassing
whoever I'm playing. All right,well, you just give me a shout.
I'd be glad to come out ofValhall and right around with. We'll
get that done soon. Brothers comingright back on news radio. Wait forty whas