Theo Majendie had a hard time believing that only a year had passed from when he was initially approached with a project at the Kentucky Derby Museum to when said project debuted — to the squealing delight of elementary school children.
Majendie is the co-founder and studio director of Catalyst, the experiential media production firm that supplied the software that empowers the third iteration of the Riders Up! racing simulation exhibit/game at the Kentucky Derby Museum.
The firm — based out of Brighton on the southern coast of England — was founded in 2016 as a product of what Majendie called the “VR revolution.”
“It’s overwhelming, it really is,” said Majendie about watching the exhibit in full use by grade school students. “All I see is happy faces.”
I recently stopped by for the opening day of the exhibit in its $1.2 million upgraded form — and to find what other preparations were being made at the museum ahead of the 150th Kentucky Derby on May 4 (more on that later this week).
Note: The exhibit’s hardware was supplied by The Laboratory Creative, based out of Jeffersonville, Indiana.
To get the experience, three patrons can board one of five simulation horses and then choose between five different eras that they would like to race at Churchill — or set a randomized mode. Guests also can pick their jockey and the horse’s running style. There are also accessibility options for people, for instance, who have motion sickness or color blindness. In addition, one horse is equipped to accommodate guests in wheelchairs.
When the race starts, the competitors control their horse with directional buttons and a boost button that is similar to the second iteration (see below), as the horses gyrate during the course of the race.
“This is where the tactics you employ really make a difference in how well you do in the race,” Majendie said.
Over the course of six months, Majendie and his team of 3D artists created a minimum viable product animation that is projected on 5K curved screen monitors — in addition to a global view on a large screen in the foreground. They did so by using any historical data from Churchill Downs they could get, including lots of photographs and blueprints of expansion plans taken from different decades.
The first iteration of the Riders Up! experience debuted in 2000, according to Kennedy. In that version, patrons would sit on the horses and watch a race video that was recorded on a camera that was mounted to a jockey on a race that did not take place at Churchill Downs. The horse with the camera always finished in sixth place.
That version was originally designed to have guests attempt to try and balance themselves on floor-mounted stirrups — and then maintain that position for the duration of the race, Kennedy said.
When severe flooding shut down the museum in August 2009, a second iteration greeted patrons when it reopened in April 2010 that featured interactive components. Although that version had game controls, it still was built with the expectation that guests would be in the same racing position by using the floor-mounted stirrups as there was in the first iteration. A secret button would slow down a rider if they would sit down, Kennedy said.
The stirrup component was removed from the third version.
The technology has come a long way since those early days.
“We’ve been seeing the animation as it progressed, so every time they would release a new package animation we’re all just amazed at how close the animation looks to Churchill Downs,” said Jeff Kennedy, the senior director of technology at the Kentucky Derby Museum. “The animation is just stunning.”
