How SAP Helps Churchill Downs Rein In Spend Behind the Kentucky Derby

Churchill Downs, the Louisville, Kentucky-based media, sports, and entertainment company best known as the home of the Kentucky Derby, implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as part of a broader SAP program aimed at creating more discipline, visibility, and control across its growing operations.

The company, which operates casinos, hotels, racing venues, and entertainment properties, then extended that foundation with SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network to improve spend management, supplier processes, buying, invoicing, and sourcing.

The result was a more unified view of expenditure, including a 40% reduction in its supply base and a vendor pool cut from 5,000 to 3,000 within eight months, according to SAP.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as the Operating Backbone

Churchill Downs had nearly tripled in size in recent years, and as of 2025 had 10,000 employees across a national footprint of gaming, hospitality, racing, and entertainment operations. The growth created a familiar pressure point: business expansion moved faster than process standardization.

John Westbrook, senior director of organizational change management at Churchill Downs, described the previous challenge plainly: “We had data in many different places, and pulling it together was just so difficult for wanting to do something so simple.”

The company implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as the foundation for a wider operating model.

Once implemented, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition gave Churchill Downs a stronger financial and analytical foundation for managing spend across the business.

Robert Weaver, vice president of sourcing at Churchill Downs, said, “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition allows us to dig deep into spend analytics, forecast cash flow accurately, and gain complete visibility across all financials.”

For Churchill Downs, that meant the ERP move was not only a finance modernization project, but the backbone for connecting spend visibility, cash management, and supplier governance across a faster-growing enterprise.

SAP Ariba Extends ERP Foundation into Spend Management

The public cloud ERP foundation was supplemented by SAP Ariba solutions to improve buying, invoicing, supplier lifecycle and performance, and sourcing activities. Weaver explaioned, “We started our adoption by focusing on capabilities that could enhance our buying and invoicing processes, supplier lifecycle and performance, and sourcing activities to ground ourselves.”

The company used SAP Ariba solutions for buying and invoicing, supplier lifecycle and performance, and sourcing, moving from disconnected systems and processes toward one unified system for spend data and procurement.

The new visibility provided by SAP Ariba brought accountability and transparency. Now employees could buy through approved channels, and procurement teams got visibility into suppliers and categories. The SAP Ariba implementation resulted in a vendor reduction of 2.000 suppliers, as the company was able to use these insights to rationalize its supply base.

“Reducing our vendor pool from 5,000 to 3,000 means we’re engaging with more-reliable partners,” Weaver said.

SAP Business Network adds Supplier Collaboration Dependencies

Churchill Downs also implemented SAP Business Network as part of its broader spend management model. SAP says the combination of SAP Ariba solutions and SAP Business Network helped unify fragmented procurement processes and provide a 360-degree view into vendor and category spending.

The integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is central.

“Integrating SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition with SAP Ariba solutions and SAP Business Network completes our 360-degree view of spend management. It enables us to drill down into every aspect of our spending—from current cash management to future cash flow forecasts. It’s the final piece of the puzzle we’ve been waiting for,” Westbrook noted.

Churchill Downs plans to use SAP’s integrated solutions as a foundation for continued growth, spend management and vendor optimization. Weaver framed the ambition directly: “We’re building toward something bigger here at Churchill Downs. We’ve tripled in size in recent years, and SAP is the technology partner that will help us double and triple again”

For SAP customers, the opportunity is to align the operating model with the pace of the technology roadmap. Public cloud ERP and networked procurement can strengthen controls, improve visibility, and support more consistent decision-making when process owners continue to prioritize data discipline, supplier governance, and change management after go-live.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is increasingly becoming the foundation for business discipline beyond core finance. Churchill Downs’ use case shows how cloud ERP can anchor a broader transformation when connected to SAP Ariba solutions and SAP Business Network, giving SAP customers a more integrated path from financial visibility to procurement control.

Spend management modernization depends on process ownership as much as platform selection. The reduction of Churchill Downs’ vendor base from 5,000 to 3,000 underscores the role of supplier governance, data quality and cross-functional alignment in turning SAP-enabled visibility into measurable operational change.

The SAP value case becomes stronger when customers connect roadmap decisions to execution realities. For SAPinsiders, the key takeaway is that public cloud ERP, procurement applications and business networks can support growth, but only when architecture, integration, adoption and governance are managed as one transformation agenda.