Marty McGee of the Daily Racing Form reports that night lights at Churchill Downs a huge success, betting not so much.

Julien Leparoux was walking through the paddock runway after riding in the first night race in the 134-year history of Churchill Downs and looked up at the massive crowd.

"It looks like the Dubai World Cup," said Leparoux.

Indeed, amid the almost surreal setting of artificial lighting and a festive crowd estimated at more than 30,000, the first night of racing at Churchill was a success of world-class proportions, at least in sheer volume and density. The Friday card began at 6 p.m. Eastern in brutal summer heat and wound its way through 11 races, with lines for drinks and food concessions 30- and 40-deep in many spots.

"It was a great night, but it wasn't perfect and we're working on making it right," Darren Rogers, senior director of communications, said Saturday. He added that further details are being finalized internally and could be announced as early as today.

Betting lines weren't nearly as long as at the concessions, and plunking down a wager at most mutuel windows was fairly easy.

"I see a whole lot of young people drinking beer but not going to the windows," said Pat Campbell of Louisville, who has been attending races at Churchill for more than 50 years.

Greeted with the literal red-carpet treatment at two main entrance gates, and with several bands playing various genres of music throughout the six-story clubhouse and grandstand, fans were eager to see history made on an otherwise ordinary card of racing. The first seven of 11 races were contested from daylight to twilight, but by the eighth race, when Leparoux climbed aboard Chief Waterbury, an eventual also-ran, the temporary lighting system provided by Musco Lighting of Iowa was being fully utilized. When the field of 10 broke from the gate in the six-furlong claiming race, a huge cheer erupted in apparent tribute to its historical importance, almost as if the field for the Kentucky Derby had been dispatched.