If the walls of Wagner’s Pharmacy could talk, imagine the stories they would tell. It is difficult to walk into the Louisville establishment without wondering about the wagers that were placed there, the horses that were trained by the patrons, and the Kentucky Derbys that were celebrated during its 100 years of business. Just a stone’s throw from Churchill Downs’ backside entrance, Wagner’s is a neighborhood staple for horse people as well as the community.
It started in the early 1900s, when Leo Wagner was about 10 years old. He began delivering prescriptions on his bike for Hagen’s Pharmacy, located on the northeast corner of Central Avenue and Fourth Street. He learned the pharmacy trade as he grew up. When Mr. Hagen passed away, Leo borrowed money from his aunt and purchased the business in 1922, renaming it Wagner’s Pharmacy.
“We still have the bill of sale, which was just under $4,000,” said Lee Wagner, 47, current general manager and Leo’s grandson. “I’m sure that was a lot of money back then.”
Leo was known to extend credit to the horsemen who worked at the track, a kindness that formed a bond between them. They did business with Leo, and Leo waited until the trainers, grooms and stable hands got paid to be paid himself. Many friendships were formed, including one between Leo and the famed trainer Woody Stephens. Lee recalls that, even after Stephens retired, he continued to do business with Wagner’s.
“Woody and his wife, Lucille, would get all of their prescriptions, for the rest of their lives, from us,” Lee said. “We would ship them to them, wherever they were.”
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By the 1960s, Leo’s son, Leo Wagner II, had gone to pharmacy school and was carrying on the family business. He moved it across the street to its current location at the corner of Fourth and Central, directly across the street from the entrance to Churchill’s backside.
The younger Leo brought the original soda fountain from his father’s pharmacy, but because he wanted to cater to the nearby horsemen, he expanded the business to include a diner and added booths and tables.
“The main reason he did that was to have his friends from the racetrack there,” Lee said. “He liked to eat breakfast with them and have them come over for lunch. He wanted them to have a place where they could hang out and discuss the races.”
The combination diner and pharmacy filled the needs of the Churchill Downs regulars. “The horsemen could come over and get a meal, prescriptions filled, cigarettes—whatever they needed,” Lee said. “My dad loved the horses and loved the racetrack. [The horsemen] became a second family to him.”
Lee said his father did not foresee Wagner’s Pharmacy becoming an extension of Churchill Downs, but he owned several horses and was a big promoter of the Kentucky Derby.
Longtime sportswriter Billy Reed, who died in February, was a regular at Wagner’s. “Billy was a big racing fan and a fan of my father’s,” Lee said. “He used to say that, even though my dad was a pharmacist, he liked to spread Derby fever and didn’t want to dispense the cure because he wanted it to go on, which was true. My dad was one of the biggest fans.”
In 1965, Leo Wagner II bought a business called Becker & Durski Turf Goods, which specializes in customized jockey silks, saddle towels and blinkers, and screen print designs on T-shirts and hats. Horse owners can purchase silks onsite, selecting the colors and designs they want. Wagner’s has photos of the silks being made and of those same silks being worn by the jockeys as their mounts crossed the finish line.
Wagner’s stopped filling prescriptions in 2014, but one of its best-selling items remains a medical aid created by Leo Wagner II. As a pharmacist, he tinkered with several compounds and created Wagner’s Racehorse Liniment, also known as Wagner’s RHL, to help ease equine athletes’ aching muscles. Over time, grooms and trainers who used it on the horses’ legs realized that the liniment helped their own achy hands.
“We sell as much now for humans as we do for the horses,” Lee said. “We have a lot of orthopedic surgeons in town who send their patients to us. It is great for arthritis.”
Wagner’s is open for breakfast and lunch, and, when Churchill Downs is open for racing, there is a steady stream of trainers, jockeys and exercise riders crossing the street to get a hot meal.
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Greg Foley, a Churchill Downs-based trainer, began coming to Wagner’s as a child with his late father, Dravo Foley, who was a longtime trainer. Greg Foley loves the old racing photos on the walls and enjoys going over his Daily Racing Form while eating his breakfast.
“They really cater to the horse track people,” Foley said. “They know we don’t have much time, so they spoil us. And they know what we want to drink before we even sit down.”
For more than 50 years, Wednesdays have been known as Roast Beef Special day, and Fridays feature the Fish Special. Wagner’s Hot Brown, Derby Sandwich and Breakfast Platter are menu favorites every day.
The clientele is a mix of horse people, University of Louisville students, and neighborhood regulars. With the horse racing memorabilia lining the walls, the familiar menu choices, and the friendly servers, everyone feels
at home.
“It is kind of that Cheers atmosphere—eventually, everybody gets to know each other,” Lee Wagner said.
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When Pam Pryor became a server at Wagner’s in 1999, she wasn’t aware of the establishment’s racetrack connection. In fact, she had never been to Churchill Downs. As the kitchen manager now, Pam loves to see regulars come in. “You never know who you will see or what you will hear,” she said, “but the atmosphere is homey.”
Pam, a fan of the Diner’s Club Sandwich, has now been to Churchill many times over the years and loves the connection with the across-the-street neighbor. “Mr. Wagner, Lee’s dad, made this a historical place,” she said. “Wagner’s completes the trifecta—Churchill Downs, the Derby Museum and Wagner’s.”
Growing up around the racetrack and working at the family business for many years have made horse racing a big part of Lee’s life. Although he gets inundated by people asking what horse he likes to win the Derby, he is always reluctant to say. “Many of these people I know so well have a horse in the race, so I just can’t help but root for them,” he said. “Besides, people usually bet with their heart anyway.”
Like his father, Lee admits to getting Derby fever. He likes to run over to the backside of the track to watch the horses work out in the mornings leading up to the big race. “To see them in the early morning, right when the sun is coming up and the Twin Spires are in the background, there is something mystical about it,” he said.