Ellis Park was constructed by the Green River Jockey Club back in 1922. It originally held a harness gathering the Grand Circuit for a whole sum of $32,000 in purses for a 5-day racing event. On 10th November 1922, a ten-day pure-bred meeting with total purses of $62,000 was staged. The meeting was a key stop on the railway route south to New Orleans for winter sporting at Fair Grounds Racecourse.
These rather short meeting didn't fulfill the requirements of the racetrack and about 1925, after three years of operation, the Green River Jockey Club was declared insolvent. In 1925 James Ellis, a Rockport entrepreneur, bought the racecourse which was then named Dade Park. He implemented many redevelopments at the racecourse that entailed putting up a totalisator betting system and a well-designed terrace grandstand. Afterward, the sporting ground was re-titled Ellis Park in early 1954. However, James Ellis passed on in 1956 and the future of the prominent racing facility was plunged into an unanticipated wave of disarray and uncertainty.
The track administration was then headed by Ellis's close nephew, Lester Yeager. Under the young Yeager's stewardship an additional paddock and well-furnished jockey's premises were put up, plus a newly erected clubhouse and bigger stable spaces that totally changed the outlook of Ellis Park Racecourse. Nevertheless, Yeager handed over the leadership mantle to Ruth Adkins in the early years of the 1960s. Since this time, the glory of the racecourse started to dwindle in gradual downward spiral although it later steadied after a number of managerial policies were implemented.
Adkins was the chief officer of the James C. Ellis estate, which still owned the track, businesses, and real estate in Kentucky and Indiana. The track was sold in 1985 to Roger and Lila Kumar. They built a sky terrace atop the Grandstand and pushed for the inter-track wagering legislation in Kentucky. They, in turn, sold the track to the Racing Corporation of America in 1989. The company sold the track to Churchill Downs Incorporated in 1998.The racecourse battled far-reaching damages, as well as the frequent deaths of numerous racehorses, when an all-sweeping tornado descended on the region on 6th November 2005.
On 17th 2006, the sporting venue was bought by Ron Geary, a Kentucky entrepreneur, from Churchill Downs Incorporated for an unidentified amount of money. The racetrack's dates would be altered so racing would start at Ellis Park on the 4th of July, which would have Ellis overlying the last week of sporting at Churchill Downs. The 2007 race meeting was publicized by the Claiming Crown, the first management of the Claiming Crown in Kentucky and the very first time the Claiming Crown would be staged at another locality other than Canterbury Park from the Philadelphia Park staged the 2002 version of the event.