Crews at Churchill Downs clean up from Oaks overnight to prepare for the Derby | Derby 150 [Video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The race is on to make Churchill Downs shine with the eyes of the horseracing world locked on Louisville Saturday.

Crews have fewer than 12 hours to clean up from a sloppy Oaks Day before the gates open for Derby 150 at 9 a.m., giving guests the VIP treatment Derby Day.

“You kind of feel like a VIP wherever you’re going,” Ryan Ruebusch, from Cincinnati, Ohio, said.

That means keeping the drinks flowing and the track clean for a day at the races.

“This is an undertaking of massive proportions,” Lisa Pecot-Hebert, from Raleigh, North Carolina, said.

The real magic, the cleanup, happens overnight at Churchill Downs.

“They’re magicians,” Kristen Bird, from Palo Alto, California, said. 

“To pull something off like this seemingly without a hitch is a big thing so that really impresses me,” Don Barsotti, from Sugar Grove, Illinois, said.

Throughout the late evening and early morning at the track, staff and volunteers …