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How a famed Louisville pottery shop and a Kentucky Derby favorite share something in common

Brook Smith saved one local institution from closing and is now part of the greatest two minutes in sports. Here's how pottery and a race horse go hand-in-hand.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sierra Leone, a horse featured at the famed Hadley Pottery in Butchertown has decided to jump off the clay pot and race toward reality and history.

Louisville’s Brook Smith is one of six owners of the favorite who will run in the biggest Kentucky Derby in history.

“When you start talking about the 150th Kentucky Derby, and then you wake up in the morning – wait a second, I’m a part of that race; then hold on a second, it [Sierra Leone] just won the 100th Bluegrass and wait a second, he just might win the Derby!” Smith reacted.

The city’s biggest tradition and institution matches nicely with the one Smith saved from closing in November 2022.

Smith would visit Hadley Pottery with his mother often as a 10-year-old boy. 

"It is an institution, just like Derby," he said.

The little boy who loved the squeaky wooden floors at Hadley now owns it.

Credit: WHAS-TV
Brook Smith, owner of Hadley Pottery and co-owner of Kentucky Derby favorite Sierra Leone.

“To be involved with Hadley, I get goosebumps when I think about it,” Smith recalled. “I give people high-fives!”

At Hadley, the staff is rediscovering filed away treasures.

RELATED: Kentucky Derby 150 guide | When is the race? How do I bet? And everything else you should know

Hadley historian Sara Baker said a pencil drawing of the Twin Spires, the Grandstand and two horses racing on the track is by artist and former owner Mary Alice Hadley herself.

It appears to originate in the 1950s when she was likely creating a custom made pottery piece by request. 

Credit: WHAS-TV
Mary Alice Hadley hand drawing of the Twin Spires and Grandstand at Churchill Downs.


When Mary Alice Hadley opened the pottery in 1939, the Kentucky Derby was 65 years old. That’s when horses were running to big crowds nearly every day in Louisville. Hadley often used a blue horse as a symbol.

“This bowl here that has the iconic blue horse and whoa! This same bowl I ate cereal in the morning before I went to school,” Smith said.

If you are looking for a true Louisville connection for this derby, of all years, look to your kitchen cabinet. Who knows, a little luck of Hadley might be in there. 

To be a Louisvillian. To think about walking over on the track as the horses are coming over in the Paddock with the jockeys as “My Old Kentucky Home” plays.

When you also own tradition, what better way to kick off a Derby run with the public.

Smith plans to start his Derby morning with a visit to Hadley Pottery.

“From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with refreshments – maybe a mimosa,” he said.

Will a Sierra Leone horse head statue become the hottest selling item at Hadley?

We’ll find out at the finish on Derby Day.

Contact reporter Doug Proffitt at dproffitt@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@WHAS11Doug) and Facebook. 

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