I had a chance to attend the Breeders Cup In Lexington, Kentucky a few weeks ago. Keeneland Race Course and the City of Lexington did a fantastic job hosting the two day event. Like Saratoga Springs, Lexington is a horse town and everywhere you went residents wanted to talk about horse racing. Between the horse racing, horse farm tours (Lanes End, Calumet, etc.) bourbon trail tours (Makers Mark, Woodford Reserve, etc.) and Breeders Cup Festival activities (bands, food trucks) in downtown Lexington, there was plenty to do.
Woodford Racing (name of our horse partnership) entered one of our horses (Catapult) in the Breeders Cup Turf Juvenile race on Day 1 of the Breeders Cup. Catapult broke his maiden the first time he ran on October 18th at Belmont Park racing a mile on the turf. Unfortunately, Catapult did not draw into the Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf starting field. While it would have been fun to have a horse run in the Breeders Cup, there’s always next year! Catapult shipped to Florida last week and is getting ready for his 2016 racing campaign. Chad Brown (our trainer) said Catapult arrived just fine and has acclimated to his new surroundings at the Palm Meadows Training Facility.
While in Lexington I had a chance to visit the Blackwood Training Facility where six of our other seven horses are currently based. It was great to see them train over the Blackwood training track. The Blackwood Training Facility is quite impressive. While the plan is to ship all six to Chad Brown in Florida by the end of the year, I would anticipate two groups of three going at separate times based on how far along they are in their training. We are excited about the six horses currently in Kentucky, the one in the U.K. (Mind Shift) and Catapult as they are extremely well bred horses. In looking at the 2015 Leading Sires of Thoroughbreds (based on monies earned by their offspring in 2015) our eight horses are by sires in the Top 40 of current thoroughbred sires. Below are our horses, their sire in parentheses and where the sire ranks on the 2015 Leading Sires of Thoroughbreds List:
- Catapult (Kitten’s Joy), #4
- Leofric (Candy Ride), #5
- Wyeth (Candy Ride), #5
- Butler Field (Malibu Moon), #10
- Gulf of Mexico (Bernardini), #14
- Fire Power (Smart Strike), #24
- United Stand (Unbridled’s Song), #26
- Mind Shift (Arch), #39
At the conclusion of the Breeders Cup weekend, the 11 day Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale was held. The sale includes mares, weanlings (horses less than a year old), yearlings (one year old horses) and horses of racing age. Horses were arriving for the sale as the Breeders Cup signage was being removed! Did I mention Keeneland was also hosting a one day art auction? The Sporting Art Auction of more than 100 pieces of fine sporting art (paintings, sculpture, etc.) was conducted on November 18th.
Keeneland and Lexington should be congratulated on an outstanding 3 weeks of horse racing related events.
