Keeneland Magazine - Fall 2024 Edition

K EENELAND

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KINGSBARNS

2024 Stephen Foster Stakes (G1)

ADARE MANOR

2024 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1)

Dermot Ryan, Charlie O’Connor, Adrian Wallace, Robyn Murray, Blaise Benjamin, Charles Hynes or Michael Norris. Tel: 859-873-7088. www.coolmore.com

Every now and then, a horse comes along who never seems to set a foot wrong. From record-setting freshman sire to perennial top 10 stallion, UNCLE MO is one of those horses. , , 8/7/24

Dermot Ryan, Charlie O’Connor, Adrian Wallace, Robyn Murray, Blaise Benjamin, Charles Hynes or Michael Norris. Tel:

JOSEPH HILLENMEYER GARDEN DESIGN

...ITÕS GIFTED THROUGH LINEAGE BUT REQUIRES PASSIONATE PRESERVATION.

With the same and dedication that heirloom the test of time. Our horticulture to create PRESERVATION.

With the same artistry and dedication that cultivates champion bloodlines, we design heirloom landscapes that stand the test of time. Our horticulture experts approach every garden as a living tribute to legacy, connection and love of land. Generational mastery and technical precision harmonize to create natural spaces of unparalleled beauty and enduring significance.

FEATURES

54 LIVINGTHE RACINGLIFE

by Lenny Shulman

Successful owner/breeders

John and Debby Oxley follow where their horses take them.

72 ROYAL WELCOME

by Edward L. Bowen

Kentuckians gave Queen Elizabeth II the red-carpet treatment when she visited the Bluegrass 40 years ago, with Keeneland naming a race in her honor and farm owners opening their gates.

88 BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA

by Ron Mitchell

Lexington prepares for a yearlong celebration of its 250th anniversary.

106 BOTTLING GREATNESS

by Vickie Mitchell

Keeneland and Maker’s Mark collaborate on a 10-year bottle series to benefit local charities.

122 FUN ON

TAP

by Rena Baer

A rural offshoot of the popular Lexington brewery, West Sixth Farm celebrates beer’s agrarian roots.

136

CELEBRATING KENTUCKY’S FOOD CULTURE

by Jacalyn Carfagno

Kentucky food ambassador Ouita Michel embraces the “third act” of her storied culinary career.

ON OUR COVER

Keeneland

Oil on canvas, 43 x 71, by Valeriy Gridnev Valeriy Gridnev is a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. His graduation project, “The EarlyYears,” won the gold medal of the USSR Academy of Arts. He then worked for four years at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art’s postgraduate “creative” studio. Since 1999 Gridnev has lived and worked in England. He is a member of the Pastel Society, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Federation of British Artists, and Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Crestwood –Farm –

Since then, Crestwood has bred and/or raised multiple Hall-of-Fame inductees, Champions and 305+ stakes horses. Family operated for over ffty years

The McLean family has owned and operated their full service, 1,000 acre Crestwood Farm since 1970.

The McLean owned and their full service, acre Crestwood Farm since 1970.

Since then, Crestwood has bred raised Hall-of-Fame inductees, and 305+ stakes horses.

Castleton lyons offers a unique opportunity for serious breeders to board their thoroughbreds. Here you’ll find a highly skilled staff in a state-of-the-art facility with old world charm. Over one thousand acres of lightly grazed lush pasture supported by the best quality soil, so famous for producing great race horses, await your thoroughbred investments. Individual, detail-oriented attention for horse and client in a top class environment can be found within minutes of Bluegrass Airport, Keeneland, Fasig-Tipton, and the world’s best equine hospitals.

K EENELAND

celebrating bluegrass traditions

The offcial magazine of Keeneland Association, Inc. published by Blood-Horse LLC 821 Corporate Dr., Lexington, KY 40503 (859) 278-2361/FAX (859) 276-4450 KeenelandMagazine.com BloodHorse.com

Editor: Jacqueline Duke

Artists: Catherine Nichols (Art Director), PhilipTruman

Copy Editor: Rena Baer

Visuals Director: Anne M. Eberhardt

Creative Services: Jennifer Singleton (Director), Forrest Begley

Account Executive: Amanda Ramey Masters

Sales Support: Catherine Johnston

CORPORATE OPERATIONS

Circulation Accounting Manager: Lauren Glover

General Manager: Scott Carling

PUBLISHED BY Blood-Horse LLC

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

James L. Gagliano, Carl Hamilton, Ian D. Highet, Stuart S. Janney III, Brant Laue, Dan Metzger, David O’Farrell

254-3412 456-3412

40588-1690

Road P.O. Box 1690 Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.A. 40588-1690 Tel: (859) 254-3412 (800) 456-3412 Keeneland.com

President’s Message

Preparations

Have you ever had that dream — that dream when it is time for your fnal exam and you suddenly realize you forgot to go to class for the entire semester? And then you wake up sweating, worried you will disappoint the professor you admire and respect so much?

I have heard these dreams are very familiar to lawyers, and I still have them frequently to this day. It is most always English class I have missed, and it is most always professor B. “Bif” Campbell I fear I am disappointing. In my awakened state, it seems unusual as an almost 50-year-old to still have such dreams, especially because I haven’t been a student in school for 25 years. I think this experience goes to show you that whatever our stage in life, we are always students — still learning, still striving to do our best, and still doing our best to be prepared.

Every day at Keeneland — and particularly during the summer months — we spend getting prepared. Our fall season is critical to the success of our mission — to be a model racetrack and sales company for the love of the horse — and it takes our whole team working together to get prepared. That has been the case especially this year.

If you attend the September yearling sale from Sept. 9-21, you’ll see the second foor of our Paddock Building under construction and the walls of our Operations Building being erected. Meanwhile, Phase I of renovations to the sales pavilion has widened and lightened the halls, made more space for our bidders at auction to sit comfortably, and expanded the entrance so everyone walking in knows they have arrived and are welcome.

In the stable area, our consignors (and trainers during the fall meet) will see new roofs on a number of barns as well as repairs made to keep barns in order.

The September sale has cataloged 4,396 yearlings with tremendous pedigrees and physicals. Of those, 1,104 are cataloged during Week 1 of the auction to enable major domestic and international buyers to inspect the largest number of exceptional horses possible before the auction takes a one-day pause. Week 2 then offers many opportunities to purchase tremendous bloodstock and future winners.

As announced in July, we’ll be hosting our inaugural Keeneland Championship Sale on Oct. 30, days before the Breeders’ Cup World Championships and in the beautiful paddock of host track Del Mar. Requiring a whole different kind of preparation to present a sale off our grounds, this event will give prospective owners the chance to enjoy the ride of a lifetime by potentially taking a horse from the sales ring to the Breeders’ Cup winners’ circle, and possibly back to the sales ring, all in less than a week.

Keeneland then will close the fall season with our November breeding stock sale, the most important auction of its type in terms of total sales and average, and the November horses of racing age sale. Before taking a break for the holidays, we’ll host our 12th annual Sporting Art Auction, which is an event we’ve all come to eagerly anticipate.

Paddington the beloved bear reminds us that “A wise bear always keeps a marmalade sandwich in his hat in case of emergency.” May you always be prepared when opportunity comes along so you are indeed lucky and fnd that marmalade sandwich.

Cheers to blue skies ahead. KM

SHANNON ARVIN President and CEO

Hip 419 | $1,300,000 USD

Buyer:

Consignor: Northern Farm

436 | $1,300,000 USD

Consignor: Grand Stud

Tetsuhide Kunimoto

Hip

Buyer: Masahiro Noda

Contributors

FALL 2024

RENA BAER

(Fun OnTap) is a writer and an editor whose work frequently appears in Keeneland magazine and several other Lexingtonbased and national publications.

WILLIAM BOWDEN

(Resilient by Nature) most recently worked as publications editor atTransylvania University. He was formerly a writer and an editor at the Somerset (Kentucky) Commonwealth Journal, the Lexington Herald Leader, and the NationalTour Association.

EDWARD L. BOWEN

(RoyalWelcome) is the former president of the GraysonJockey Club Research Foundation. He is a former editor-in-chief of BloodHorse and has authored 22 books aboutThoroughbred racing and breeding. His latest book is “Doing the Usual, UnusuallyWell: A History of Claiborne Farm.”

JACALYN CARFAGNO

(Celebrating Kentucky’s Food Culture) is a professional writer and an editor based in Lexington. She has covered the equine industry and written restaurant reviews and commentary for the Lexington Herald Leader in addition to working for a wide range of clients.

LIANE CROSSLEY

(Keeneland to Kentucky Derby Victory) has spent her career inThoroughbred racing-

related jobs in barns, press boxes, and offces. A seasonal member of Keeneland’s media team, she has had her work appear in BloodHorse, Daily Racing Form,Thoroughbred Daily News, Breeders’ Cup website, Horse Illustrated, European Bloodstock News, andYoung Rider.

RON MITCHELL

(Birthday Extravaganza) is a Lexington native who worked for nearly 30 years at BloodHorse Publications, where his positions included online managing editor and sales editor. Prior to that he held editorial positions at Horsemen’s Journal, ThoroughbredTimes, and Thoroughbred Record.

VICKIE MITCHELL

(Bottling Greatness) writes for regional and national publications as well as for small businesses and nonproft organizations. She lives and works in Lexington.

AMY OWENS

(Keeneland News/ Connections) is Keeneland Communications Associate.

LENNY SHULMAN

(Living the Racing Life) is a senior correspondent for BloodHorse and the author of “Head to Head: Conversations with a Generation of Horse Racing Legends,” “Justify: 111 Days toTriple Crown Glory,” and “Ride ofTheir Lives:The Trials andTurmoil ofToday’s Top Jockeys.”

Keeneland News

COMPILED BY AMY OWENS

FALL MEET STAKES SCHEDULE SOARS TO RECORD $9.85

MILLION

Keeneland has added a total of $800,000 to the purses of fve 2024 fall meet stakes — led by $300,000 to double the value of the Bryan Station (G3), a race for 3-year-olds at 1 mile on the turf, to $600,000 — and will award a record $9.6 million for 22 stakes during 17 days of racing from Oct. 4-26. Also jumping in value are the Coolmore Turf Mile (G1), up $250,000 to $1.25 million; the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) Presented by Dixiana, increased $150,000 to $750,000, and two stakes that were upgraded this year: the Bank of America Valley View (G2), hiked $50,000 to $350,000, and the Perryville (G3), raised $50,000 to $300,000.

Te Kentucky Toroughbred Development Fund is contributing $1.6 million to the stakes purses, pending approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

With the purse increase, the Coolmore Turf Mile becomes the richest race in Keeneland history. Te event for older turf specialists awards the winner a berth in the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) at Del Mar.

Te prestigious Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday, Oct. 12 is an internationally recognized invitational for 3-year-old fllies racing 11⁄8 miles on the turf. Te stakes frst was run 40 years ago when Queen Elizabeth II visited Keeneland. (See page 72.)

Te Bryan Station is closing day, Oct. 26.

“Te Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup and the Bryan Station are receiving purse increases as part of Keeneland’s working relationship with Kentucky Downs, with the goal being to bolster the overall purse structure in Kentucky and specifcally to strengthen the turf program for 3-year-olds,” Keeneland Vice President of Racing Gatewood Bell said. “Keeneland and Kentucky Downs would like to help facilitate a pattern of races for 3-year-old fllies and 3-year-old colts on the turf in the U.S. by trying to

Record purses for the fall meet are sure to attract racing’s brightest stars. The Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Dixiana, won last year by Mawj (above), increases to $750,000.

coordinate and work with other tracks throughout the country.”

For the 2025 spring meet, Bell said the purses of both the Appalachian (G2)

Presented by Japan Racing Association for sophomore fllies and the Transylvania (G3) for 3-year-old males, both on the turf, will be increased. Te October racing season opens with Fall Stars Weekend, which ofers $5.8 million in stakes purses and features eight stakes included in the “Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In.” Winners will earn automatic starting positions and free entry into the 41st Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar.

During the fall meet, Keeneland will celebrate the 20th running of the Spinster (G1) for sponsor Juddmonte and the 20th running of the Raven Run (G2) for sponsor Lexus.

For more information, visit Keeneland.com.

IN 2023, SIRE OF FOUR ECLIPSE FINALISTSCURLIN IS THE ONLY STALLION TO HAVE SIRED THE WINNER OF THREE BREEDERS’ CUP RACES ON THE SAME DAY

$2,352,275

ECLIPSE CHAMPION OLDER DIRT FEMALE IDIOMATIC

BREEDERS’ CUP DIRT MILE WINNER THE SIRE OF 4 GRADE 1 WINNERS AND 2 CLASSIC WINNERS FROM HIS FIRST 2 CROPS TO RACE 2X GRADE 1 WINNER MUTH

CUP DISTAFF WINNER

ECLIPSE AWARD FINALIST CLAIRIERE

DERBY CHAMPION MAGE

$2,507,450 BELMONT STAKES WINNER DORNOCH

ECLIPSE AWARD FINALIST GRADE 1 CHAMPAGNE STAKES WINNER BLAZING SEVENS

$994,850

INAUGURAL KEENELAND

CHAMPIONSHIP SALE AT DEL MAR BREEDERS’CUP WEEK

The inaugural Keeneland Championship Sale, an unprecedented opportunity for owners to acquire top-class racehorses and breeding stock, will be held Oct. 30 in the paddock at Del Mar, site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Nov. 1-2. Te sale will be conducted by Keeneland’s globally respected sales team.

“Te Keeneland Championship Sale is an opportunity to play at the highest levels of the sport,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “Prospective owners have the chance to enjoy the ride of a lifetime, potentially taking a horse from the sales ring to the Breeders’ Cup winner’s circle and possibly back to the sales ring, all in less than a week. Tat’s a rare thrill only horse racing can provide.”

Keeneland Championship Sale participants will enjoy an exclusive party, which will feature handcrafed cocktails, unique culinary oferings, live music, and other surprises.

Te catalog will feature:

• Horses entered in the Breeders’ Cup or Breeders’ Cup undercard races; might include full sale or fractional ownership interest.

• Bloodstock closely related to contenders in the World Championships.

• Stallion shares or breeding rights in prominent sires.

“Te Championship Sale is an example of the creative oferings Keeneland is excited to provide as we meet the emerging trends in our sport,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “An

eager buyer could join an ownership group and experience the fun of participating in the Breeders’ Cup with a world-class contender. Aferward, should their owners choose to do so, those horses in the Championship Sale will have free and preferential entry into Keeneland’s November breeding stock sale on Nov. 5.”

Participation in the Championship Sale is by invitation. Visit championship.keeneland.com for more information.

KEENELAND MAGAZINE RECOGNIZED

Keeneland magazine won three frst-place awards from the prestigious American Horse Publications (AHP) during the organization’s Equine Media Awards banquet in Lexington in May. Founded in 1970, AHP is a professional membership association for the equine media industry.

Top honors went to:

• Self-Supported Publication Equine Media Personality Profle Single Article: Lenny Shulman’s

feature about James Keogh, owner of the boutique consignment outft Grovendale Sales, from the Winter 2023 edition.

• Self-Supported Publication Equine Media Feature Single: Maryjean Wall’s feature “How Secretariat Went Mainstream” from the Summer 2023 issue about how the 1973 Triple Crown winner became a mainstream celebrity and has kept that status.

• Equine Media Cover Page Design: Created by art director Catherine Nichols, the Spring 2023 cover features an eye-catching portrait, rich in bold colors of a jockey on horseback.

Del Mar’s scenic paddock will be the site of the inaugural Keeneland Championship Sale to be held Oct. 30 in advance of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

On August 2nd, Horse of the Year Gun Runner took his rightful place alongside racing’s all-time greats, when he was officially inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame.

Connections

1 | FOND MEMORIES

Tim Preston, who served for 23 years as Keeneland’s European sales representative before retiring in 2012, died in June. Preston is remembered for his friendship, kindness, quick wit, and for helping Keeneland cultivate loyal relationships and explore new avenues of growth with its European partners.

2 | TRIPLE CROWN

Dornoch, purchased at Keeneland’s September 2022 yearling sale, won this year’s Belmont Stakes. In 2023, his full brother, Mage, also sold at the September auction, captured the Kentucky Derby, and their dam, Puca, carrying a full sibling to the colts, commanded $2.9 million at Keeneland’s November breeding stock sale.

3 | ROYAL WINNER

Kentucky-bred Shareholder, sold at Keeneland’s 2023 September yearling sale, won the Norfolk Stakes at the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting in England in June.

4 | HORSE POWER

During Leadership Lexington’s Equine Day at Keeneland, participants took on the roles of buyers and consignors to learn about the auction process from the stables to the sales ring and the tremendous economic impact of the sales on the area.

5 | HEARTBEAT

The American Heart Association raised $360,000 at its annual Heart Walk at Keeneland.

OPEN YEAR- ROUND

Monday - Saturday | 9am - 5pm

KEENELAND TO KENTUCKY DERBYVICTORY

JOCKEY BRIAN HERNANDEZ JR. HAS DEEP TIES TO KEENELAND

By Liane Crossley

By Liane

Photos by Dan Dry

Photos Dan Dry

KEENELAND HAS PLAYED a key role in Brian Hernandez Jr.’s life both professionally and personally. Te track is where he strengthened a business relationship that propelled his career, where he frst rode his Kentucky Derby- and Kentucky Oakswinning mounts, and where he met the hard-working horsewoman who became his wife.

Te frst two mileposts are now part of the well-documented story of his steady bond with trainer Kenny McPeek that began about eight years ago and evolved into teaming up to win the 2024 Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan. Te colt, a member of McPeek’s Keeneland-based 2-year-old division during the summer of 2023, was runner-up in his career debut under Hernandez at last year’s October meet. McPeek and Hernandez gained their initial Keeneland stakes winner together with Restless Rider in the 2018 Darley Alcibiades and have since joined forces for another six Keeneland

Brian and Jamie Hernandez and their children, from left, Benjamin, Anabelle, and Joshlyn, enjoy a summer day on their farm near Simpsonville, Kentucky.

Spotlight On

BRIAN HERNANDEZ JR.

stakes wins. Teir loyalty is such that they rarely compete in a race against each other.

But before Hernandez and McPeek formed their professional union, Hernandez established a diferent alliance that changed his life. At Keeneland he met his future wife, Jamie Radosevich, who comes from a racing family. At the time she was an assistant trainer and exercise rider for Steve Asmussen. Tey began dating when they relocated to Fair Grounds in New Orleans for the winter and married in 2012. Seven years later the Hernandezes purchased a ready-made 16-acre horse farm, where their three children are honing their riding skills.

JOCKEY GENES

Hernandez was born to be a jockey. At an early age he dressed in racing outfts and recalled riding his bicycle while pretending he was winning the Kentucky Derby. He spent plenty of time in the racing world in his native Louisiana, where his father, Brian, was a jockey and his mother, Stephanie, worked at an oil transportation company.

Instead of having a babysitter, Brian and his siblings rose early and joined their father at the track when not in school. His brother, Colby, remains active as a jockey with more than 2,400 wins, and sister Courtney was aboard 71 winners in her brief jockey career. Like Brian, Colby concentrates on the Kentucky and Fair Grounds circuit.

“When I got older, I would go to the jocks’ room with my dad,” Hernandez said. “I would watch the races and get the views of the other riders in the room. I would listen to them explain the trips they had in the race. Tat was very instrumental when I frst started riding races.”

He began his jockey career at Delta Downs in Louisiana while still in high school. Afer graduating in the spring of 2004, he headed to Churchill Downs, and he, his parents, and grandparents took a side trip to Keeneland. “Wedrovearoundandtouredtheproperty,”

Above, Hernandez gave Mystik Dan a rail-skimming ride in the Kentucky Derby and earned the blanket of roses, below.

The day before the Derby, Hernandez piloted Thorpedo Anna to a runaway victory in the Kentucky Oaks. He is a rare winner of an Oaks-Derby double.

SKIP

DICKSTEIN

Spotlight On

BRIAN HERNANDEZ JR.

he said. “We had never been to Keeneland. We wanted to see what it was all about.”

By that autumn, he was recognized as a rising star and was ready to tour Keeneland from the saddle and the winner’s circle. From 101 mounts, he had 20 triumphs to fnish second on the October 2004 meet leaderboard. By that year’s end, he had 243 wins and more than $4 million in earnings and was voted Eclipse Award champion apprentice.

Hernandez transitioned seamlessly from rookie to journeyman with a steady stream of winners primarily at Fair Grounds, Churchill, and Keeneland, where he ranks 14th on the all-time leader list with 224 victories to date. His initial Keeneland stakes score came aboard Swingit in the 2006 JPMorgan Chase Jessamine Stakes, and he gained national attention when capturing the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita aboard Fort Larned.

As his professional life progressed, his personal life reached a turning point when he met his bride-to-be, Jamie, in 2008. Teir lives blended together in part because of their similar backgrounds.

“With Jamie being from a racing family, she understands the whole aspect of me being a jockey, including me being away in the winter

HERNANDEZ HIGHLIGHTS

Career wins: 2,595 (through Aug. 4)

Keeneland wins: 224

Keeneland stakes wins: 17

Biggest wins:

2024 Kentucky Derby on Mystik Dan, 2024 Kentucky Oaks on Thorpedo Anna, 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic on Fort Larned

Honor: 2004 Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice

Both Jamie and Brian come from racing families so their lives have easily blended together.

Hernandez started race riding while still in high school and has never looked back.

Hernandez’ focus remains the racetrack, but he does his share around the family farm.

Breed and Race in KENTUCKY

Purse money in Kentucky is at an ALL-TIME HIGH with more than $192

MILLION

paid out to horsemen in 2023, including $48 million in Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Funds.

Kentucky’s average purse per race of $108,000 outpaces all other leading racing jurisdictions, including Arkansas, New York, California, and Florida.

Over $200 million has been distributed to Kentucky breeders since 2006. With purse money soaring, the KBIF contributing $16.2 million to eligible breeders, the fullest fields in the country [average field size of 8.8, higher than New York, Florida, and California], and quality racing year-round at our five racetracks, there is no better time to breed and race in the Bluegrass.

71% 69%

of the Graded stakes races in the U.S. this year have been won by KENTUCKY-BREDS.* of the Grade 1 races in the U.S. this year have been won by KENTUCKY-BREDS.*

All the Top 10 Earners on the year, led by Kentucky Derby (G1) winner MYSTIK DAN ($4,070,050), are KENTUCKY-BREDS, and include eight millionaires.**

Find your Kentucky-bred at the Keeneland September Sale Sept. 9-21.

*Statistics through June 2024

**Equibase statistics through 7/24/24

BRIAN HERNANDEZ JR.

and doing all the travel that I do,” he said.

(Jamie has her own Eclipse Award. She won the 2013 Eclipse for photography for a shot of Wise Dan winning Churchill’s Firecracker Handicap that she took while working for the track photographer.)

In 2018 the couple purchased their farm in equine-rich Simpsonville, Kentucky, about 50 miles west of Keeneland with the agreement that Brian would concentrate on his career while Jamie looked afer the farm and the animals. Te arrangement is a perfect pairing of their talents.

“Jamie does a great job with the kids, and she does most of the work around here,” he said. “I mow and weed eat, but she takes care of all the horses. I am fortunate that I don’t have to come home and have

‘‘ MORE THAN ANYTHING, BRIAN IS THE ULTIMATE PROFESSIONAL.”

— TRAINER KENNY McPEEK

to worry about that.”

Jamie notes that her husband does pitch in when asked. Te day afer Brian’s victory on the McPeek-trained Torpedo Anna in the Kentucky Oaks, Brian helped with chores so they could get back on the road for what would be a historic triumph on Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby.

“We had to get going, and we were up late afer the Oaks,” Jamie said. “I don’t push it on him because obviously his schedule is busy. Tis is my job. Somebody else would not ask their husband to do their job. I don’t mind; the barn is my area.”

Te idyllic farm is home to about a dozen horses and ponies, depending on the season. Te Hernandez harmony is supplemented with several tail-wagging

The Hernandez farm is home to about a dozen horses, including former runners training for new careers and the children’s ponies.

Spotlight On

BRIAN HERNANDEZ JR.

HERNANDEZ/ McPEEK KEENELAND STAKES WINS

2018 Darley Alcibiades (Restless Rider)

2021 Stonestreet Lexington (King Fury)

2021 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (Rattle N Roll)

2021 Castle & Key Bourbon (Tiz the Bomb)

2021 Bryan Station (Camp Hope)

2023 Central Bank Ashland (Defning Purpose)

2023 Ben Ali (Rattle N Roll)

dogs of various sizes, contented barn cats, and a pair of inquisitive donkeys. A notable resident is the broodmare Unbridled Explosion and her foal. Purchased at the 2021 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, she is carrying an ofspring for 2025 by Mystik Dan’s sire, Goldencents. Brian made that mating suggestion before the Derby.

Te roster includes Jamie’s mounts, racehorses reschooling for new careers, track lay-ups, and children’s ponies for Joshlyn, who turns 10 in September; 8-year-old Ben; and 4-year-old Anabelle. Te family can hack around the property or practice their jumping and other skills for upcoming shows. Ben is already preparing for his career by competing in the U.S. Pony Racing events designed as educational opportunities for aspiring jockeys and exercise riders.

Te family stays connected through other at-home activities and sports. Te two oldest play in organized leagues, and the Hernandezes are likely to be at ballgames several days a week.

The trophy case in the couple’s home includes two Eclipse Award statues: Brian’s for champion apprentice jockey and Jamie’s for a photograph she took of champion racehorse Wise Dan.

TASTE EXTRAORDINARY

Spotlight On

BRIAN HERNANDEZ JR.

McPEEK CONNECTION

Hernandez’ perfectly orchestrated, rail-skimming ride in the Kentucky Derby showcased his exceptional talent that extends far beyond the actual competition. McPeek credits him with bringing out the best in his trainees.

Mystik Dan exemplifes McPeek’s philosophy of readying newbies for their debuts. His runners are entered fully prepared, but McPeek is never disappointed if they don’t win. He prefers they have positive learning experiences for the team to build upon.

Hernandez typically gets acquainted with McPeek’s 2-year-olds at Churchill before they race. But because Mystik Dan was based at Keeneland, they did not meet until his career debut at Keeneland on Oct. 22, 2023. Retired jockey Robby Albarado — a 526-time winner at Keeneland — did the fne-tuning and told Hernandez beforehand how confdent he was in the colt. Hernandez subsequently agreed.

“He was very impressive frst time out,” Hernandez said about Mystik Dan. “He was on the lead and ran really hard but got run down by a horse with [a previous] start. We knew afer that that he would be something really nice. We weren’t exactly thinking Derby, but we knew we had a really nice 2-yearold and something to look forward to.”

McPeek was pleased with the efort.

“We all know that you are going to lose races to win races,” he said. “You learn from the losses and use that information to win.”

Four days afer Mystik Dan’s frst race, Torpedo Anna graduated in her career debut with an 8½-length victory afer also doing her early training at Keeneland.

Teir scores in the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in the same year put Hernandez and McPeek in elite company. Tey are only the third jockey-trainer duo to accomplish the feat in the history of the races that have been contested since 1875.

Te others were jockey Don Meade and H.J. Tompson in 1933 with Derby hero Brokers Tip and Barn Swallow and Eddie Arcaro and Ben A. Jones in 1952 with Hill Gail and Real Delight. (Some sources credit

Jones’ son, Horace A. “Jimmy” Jones, with Real Delight’s Oaks score. However, Daily Racing Form’s chart of the race, which is housed in Keeneland Library, credits B.A. Jones with both victories.)

Hernandez’s Oaks-Derby double contributed in early August to his receiving the Mike Venezia Memorial Award, presented annually to a jockey who displays the extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship that personifed Venezia, who died as the result of injuries sufered in a spill in 1988.

McPeek said his partnership with Hernandez developed gradually and emphasizes that the rider’s value extends far beyond the races. “We started working with him and his agent, Frank Bernis, and we just started winning races,” McPeek

Top horses ridden by Hernandez include 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Fort Larned, left, and 2023 Ashland Stakes winner Defning Purpose.

Trainer Kenny McPeek and Hernandez have enjoyed a long, fruitful partnership.

said. “More than anything, Brian is the ultimate professional. He knows most all the horses and remembers them. Frank has played a big role. We put a plan together for the horses, and Frank handles the entries by sorting out the best spots for the horses. Frank is as much a part of the team as Brian — they are a package.”

Hernandez frequently spends mornings at Churchill to breeze horses for McPeek and others. “He arrives 15 minutes early and is engaged with everybody,” McPeek said. “He has an exceptionally good clock in his head when it comes to timing a workout. He teaches young horses really well, which is another reason we use him.

We like continuity with a jockey. With consistency, we can put a plan together.”

On the personal side, McPeek notes that Hernandez’ family values have been instrumental in his career.

“He is also the ultimate family man; he is home every night with his family,” he said. “He is a pleasure to be around.” KM

Family time for the Hernandez clan invariably includes horses.

A small but select breeding program has yielded big results for John and Debby Oxley.

Successful owner/breeders

John and Debby Oxley follow where their horses take them

Living the RACING LIFE

By Lenny Shulman

Lenny Shulman Lenny

Photos

Photos by Kirk Schlea

ARDEN BARNES

RACING LIFE

As late spring bloomed in Central Kentucky, John and Debby Oxley weren’t gardening or tending to the many seasonal chores on Fawn Leap Farm, their property just outside of Midway in the heart of the Bluegrass region.

Instead, they went on a three-day getaway to Vermont to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. It was a trip that neatly segued into a stop in Saratoga Springs, New York, to watch Sierra Leone — a colt they bred — compete in the frst Belmont Stakes held at Saratoga Race Course. Te couple then returned to Fawn Leap, presumably to do laundry, for less than a week before hopping a transatlantic fight to Royal Ascot, where a colt they co-own made a run in a prestigious stakes event.

“We’re used to traveling a lot,” said John (known as “Jack” to those close to him) Oxley, “although it’s been a bit condensed and hectic the last few weeks. But it’s festive.”

For 30 years running, the Oxleys’ lives have intertwined with Toroughbred racing, which has not only dictated their travel schedule but also nourished them. Teir love of horses has brought them cherished friendships, the tranquility of Fawn Leap, and the excitement of cheering on their equine charges, many of which are graduates of Keeneland sales.

Tracy Farmer, their next-door neighbor in Midway and a fellow Toroughbred owner, said, “Debby and Jack love all aspects of the Toroughbred business. Teir farm looks like a picture book, and everything is done on principle. Jack does what he says he’ll do. I’d rather have a handshake deal with him than a contract with somebody else.”

Tat the Oxleys have found success with horses is not altogether shocking. When he was 10, John was helping care for Toroughbred polo ponies owned by his father (also John). Debby grew up in Louisville, where horses are woven into the city’s culture, and enjoyed the annual festivities surrounding the Kentucky Oaks and Derby. Honoring his 55 years of playing polo (he and Debby met at a polo match), John in 2005 was inducted into the Polo Hall of Fame (an honor also earned by his father), having won nearly every major U.S. Polo Association tournament and reaching a fve-goal handicap. He was also cited for his personal contributions to the sport, including a tenure as president of the USPA board of directors.

The Oxleys base their breeding operation at Fawn Leap Farm in Woodford County.

Left, Darling My Darling, with Fawn Leap farm manager Laurie Gimmon, created a racing dynasty for the Oxleys. Above, Darling My Darling won the 2000 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland among other high-class victories.

Living the RACING LIFE

For his contributions to Toroughbred racing and breeding, John Oxley has been named the Toroughbred Club of America’s 2024 Honor Guest and will be recognized at the club’s Testimonial Dinner Nov. 15.

“Mr. Oxley is a true horseman whose equestrian exploits in the saddle are well documented and only eclipsed by his accomplishments as the owner of a Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, and multiple Breeders’ Cup winners,” club president Charlie Bowden said. “His generous contributions throughout his life of his time and his money put him on a short list of Toroughbred horse racing’s greatest benefactors”.

Horsemanship came naturally to Oxley, who became fascinated with Toroughbred racing when he started working with his father’s polo ponies. Over the “little family radio” at his childhood home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oxley recalls his jumping-of point: listening to the call of the Kentucky Derby won by Assault in 1946.

“Something inside me just tuned in to the racing game. I loved

what I was hearing. Eight years later, my dad took me to the Derby, and a gray colt named Determine won.” It was beyond his consideration that a gray colt owned by Oxley would repeat the feat 47 years later.

Pedigree Enthusiast

Along with his father, who had an extensive background in oil exploration, Oxley in 1962 founded Oxley Petroleum, a natural gas drilling and exploration concern. There, the younger Oxley put his geology degree to work, and the company became one of the nation’s largest gas producers before it was sold in 2003.

Te risks associated with drilling wells dovetailed nicely into those associated with trying to solve the puzzles of equine pedigrees.

“I love the history of following the family lines of all the great horses,” said Oxley. “It is something I’ve done ever since I was in high school and went to that frst Derby.”

Oxley enjoyed his frst major triumphs as a Toroughbred owner

Heavenly Love, a daughter of Darling My Darling, is the dam of 2024 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner Sierra Leone. Her 2024 Gun Runner foal is a full sister to Sierra Leone.

Heavenly Love captured the grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland in 2017.

COADY MEDIA

Living the RACING LIFE

in concert with John Ward Jr., who trained Oxley’s purchases and helped select horses at auction. Early on, that shopping proved most fruitful when done at Keeneland’s April sale of 2-year-olds.

In 1994, Oxley spent $90,000 at that auction for a Bold Ruckus flly named Gal in a Ruckus and $85,000 for a Dixieland Band colt that became Jambalaya Jazz. Gal in a Ruckus delivered to Oxley his frst grade 1 victory when she took the 1995 Kentucky Oaks. Te following day, Jambalaya Jazz ran in the Kentucky Derby along with Oxley’s homebred Pyramid Peak. Although both ran unplaced, it was a major accomplishment not only to win the Oaks but also to get a pair of entrants into the Derby feld.

Tree years afer those purchases, Oxley was back bidding at the 1997 Keeneland April sale and landed for $480,000 a Maudlin flly named Beautiful Pleasure. She lived up to her name, becoming a six-time grade 1 winner of more than $2.7 million. Her victories included the Breeders’ Cup Distaf and she was champion older mare. Meanwhile, Debby Oxley was also becoming immersed in the racing world, and her instincts provided the impetus that led the Oxleys to breed generations of the family that produced Sierra Leone.

Just one year afer the purchase of Beautiful Pleasure, Debby took note of a Deputy Minister flly at the 1998 Keeneland September yearling sale.

“I had seen the flly’s dam, Roamin Rachel, run quite a bit, and she was a quality, hard-knocking flly. So, when her daughter was ofered at the yearling sale, I really wanted Jack to buy her,” Debby remembered.

Enduring Gift

Te Oxleys went to $300,000 to land the yearling, which they named Darling My Darling. “Debby really liked Darling My Darling as a yearling, as did I, and when I like one, I can be a relentless bidder,” John said

Te family received a couple of boosts in quick succession. At 3, Darling My Darling prevailed in the Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland, and a year later she returned to take the Doubledogdare Stakes. She would go on to bank $352,359 in her

racing career. Meanwhile, Roamin Rachel was sent to Japan to Sunday Silence, and the resultant colt, Zenno Rob Roy, raced his way to become Japan’s Horse of the Year and champion older horse in 2004.

Te Oxleys sent Darling My Darling to their broodmare band after her racing career, and she continued to excel. First came Forever Darling, a daughter of Congrats, who scored in the 2016 Santa Ynez Stakes, a grade 2 event in California.

Forever Darling then grew her own branch of the family tree as a broodmare, producing Forever Young, a Japanese-owned and -trained colt who ran a bang-up third in this year’s Kentucky Derby. It was his lone defeat in his frst six starts, and the multiple gradedstakes winner has already earned better than $2.5 million.

“We sold Forever Darling for $8,000 [at the 2014 Keeneland September sale],” John noted with a self-deprecating laugh. “When you have a farm, sometimes you have to sell.”

Tey did no such thing with Darling My Darling’s 2014 foal by Malibu Moon, which they kept and raced in Debby’s name. Heavenly Love, following in the hoofprints of her dam, took to the Keeneland racing surface and won the 2017 Darley Alcibiades Stakes, giving the Oxleys a grade 1 victory at Keeneland. Heavenly Love earned $346,200 racing and was retired to Fawn Leap for broodmare duty thereafer.

Sent to the stallion Gun Runner, Heavenly Love produced Sierra Leone, a colt who showed promise right of jump street. “We thought he’d be a

John Oxley earned Keeneland’s coveted gold tray in 2017 after winning eight graded stakes races.

The Oxleys each race in their own silks, with John’s on the left.

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Living the RACING LIFE

million-dollar sale horse, but he wound up bringing $2.3 million [from White Birch Farm and M.V. Magnier], which was exceptional,” said John.

Te Oxleys have no remorse for selling Sierra Leone, who has justifed his lofy sale price. Racing for a partnership that includes White Birch’s Peter Brant and Magnier’s Coolmore partners, Sierra Leone won this year’s Risen Star Stakes, a grade 2 event at Fair Grounds, and the 100th Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. He came within a nose of glory in the Kentucky Derby, fnishing second by that margin to Mystik Dan.

Asked about being the breeder of a Derby horse as opposed to the owner, Debby noted, “I would say it’s more nerve-racking as a breeder because you have the dam and the family, and so you have a big, long-term interest in how the horse does from that standpoint.”

Added John, “We’ve been to several Derbys as participants, and it’s always exciting and always a thrill. I don’t feel quite the pressure as a breeder that I do when I own a horse in it. But I agree with Debby that when you have the mare and the siblings to the horse that’s running, as well as other mares in the family, there is great interest in the investment.”

“Thread of Breeding”

Sierra Leone returned to run third in the Belmont Stakes and second in the Jim Dandy Stakes, both at Saratoga, and his earnings from his frst seven starts exceed $2.2 million. Back at Fawn Leap, Heavenly Love this spring foaled a full sister to Sierra Leone that has the Oxleys dreaming.

“She is exceptional, and Debby will be keeping her to race and eventually breed,” John said. “It’s a never-ending equation, how to manage your stock. We are trying to keep the very best we can with an eye toward the future.”

It is every breeder’s dream to establish an equine family branch that excels over multiple generations, and that is exactly what the Oxleys have accomplished in the 26 years since they purchased Darling My Darling.

“It is so satisfying to see the family continue to prosper and produce,” said Debby.

Continuing that thought, John added, “In all our years of racing and winning important stakes, this thread of breeding has become the best theme of all because it’s lasting, continuous, and heartwarming. We cherish being next to these Toroughbreds every day.”

Te Oxleys have owned at least 84 horses that have won stakes, and have bred at least 33 stakes winners. While owning gifed racehorses no doubt brings great pride, one senses in speaking with John Oxley a greater sense of accomplishment in his breeding exploits. He has been studying Toroughbred pedigrees for more than a halfcentury, and he carefully plots out the matings for the 25 Oxley broodmares without outside assistance.

“Actually, in consultation with Debby I do my own matings because that is part of the joy of being involved in the Toroughbred business,” he said. “I have my own theories, which I combine with some old rules that have remained efective through the years. I use True Nicks to help match mares to stallions in trying to determine a probable result that will work well. It’s fascinating to see new stallions transition from their racing careers to their stallion careers and fgure out which ones will emerge to do as well as they did on the track.”

Top, the Fawn Leap crew from left to right: Jose Chaires, Nicolas Camilo, Mario Salto, Francisco Ibarra, Laurie Gimmon, Mario Aguilera, Luis Santacruz, Marcelo Lucas, Scott Curry, Alejandro Castillo, and Jesus Armendariz. Above, Gimmon pets a foal by Justify out of Sky Dreamer.

Living the RACING LIFE

Te mating that produced Sierra Leone is a perfectexample,asOxleyguessedrightonGunRunner, a champion racehorse who immediately excelled as a stallion. Oxley bred repeatedly to him in his frst years at stud and has been well-rewarded.

Producing Standouts

It has also helped that several colts that raced in John Oxley’s yellow-and-blue checkerboard silks performed well enough to forge stallion careers, thanks in part to the Oxleys having supported them withmares.FirstcameSkyMesa,asonofPulpitwho won the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. Now 24, Sky Mesa has enjoyed a long and productive stud career at Tree Chimneys Farm, a stone’s throw from Fawn Leap. And that has helped make other careers as well.

“Te Oxleys gave me my frst big sale,” recalled BrianGraves,nowthepresidentofGaineswayFarm. “Tey were selling a lot of Sky Mesa yearlings, and I consigned a million-dollar horse for them. Tat was a big deal. We’ve remained very close and I consider them family.”

Gainesway consigned Sierra Leone for the Oxleys. “I told them that he was the best yearling I’d seen in several years,” Graves said. “Tey have a lot of class and quality running through their equine bloodlines. Sierra Leone comes from a generational family that they helped make and nurture.”

Another standout was Classic Empire, purchased at Keeneland September for $475,000. He became the champion North American 2-year-old male for the Oxleys in 2016, also taking Keeneland’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity. He earned better than $2.5 million racing and stood at Ashford Stud near Versailles until his sale late last year to Korea. In another accomplishment, John Oxley’s Noble Bird holds Keeneland’s 11⁄8-mile track record of 1:47.75 while winning the 2016 Hagyard Fayette Stakes.

John Oxley has earned Keeneland’s coveted gold tray, signifying eight graded stakes wins, as part of the track’s Milestone Trophy Program. He is working toward 16 and a gold pitcher.

Te Oxleys’ racing program has been so successful that they have never bought a broodmare. Tey simply graduate fllies of the racetrack that they’ve bred or bought as yearlings into their breeding program. Debby owns many of the fllies that the couple races, in part because of some thoughtful gifs from her husband. “Trough the

years, Jack would give me a flly as an anniversary present, and I’d race them and breed the ones I kept.” Asked about her number of broodmares, given their 30th wedding anniversary, she laughed. “Afer I started breeding more, he stopped giving me fllies as presents.”

“Yes, I had to cut back on those gifs, given the cost,” John added, sharing in the levity. “She’s got enough stock now where she’s moved past me in terms of success. So, I switched to giving her jewelry.”

With a stable of just a dozen runners, the Oxleys continue to win signifcant races not only on U.S. soil but also around the world. In 2020, Pretty Gorgeous took the group 1 Fillies Mile at Newmarket in England and the Debutante Stakes, a group 2 afair, at the

Top, John Oxley’s Classic Empire won the 2016 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity en route to 2-year-old championship honors. Above left, Oxley added the Hagyard Fayette Stakes to his 2016 Keeneland victories with Noble Bird. Above right, Sierra Leone wins the 2024 Toyota Blue Grass.

We don’t just breed athletes, we extend dynasties. Make this your year.

Yearlings ofered at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland.

Living the RACING LIFE

Curragh in Ireland. Cowardofhecounty, whom they co-own, has shown early promise, as has Without Words, a 3-year-old flly who, like Cowardofhecounty, is trained by Joseph O’Brien.

Justin Casse, an agent who helps purchase bloodstock worldwide for the Oxleys, noted, “Tey’re a dream to work for and exemplify everything you’d want in an owner. Tey are consummate professionals who handle the good with the bad, which is easier said than done. Tey deserve the success they’ve had in North America and Europe.”

“Tey are intelligent, gracious, and kind people,” said Darby Dan Farm’s John Phillips, who boards weanlings and does consigning work for the couple. “Jack is an experienced horseman in the real sense, and Debby possesses a deep intelligence of this world. Tey are kind, generous people, humble in a classic Midwestern way, and we’ve had a great relationship over the years.”

Te Oxleys are still best known for the May afernoon in 2001 when their gray/roan colt Monarchos, named afer a Byzantine Greek ruler, stormed forward from 15 lengths of the pace to win the Kentucky Derby at odds of 10-1. Te victory produced a colorful sight at Fawn Leap Farm. Because of difculty with his exotic name, fans nicknamed the colt “More Nachos” and clipped dozens of bags of chips to the front gate at Fawn Leap in the hours following his Derby triumph.

In the afermath of winning the roses, John Oxley gathered his composure and stated, “Nothing could be more exciting, more incredible, more thrilling, more unbelievable than today. It takes you

of the planet and puts you into a new orbit.”

Asked 23 years later what stands out about winning the Derby, Debby stated, “It’s always in my mind. I hear that race call [by Tom Durkin], ‘Here comes Monarchos …’ It’s an incredible memory.”

Monarchos and Beautiful Pleasure appear in the pedigree of an exciting juvenile runner this year for John Oxley named Dreamaway, trained by Wesley Ward, who won her career debut at Keeneland in April, took the Colleen Stakes at Monmouth Park in July by 5¼ lengths, and has numerous Oxley connections. Her sire is Flameaway, which Oxley raced to win Keeneland’s grade 2 Bourbon Stakes and run second in the Toyota Blue Grass and now is a stallion at Darby Dan. Her dam is grade 1 winner Dream Dancing, by Tapit; her second dam is To Dream About, the result of mating Monarchos with Beautiful Pleasure.

Te Oxleys’ rhythms move along in step with their horses. Te couple will drink in the sunsets, serenity, and beauty of Fawn Leap, as well as the culinary joys of nearby Midway, early this summer before heading to leafy Saratoga. Winters bring a southern migration to Wellington, Florida, in the heart of polo country. Tey live a delightful regimen in tune with an equine agenda.

“I’ve had my share of the spills and the joys,” John Oxley said when describing his polo career that ran from ages 16-70. He could be describing the big picture of his life with horses as well. It is crystal clear neither he nor Debby would want to live it any other way. KM

With input from his wife, Oxley carefully plans the matings for the couple’s 25 mares. Above right, a weather vane signifes the business of the barn that it tops. Right, a foal enjoys a warm summer day.

702 CENTRAL AVENUE

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Lovingly-restored historic home in a favorite 40502 neighborhood

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Zach Davis

zach@kirkfarms.com

859.576.8195 | 859.231.8444 kirkfarms.com

859.576.8195 859.231.8444

The property's R-3 reflect this capacity. home in a favorite 40502 neighborhood

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ROYAL WELCOME

Kentuckians gave Queen Elizabeth II the red-carpet treatment when she visited the Bluegrass 40 years ago, with Keeneland naming a race in her honor and farm owners opening their gates

By Edward L. Bowen L. Bowen

Queen Elizabeth II greeted Keeneland jockeys during her October afternoon at the Lexington racetrack.

OOCTOBER WILL MARK the 40th anniversary of a unique occasion that warmed the hearts of the Kentucky Toroughbred community and, indeed, people throughout the state. It was Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain visiting the Bluegrass region to present the trophy for a Keeneland stakes race initiated in her honor. Te trip also provided her the pleasure of visiting a number of Toroughbred farms.

Clearly, the queen was conferring honor and privilege on the racetrack and the farms, and in return, Kentucky could also take pride in its opportunity to give her a great deal of joy.

In the queen’s world, any international visit to an event with a large crowd as well as private visits entailed a great deal of planning in both personal protocol and security. James E. (Ted) Bassett, then president of Keeneland, has had many occasions to think back to the sequence of events.

Te weather was fne and the crowd polite and attentive when the queen arrived at Keeneland, visited the paddock accompanied by Bassett, and then later presented the trophy in the new winner’s circle.

During her four hours at the track, she got to see Secreto, that year’s Epsom Derby winner, paraded in the walking ring prior to being

James E. (Ted) Bassett III, then Keeneland’s president, escorted the queen in the paddock and elsewhere on the grounds.

Claiborne Farm president Seth Hancock accepted a trophy from the queen after Sintra won the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.

Andre Pater (Polish/American, born 1953), GOING TO POST, Oil on canvas, 32” x 38”, Signed

ROYAL WELCOME

vanned to nearby Calumet Farm for stallion duty. Te queen also visited with New Zealand equine artist Peter Williams, who had his brushes and easel in the paddock area. Prior to the big race itself, the queen greeted a lineup of jockeys.

Lunch for the queen and her entourage was served in the Lexington Room. Some 80 guests were seated and served at 10 tables. Most of them were Keeneland trustees and board members. Others invited included Virginian Paul Mellon, a noted international breeder-owner and philanthropist with whom the queen was acquainted. William S. Farish of Lane’s End Farm and his family were hosting the queen as their houseguest and were also prominent on the luncheon guest list.

Te various steps of protocol had included royal approval of Keeneland’s request to name a stakes race for the queen. Keeneland

was prepared to have a trophy created for the frst Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, but the royal office decided to have the trophy made by Asprey of London and provided to Keeneland. Te trophy is a lidded sterling silver loving cup of Georgian design. Winning owners of the annual race receive a gold julep cup, as per Keeneland tradition, and afer a presentation ceremony the original is housed in a showcase in the track directors room.

Te winner of the frst Challenge Cup was Sintra, co-owned by Seth Hancock and William Lickle and trained by Steve Penrod. In the minutes when the victorious group gathered in the winner’s circle awaiting the queen and the trophy presentation, jockey Keith Allen took the opportunity to practice bowing.

Te queen had expressed enough interest in American horse sale procedures that a mock auction of fve horses was staged at

Keeneland produced a special program for the queen’s visit and jockeys participating in the Challenge Cup signed their names next to their numbers.

ROYAL WELCOME

the sales pavilion afer the races that day. Tat evening, the queen instructed her personal secretary, Sir Philip Moore, to send a glowing letter that Keeneland “more than warranted its reputation.”

Kent Hollingsworth, editor of Te BloodHorse, summarized the day: “Te dignity with which Keeneland president Ted Bassett escorted the queen, the manners of the crowd … made this occasion one of which all associated with racing could be proud.”

A MYRIAD OF DETAILS

Centenarian Bassett has had occasion to think back with pleasure on the sequence of details that led to such success. From the beginning, he has emphasized and thanked the late David Hedges, who put the idea forward in the 1980s. Hedges served as Keeneland’s representative in England during the 1970s and ’80s.

By then, Keeneland’s sales — yearling sales and breeding stock

sales — had soared in international prestige. Te aggregation of stallions in Kentucky with credentials for European racing helped boost the international appeal of consignments to the Lexington sale ring. “In those days, particularly because so many British horsemen were active at our sales, we felt we had to have a representative over there to advise on catalog distribution, publicity, and collections,” Bassett wrote in “Ted Bassett, My Life.”

Hedges, who earlier had been head of the International Racing Bureau, put the scenario into motion two years before the 1984 visit. During a relatively routine visit to Lexington, Hedges was going over various matters with Bassett when he asked, “What are you planning for Keeneland’s 50th anniversary? What would you think of inviting the queen?” Maryjean Wall wrote in her 1985 Keeneland magazine article about the royal visit. Actually, Keeneland’s half-century anniversary would be observed later, in 1986, but, as Bassett told Wall, he responded to the “out of the blue suggestion with astonishment. I felt like it was an excellent idea, but one that had only a remote chance of succeeding.”

Emphasizing that knee-jerk sense of realism, Bassett recalled that, “We didn’t grasp the total ramifcations at that stage. Te feasibility seemed distant, but realizing the security and in-depth planning that goes into a royal visit, it seemed unlikely we would be able to develop the proper channels of communication with Buckingham Palace.”

Te efort to bring the queen to Kentucky became known

Above, Keeneland staged a mock auction in the sales pavilion for the beneft of the queen.

Left, the U.S. and British fags fy in the infeld for the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.

Though the queen’s visit went smoothly, its success required much planning and protocol.

ROYAL WELCOME

as “the project,” and afer overtures to key individuals — the queen’s racing manager, Lord Porchester, and stud manager, Michael Oswald, among others — the idea took hold. In February 1984 a British Consulate representative visited Keeneland, followed by a May visit by a group that included Lord Porchester. Afer assurances from Bassett that renovation work being done at Keeneland would be completed by the October race meeting, it was fnally made clear that the powers that be were indeed considering a royal visit.

William Greely, who was then general manager of Keeneland, was absorbed in various details and was able to avoid a tiny glitch relating to the track’s courtesy of fying the British fag in the infeld. During a rehearsal of the fag raising, a British subject who attended remarked to Greely that the Union Jack might look the same from various angles but, in fact, has a specific top and bottom. Greely went for what would be called a “feld expedient” in the military. He marked the top of the fag with his pen and made sure all the crew involved with the fag knew what the mark meant.

‘‘ SHE IS A REMARKABLE LADY WHO LOVES RACING AND LOVES HORSES.”

—William S. Farish

Other considerations emerged. One was the need for that winner’s circle. Keeneland had traditionally honored winners of routine races on the racetrack itself, while presentations for stakes races took place in the infeld. Neither would be appropriate for the queen should the weather turn rainy or windy. So, a nice new winner’s circle was created, in front of the stands and easily accessible from the dining area.

As for the luncheon details, Keeneland had submitted two menus to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., to consider. Te frst was turned down “because it began with an appetizer of shrimp, which the queen apparently does not care to eat,” according to the 1985 Keeneland magazine article. Te approved menu relied on trusty Turf Catering, then the track’s regular food service provider. It featured roast tenderloin of

Photo By: Bobby Shifet

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WHEN IN …

WHEN IN ROME … OR KENTUCKY

Given Queen Elizabeth II’s decades of devotion to racing and her success in the sport, it was not surprising that she visited a number of horse farms during her 1984 trip to Kentucky. She was the houseguest ofWilliam S. Farish, who had met the queen in England, and his family at Lane’s End Farm. The queen had had at least one mare in the United States for 20 years and was interested in seeing specifc stallions at some of the farms.

Keeneland Library houses a schedule of appointments at 10 farms the queen visited.This is part of a 42-page document from the British Embassy titled “Programme for the PrivateVisit to the United States ofThe Queen.”Visits ranged from several hours to a quick 15 minutes at Calumet Farm to see the stallion Alydar. In addition to Lane’s End, the queen visitedWalmac, Spendthrift, Claiborne, Stone Farm, Greentree Stud, Gainesway, Darby Dan, Calumet, and Mill Ridge.

Family members of the farms visited carry treasured memories, of course, and in some cases, the specifcs of those memories indicate a departure from the printed schedule in terms of time spent at a location.

The queen also visited the offces of Bloodstock Research. In addition to owner Richard Broadbent III, staff at Bloodstock Research at the time included Harry Herbert, son of the queen’s racing manager, Lord Porchester.

William

TWO LADIES AT MILL RIDGE

AT MILL

Looking back on Queen Elizabeth’s visit to his family’s Mill Ridge Farm, Headley Bell recalls that it fostered friendships involving the queen and his mother, the late Alice Chandler; her husband, Dr. John Chandler; and some of the queen’s support staff.

“Mom and the queen had a very special relationship, being women with a deep history and love of the horse,” he said. “Naturally, for Mom to have bred Sir Ivor, winner of England’s historic Epsom Derby in 1968, provided a great thread. [The queen had won four of the fve classic races in England but not the Derby.]

“On the farm in 1984 for her frst visit, we had Height of Fashion, whom the queen had owned and raced to become Britain’s champion 2-year-old in 1981 and second highweighted flly at 3. Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum had purchased the mare after her racing career, and we boarded his mares prior to him buying his Kentucky farms. Height of Fashion was sent to Northern Dancer in ’83 and ’84, and the queen naturally wanted to see the mare during her Mill Ridge visit.”

Above, William S. Farish hosted the queen at his family’s Lane’s End Farm on her initial and subsequent visits.

Left, Seth Hancock and the queen enjoyed a quiet moment during her visit to Claiborne Farm.

the queen at his Lane’s Farm on visits. Seth Hancock and the queen a moment to Farm.

Photographer: Jonah Deaton Photography Jewelry: Benqueil’s Fine Jewelry

ROYAL WELCOME

beef and included “chilled poached salmon with hollandaise, spinach salad, fresh asparagus, potatoes au gratin, fresh bakery rolls, fresh raspberries, with ice cream, tea, cofee, cold beverage, and wine service.” Te queen also had a gin and tonic before lunch. Presumably she was able to make that order on the spot.

Greely reported on such details as determining whether ladies at the luncheon should curtsy and wear hats and gloves (no, and no).

A charming feature of the lead-up to the luncheon was the queen’s request to have a few biographical notes on any individuals she would likely be having conversations with. Te queen put others at ease with her politeness and humor. She also extolled the beauty of Keeneland and its backdrop of Bluegrass countryside as “far surpasses” even her high expectations.

Bassett summarized such details with humor. When he made a joking reference to “country bumpkins sitting next to the Queen of England” to Hurstland Farm co-owner Charles Nuckols at lunch, “she just sort of raised back her head and we all laughed,” Bassett told Wall. Bassett and Nuckols were seated beside the queen at lunch. Also at their table were Lucy Bassett; Keeneland trustee William C. Smith; Keeneland director Alice Chandler; Bettie Haggin, wife of Keeneland trustee Louis Lee Haggin III; and special guest Paul Mellon.

During the trophy presentation, Jim Williams, the publicity director for Keeneland, was close enough to witness a moment he has never forgotten. When the specially commissioned trophy and the gold julep cup were presented, Williams recalled, “I could see the queen point to the julep cup and mouth a phrase ‘Oh, I like that one better.’ ”

Score one for Keeneland tradition, and perhaps the appeal of the highest gold content. KM

The friendship between the queen and Alice Chandler was such that the queen made a subsequent visit to Mill Ridge on her own with just her driver, Bell recalled. “The queen and Mom went back to a feld of mares. Just the two of them shared that time together, walking the feld with the mares.

“That pretty well tells the story. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

A SEPARATE MOMENT FOR ROUND TABLE

Members of the Hancock family, whose Claiborne Farm hosted a luncheon and farm visit for the queen, have fond memories of the occasion. Dell Hancock recalls that when they were introduced, the queen said immediately, “I know you enjoy taking photographs.” (Dell Hancock at the time was developing her professional photography business and still annually creates a calendar for Claiborne Farm.)

“WhenWill Farish called to ask Momma if Claiborne could host the queen and provide lunch, her frst thought was that she would only offer lunch if she could use a specifc caterer she had come to rely on,” Dell recalled. Although based in Dayton, Ohio, the caterer had done a number of parties for Hancock connected to horse sales.The arrangements were made, and a royal luncheon was held in Bourbon County.

Seth Hancock, one of Dell’s brothers and Claiborne’s president at the time, was seated next to the queen at lunch that day and recalls that they discussed the champion turf horse and stallion RoundTable, who descended from one of the Royal Stud’s important female families.

When the queen learned that the 30-year-old RoundTable was still living on a section of Claiborne Farm, she immediately wanted to visit him. Dell recalls that the family had anticipated such a request and had RoundTable groomed and ready, but that thoughtful gesture had not involved a security check. Seth said the queen made it clear, but in a kind way, that she would add that visit to her schedule even though it required some ad hoc security checking by Lord Porchester.

As for the logistics of the queen’s tête-à-tête with grand old RoundTable, Dell Hancock has a humorous recollection of one small snafu of sorts. “My sister Clay was in charge of the peppermints” she said, “but they were a puffy kind.When the queen reached her hand out to feed some to RoundTable, he slobbered all over her hand in eating them.”

The next moment, Queen Elizabeth II instilled herself further into the family affections as a true horsewoman, for she merely swiped her hand across her clothing to tidy up.

Queen Elizabeth asked to see Round Table when she learned the stallion was still alive and treated him to a peppermint.

Elizabeth asked to see Round Table when she learned the stallion was still alive and treated him to a

WILLIAM S. FARISH AND HIS FAMILY have been associated closely with the queen’s visits to Kentucky. A few years before her death in 2022, Farish noted that “she has been our houseguest six times,” including her 2007 trip when she attended the Kentucky Derby won by Street Sense.

“From the frst visit, Queen Elizabeth’s knowledge of the Kentucky farms and their stallions was made evident,” Farish said.

“She brought an expert eye to close inspection and evaluation … She is a remarkable lady who loves racing and loves horses.”

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip attended the 2007 Kentucky Derby as the guests of Farish.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince attended the 2007 as the guests Farish.

The friendship between the queen and Farish had a unique extension into the lives of nations in 2001. In response to the 9/11 attacks on NewYork City, the queen instructed that the U.S. national anthem be played ceremoniously at Buckingham Palace. At the time Farish was President GeorgeW. Bush’s ambassador to Great Britain, and so Farish’s role was to represent the United States at that unique ceremony.

Farish’s term as ambassador also brought moments of sporting achievement, topped by the victory of his homebred Casual Look in the 2003 running of an English classic, the Epsom Oaks.

PRESTIGIOUS EVENT

SEVENT

ince its frst running in 1984, the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup has developed into one of racing’s top events for 3-year-old turf fllies. Christened by Queen Elizabeth II on her inaugural visit to Kentucky, the race was contested on dirt as Keeneland built a turf course.The race moved the following year to the new turf course.

In 1986 the QEII earned grade 3 status and in 1991 became a grade 1 event. In 2024, the 11⁄8-mile race, sponsored by Dixiana Farm, is worth $750,000.

Queen Elizabeth had a connection to the family that has had great success in the race. In 1984 and 1986, the queen visited Darby Dan Farm, founded by JohnW. Galbreath and operated today by his grandson John Phillips.

Phillips recalled the queen’s 1986 visit. “She signed our register. She wasn’t allowed to sign autographs, but she could sign registers. She truly loved her horses, and it made it a very easy relationship. Our family, of course, was delighted whenever her stable was successful.”

The Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup has been particularly important to various elements of the Galbreath/ Phillips families. No fewer than six winners of the race have been owned totally or in part by members of the Galbreath and Phillips families and Phillips Racing Partnerships.Those winners are Graceful Darby (1987), LoveYou By Heart (1988), Plenty of Grace (1990),Tribulation (1993), Memories of Silver (1996), and Time and Motion (2016).

MIKE CORRADO

Lexington’s 250th birthday events will take place throughout the city but primarily downtown.

RICHIE WIREMAN/CORNETT 250th events will take the but downtown.

Lexington prepares for a yearlong celebration of its 250th anniversary

50 Birthday Extravaganza

By Ron Mitchell

When the blue horse drops, let the party begin.

Lexington will usher in 2025 with a spectacular New Year’s Eve party highlighted by the lowering of a lighted life-size blue horse sculpture from atop the Central Bank Center. Te New Year’s Eve festivities will have added signifcance because they will ofcially mark the beginning of a yearlong celebration of the city’s founding 250 years ago.

“We are planning on a big New Year’s Eve,” said Lexington Vice Mayor Dan Wu. “We’re not sure what that’s all going to look like, but we’re going to blow it out and make it a spectacular event.”

Wu is one of 23 members of the 250Lex Commission, which is charged with coordinating hundreds of activities throughout the year that will not only refect on the past but also look ahead to the next 250 years.

“Plans are underway to make this a memorable tipping point year for Lexington,” Mayor Linda Gorton said in a promotional pitch to potential event sponsors. “We see 250Lex as an opportunity to create more regional, national, and international interest in our city. We also see this milestone moment as a way to educate, excite, and empower our local residents as well as showcase our business and cultural communities.”

Displays at the Lexington History Museum provide a quick history lesson.

Te city’s origins trace back to 1775 when a group of explorers led by William McConnell established a camp along the Town Branch section of the middle fork of Elkhorn Creek. Now a revitalized portion of downtown aptly named McConnell Springs, the area was called Lexington by the settlers, honoring the frst battle of the Revolutionary War at Lexington, Massachusetts.

Central Kentucky’s fertile land, enriched by minerals from limestone that drained the water, proved benefcial in hemp production, raising livestock, and horse breeding. Lexington grew into a major commercial and agriculture center and was promoted as the “Athens of the West.”

Flash forward.

Horses real and otherwise will be honored for their contributions to Lexington’s identity and prosperity

Horses real and otherwise will be honored their contributions to and prosperity.

Birthday Extravaganza

Today, Lexington boasts a metropolitan population of slightly more than 320,000 (according to U.S. Census 2023 fgures). Recently, the website WalletHub tabbed it the second best-managed city in the U.S., and U.S. News & World Report ranked it as the 15th best city in which to live. Lexington also rates highly on lists of favorable cities for retirees and for its diversity, as it was the frst Kentucky city to adopt a fairness ordinance.

Lexington is known as the “Horse Capital of the World” in recognition of its horse breeding, racing, and sales industries. It is home to two major universities — University of Kentucky and Transylvania University, which was the frst university west of the Allegheny Mountains — and has a vibrant business community with a mix of service, health care, technical, agriculture, and manufacturing industries.

Lexington natives and 250Lex Commission co-chairs Eunice Beatty and Kip Cornett are passionate advocates and are inspired about their roles in the celebration.

“Tis is acknowledging and celebrating a great American city,” Cornett said of 250Lex. “We aren’t a sleepy little college town. We were once known as the ‘Athens of the West,’ which speaks to culture, education, and democracy. And I think we’re headed back in that direction.”

“I defnitely want it to be celebratory in a way about progress,” added Beatty. “Because Lexington really started out, at least for me, as a tiny little city. And now when I think of Lexington, I defnitely put it in the category of a metropolitan, urban town.

“People who have lived here have a real deep appreciation for both our green rural spaces and then our active urban space,” Beatty continued. “And I know there’s a delicate balance, but I think it’s a unique place to be for Lexington to have both the green space, the rural area, and then that urban vibe. It’s an eclectic city.”

Te 250Lex Commission will coordinate a wide array of events within arts, culture, sports, business, and education.

“It is a combination of both celebrating all of the cool stuff we have going on as a city, but also a refection about our identity. Two hundred ffy years is a long time, and we certainly aren’t who we were in 1775,” Wu said.

Some events will be funded with the approximately $2 million the 250Lex Commission is raising, primarily through sponsorships. Other activities, especially those that regularly take place yearround throughout the city, could be incorporated into the celebration with approval from the commission.

“Tere are numerous events every month, and not all will be

McConnell Springs, situated along a section of the Elkhorn Creek, was the site of Lexington’s first settlement. From there, Lexington developed into Kentucky’s second-largest city.

Vice Mayor Dan Wu promises a “spectacular event.”

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Birthday Extravaganza

The equine industry will be featured in October when a major expansion project at Keeneland, above, is expected be completed. Left, visitors and residents alike can tour horse farms throughout the year.

Lex250 events,” said Cornett, who also served as chair of the Breeders’ Cup Festival in 2015 and 2022. “We will fund and promote between 50 and 75 events. Tere are going to be several layers to this. Tere are going to be big events; there are going to be medium events; there are going to be really small events.”

While the large majority of activities will take place within the city’s core — due primarily to logistics — planners are taking steps to ensure suburbs are included.

“Downtown is the source of energy for a city, but we’re going to make sure we’re doing programming or working with neighborhoods so that they can be part of this,” Cornett said.

“It is challenging because it is a citywide yearlong celebration,” said Wu. “It is not one event or a series of events. It is tying together all sorts of activities, from new programming to programming that already exists and that we’re trying to amplify.”

Te 250Lex Commission has been broken down into fve working groups: marketing, tourism, fnance, programming, and volunteers. (One member is Keeneland Vice President and Chief Marketing Ofcer Christa Marrillia.)

“I describe this to people as that thousand-piece puzzle that you used to do when you were a kid,” said Cornett. “With each piece that comes together, there’s more clarity and there’s more clarity.”

Lexington artist Savannah Guthrie was chosen through a

Lexington’s Thoroughbred Park is an iconic galloping gateway to the downtown.

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Birthday Extravaganza

competition to design a distinctive logo that will be associated with 250Lex’s marketing and events. Kentucky Educational Television network is producing a two-hour documentary about the history of Lexington that will be completed next year.

Among the highlights of the year will be a major 3D work of art that will be installed permanently at the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse and an Independence Day concert by the Lexington Philharmonic that features a specially commissioned score by Lexington native Shawn Okpebholo.

Te commissioned art installation came about through a funding allocation from Gorton’s ofce, with the as-yet-unnamed artist selected afer an international search that attracted 190 proposals.

“Lexington has a long history with the arts, and a new work of art in the heart of downtown for our city’s 250th anniversary provides a meaningful connection between our early identity as the ‘Athens of the West’ and the cultural legacy that we are building,” Gorton said when the artwork search was announced.

Cornett said the July 4 philharmonic concert at Singletary Center for the Arts is aimed at local residents who normally would not attend such an event, and will be affordably priced.

“We want to try to get some people who don’t normally get to see a philharmonic show, so mainly kids and families from underprivileged neighborhoods,” he said.

Te 43-year-old Okpebholo was raised in Lexington and graduated from Tates Creek High School. Nominated for a Grammy

Lexington natives and 250Lex Commission co-chairs Eunice Beatty and Kip Cornettare inspired about their roles in the celebration.

Award for his solo album “Lord, How Come Me Here?” Okpebholo is artist in residence with the philharmonic.

Te commissioned art installation and philharmonic concert are only two of a plethora of arts-related events and projects pegged for next year.

Tere are also plans for a 250Lex cookbook consisting of recipes from notable Lexingtonians past to present.

Some 22 individuals or groups have been selected from 88 applicants to share in $300,000 allocated by the mayor’s ofce for a

Concerts and musical events will be a major part of the festivities.

Birthday Extravaganza

variety of disciplines.

Te grants have been awarded to individuals and nonproft organizations, including galleries, libraries, museums, arts and cultural groups, and faith-based groups.

“Tings will be happening throughout the city and county, and people who may not typically attend a certain kind of event will fnd a reason to go or they will happen upon events they may not have sought out,” said Heather Lyons, Lexington’s arts and cultural affairs director.

Each month, a different subject will be featured, although the 250Lex events presented during that month will not be restricted to the featured subject area, according to organizers.

“We have taken the year, and for each month, we have what we call our feature for that month,” Cornett said.

Te focus of some months will be more signifcant than others, especially February, June, October, and December.

In honor of Black History Month, 250Lex will focus February on the contributions of African

Americans to the early success of Lexington. Enslaved laborers were critical to the growing and harvesting of crops such as hemp that helped fuel the area’s early prosperity. Also, African Americans played a vital role in the early years of the Toroughbred industry, as many of the top trainers and jockeys were Black.

“I think African Americans have made a signifcant contribution to Lexington, and we haven’t always told the story, talked about it, with the exception of plucking out really small pieces of the history,” said Beatty, an African American. “And so I’d love for people to collectively acknowledge the overall contributions to Lexington, specifcally from African Americans.”

“When this commission frst started meeting, one of the words that came up was ‘reckoning,’ ” Wu said. “And reckoning recognizes what has gone on in the past and how to rectify and move forward. You can’t change things for the better if you don’t frst recognize the negative things that have gone on. Everything is going to be done in a positive

The Old Fayette County Courthouse is a downtown landmark that represents Lexington’s past and present.

African Americans’ contributions to Lexington’s history and achievements — such as legendary jockey Isaac Murphy for whom a memorial garden is named — will be celebrated during Black History Month.

PHOTOS

Birthday Extravaganza

light, but it has to be rooted in history and reality.”

Wu said he also feels a personal afnity for the selective theme for June, which has been designated “homecoming month.” Te focus during the sixth month will be on all the positive reasons people live in Lexington and why it should appeal to outsiders, especially those with some relationship with the city.

“Lexington is a very boomerang city where a lot of people leave and then come back,” Wu noted. “I grew up here and lived in San Francisco and New York for almost 10 years until I moved back.”

“If you lived here, if you have relatives here, if you worked here, if you went to school here, come home,” said Cornett. “We are going to invite people to come home, even if their frame of reference is 15-20 years ago. Tink about how much Lexington has changed.”

Te equine industry will be featured in October, coinciding with completion of a major expansion at iconic Keeneland Race Course. Also, Red Mile harness track celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025.

And the blue horse will make its presence felt right from the start as it ushers in 2025. A large plastic, lighted replica of the blue horse that has been adopted by VisitLEX to help promote the city, the New Year’s Eve blue horse will be about twice the size of the Horse Mania sculptures. Te blue horse is based on a famous painting by renowned equine artist Edward Troye of Lexington, the 1800s-era racehorse and stallion.

Rounding out the year’s festivities in December, the 250Lex Commission and city leaders hope to highlight Lexington’s strengths and its potential for continued prosperity.

“So we want to showcase not just our cultural community but

also the commerce side of things,” Cornett said. “If you asked, ‘what does success look like in 2026?’ it’s about growth, about growing our economy, our tourism industry.”

“December will focus on what the future of Lexington looks like moving forward,” Wu said. “Te whole year is about celebrating our past but also to see how the future is different from the past.” KM

AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF OUR PAST. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR FUTURE.

An Independence Day concert will feature a work composed by Lexington native Shawn Okpebholo, pictured above with Lexington Philharmonic music director Mélisse Brunet.

The 250Lex Commission hopes the yearlong celebration will contribute to Lexington’s economic growth.

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BOTTLING GREATNESS

Keeneland and Maker’s Mark collaborate on a 10-year bottle series to beneft local charities

By Vickie Mitchell

The frst Greats of the Gate bottle goes on sale this fall at select retailers.

FFOR THE PAST 27 YEARS, the Maker’s Mark commemorative bourbon bottle has been a rite of spring at Keeneland, awaited as eagerly as the redbud and dogwood blossoms that ring the racetrack.

Highly coveted, the collectible bourbon bottles have promoted bourbon and racing, as their sales have raised nearly $10 million for local charities.

Te bottles are also a symbol of the long friendship and business partnership between Maker’s Mark and Keeneland, which began in 1958 when Keeneland caterer Turf Catering, under its Kentucky liquor license, bought the frst case of Maker’s Mark from a salesman, served it to racing fans, and helped the nascent distillery make a name for itself. Decades later, Maker’s Mark returned the favor as it became one of Keeneland’s frst corporate sponsors. It signed on to underwrite a Grade 3 one-mile spring race and over the years has upped its commitment as the race, now called the Maker’s Mark Mile, was elevated to Grade 1 status.

spotlighting memorable teams, coaches, and players. Te Greats series puts Toroughbred racing front and center.

Tis fall the partners are launching a new bottle series focused on Toroughbreds. Called “Greats of the Gate,” the series will honor 10 of Toroughbred racing’s iconic horses — one each year for a decade.

In the past, many of the annually released commemorative bottles had University of Kentucky sports themes,

“It had been a long time since we celebrated Toroughbred racing and the athlete that is the Toroughbred,” said Valerie Netherton, Maker’s Mark’s director of sustainability, higher purpose, partnerships. “When we discussed what would be impactful, what stands the test of time, it is celebrating the most iconic Toroughbred racehorses in history.”

Te frst bottle goes on sale this fall at select retailers.

Artist Tyler Robertson displays the bottle featuring his painting of Man o’ War, the frst in the Greats of the Gate series.

Maker’s Mark has sponsored the Maker’s Mark Mile since 1997. Now a Grade 1 stakes, the spring event attracts racing’s top turf mile specialists.

Te date and price have yet to be announced. It depicts Man o’ War, in full stride, appropriate since Big Red was known for a stride that could stretch 28 feet. Te frst bottle will be closely followed by the second, to be released in spring of 2025, as has been the tradition.

Profts from the 2024, 2025, and 2026 bottles will beneft Kentucky Harvest, the Art Center of the Bluegrass, and Blue Grass Farms Charities, with a total of $1.2 million allocated among these three charities over the three-year period. Keeneland and Maker’s Mark are committed to

raising a total of $4 million for various Kentucky nonproft organizations from bottle sales over the next decade.

“Keeneland and Maker’s Mark share a mission of service and philanthropy,” Keeneland Vice President and Chief Marketing Ofcer Christa Marrillia said. “We are proud of this long partnership and the dollars it has generated to beneft the community for nearly three decades now. Te Greats of the Gate series is yet another unique ofering, and one especially dear to Keeneland since it celebrates racing and the sport’s legendary champions.”

BOTTLING GREATNESS

Over the years, sports luminaries such as former UK basketball coach Tubby Smith, featured on the bottle above left, and UK football coach Mark Stoops, below, signed the highly collectible bottles. Above right, retired Maker’s Mark President and CEO Bill Samuels helped promote the limited-edition bottle program, as well as the partnership with Keeneland.

CHANGES IN STORE

Selecting the 10 Greats was a team efort and an interesting process, with Keeneland chiming in as industry expert and Maker’s Mark representing the average joe, said Netherton. Staf at Keeneland and Keeneland Library came up with a list of more than 10 champions, some of which were well known by industry insiders but not the general public. “Te Maker’s Mark team was close to the industry, but not that close, so we could give a more casual race fan lens to it regarding which horses resonated with us,” said Netherton. “Maybe they weren’t the fastest or had the most wins, but they had a special story, or you knew their name.”

Te fnal list won’t be disclosed, but each spring fans can look forward to seeing who the next Great is as the year’s commemorative bottle is released.

In the meantime, collectors can look forward to a bourbon bottle that will be rarer than those in the past. Te exact quantity has not been announced but will be “signifcantly fewer” than the 7,500 bottles that Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin, Maker’s Mark Managing Director Rob Samuels, and artists signed in 2023. “One theme was how to make the bottle more collectible, more and more special for the customer, and to do so we had to scale back the quantity,” said Netherton.

To add to the bottle’s value, each will be uniquely packaged and include a numbered and signed certifcate of authenticity.

Arvin, Samuels, and Tyler Robertson, the Louisville artist who is designing the series, will sign the certifcate for the Man o’ War bottle.

Other surprises, including innovative packaging, won’t be revealed until this fall.

While bottles in the Greats series will have Maker’s Mark’s distinctive squat shape and wax seal, they won’t be painted and wrapped with labels as they have been in the past. Instead, Robertson’s designs will be printed directly on

BOTTLING GREATNESS

the clear glass, and “bourbon will be the canvas,” said Netherton. Te challenge was to use Robertson’s pen drawings without losing their style or detail while allowing the bourbon to shine through the clear glass and be the background.

Accent colors will be those of the silks the horse’s jockey wore. In Man o’ War’s case, that is the distinctive yellow and black of owner Sam Riddle’s racing stable.

“In this frst year, we’ve spent most of our time trying to get it right, because that’s going to set the stage for the next 10 years,” said Robertson.

SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY

Te new bottle series will set the stage for positive change for the three nonproft organizations that beneft from its sales.

Kentucky Harvest, which rescues lefover food and delivers it to organizations that then distribute it to needy people in Jeferson and fve surrounding counties, will use the funds to hire a staf member to recruit more donor partners like restaurants, bars, and caterers. “Statistics tell you that there should not be a hunger problem in our area, and yet so much good usable food goes into the landfll,” said the organization’s executive director, Heather Stewart.

Kentucky Harvest also aligns with Maker’s Mark’s mission to be a sustainable business. Among its achievements is becoming the world’s frst certifed regenerative distillery. Te company hopes to put its sales team, its Maker’s Mark ambassadors, and others to work to educate possible food donors about Kentucky Harvest’s work, which already saves its 85 recipient organizations $4 million a year.

For the Art Center of the Bluegrass in Danville, funding from commemorative bottles will bring the community arts organization closer to its $3.7 million fundraising goal for a major expansion that’s underway. Already, the center has added a national glass art museum to honor the late Stephen Rolfe Powell, a world-class glass artist and Centre College art professor; an Art Lab, where 2,000 children have taken classes; Fern Curated Gifs; and the Murrini Café. Still to come are more building renovations and a glass-blowing studio.

Meanwhile, Blue Grass Farms Charities is

Kentucky Harvest volunteers deliver food throughout the Louisville area to homeless shelters, addiction recovery centers, children’s centers, churches, and other organizations.

Kentucky Harvest connects food companies with charities to provide surplus usable food to the hungry.

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BOTTLING GREATNESS

“champing at the bit,” said Executive Director Julie Kwasniewski, who added they are planning for a new food pantry to serve Toroughbred track and farm workers. Te pantry, as well as BGFC’s ofces, will be located at Te Toroughbred Center, Keeneland’s year-round training facility on Paris Pike. Many of the area’s Toroughbred farms are nearby — “the need is on that side of town,” said Kwasniewski. Moving its ofces from the current location on Sandersville Road to the training center will also make BGFC’s other services, which include vision and dental assistance, ESL referrals, and a chaplaincy, more accessible. Te organization supports a workforce that’s vital to the Toroughbred industry, Kwasniewski points out: “Seven days a week, these people are keeping the Kentucky Bluegrass beautiful and our horses healthy.”

Te three organizations serve causes critical to local communities and valued by Keeneland and Maker’s Mark. Te partners are both major players in the hospitality industry and want to strengthen it through means like Kentucky Harvest.

And, said Netherton, “Tere’s lots of love for the arts between the two organizations and certainly in support of the Toroughbred industry. Tere are so many people who bring that industry to life.

“Tis new series allows Maker’s Mark and Keeneland to partner in the community more than one day a year, more than just the spring meet. And I think the organizations that we have chosen to support are a perfect ft for supporting the community and the culture of Kentucky.” KM

Blue Grass Farms Charities serves Thoroughbred track and farm workers through a variety of programs from food assistance to providing back-to-school backpacks for children, right.

Above, Executive Director Julie Kwasniewski says bottle sale proceeds will help the organization better serve its community.

The Art Center of the Bluegrass offers art camps for children. The center also operates GLASS National Art Museum, which showcases contemporary glass artists.

ARTIST TYLER ROBERTSON FINDS HIS GROOVE

Just over a year ago,Tyler Robertson was leading a double life: Louisville elementary school teacher by day; successful artist specializing in sporting art by night.

Today, he’s devoting all his time to art, and among his commissions is the design of the Greats of the Gate bourbon bottle series for partners Maker’s Mark and Keeneland. Over the next decade, Robertson will design one bottle each year that celebrates aThoroughbred champion.

Although the project helps put his new career on solid footing as Robertson leaves the security of a nearly 20-year teaching career, it is not his only impressive commission. Earlier this spring, Robertson was an offcially licensed artist for the PGA Championship atValhalla Golf Club in Louisville. And he’s done work for other corporate clients, including Keeneland, Churchill Downs, and the Breeders’ Cup. About 95% of his commissions are equine related.

“Smile Happy” references a 2022 Kentucky Derby contender.

As a kid, Robertson drew cartoons and other illustrations and showed early promise, but in college, he abandoned his art major after one year and switched to education.

“Art didn’t seem like what I wanted to continue doing,” he said. “I wasn’t this tortured, painful artist. I was a clean-cut kid who was kind of good at it.”

He did some freelance illustration work after college but then focused on his teaching career. Art came back into his life after he and his wife had their frst child. Having a baby meant sleep disruption. Up at all hours, he would head to the basement, pick up his art brushes, and paint. It was a new medium for him. “After a while, I started to fnd my groove and got really into it.”

His bright, fanciful style has been compared more than once to the work of sporting artist LeRoy Neiman.

“I love contemporary, modern, stylized art, and I just stuck with it. I found my style. It just kind took off from there,” Robertson said.

Maker’s Mark’sValerie Netherton worked with Robertson when he and two other artists produced Maker’s Mark commemorative bottles in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Each artist produced three bottles, one per year.

“I fell in love withTyler’s use of color and his style and how you just undeniably know it’sTyler Robertson when you see his work,” she said.

Interestingly, Robertson knew little to nothing aboutThoroughbred

Robertson’s bold use of color is a signature of his sporting art.

racing when he came to college at the University of Louisville in 2001.

“The day I showed up at Fourth and Cardinal, it was Derby day,” he recalled. “I had no idea and couldn’t fgure out the buzz in town.” Passersby kept asking if he needed a ride to the track.

Later, he made friends with students who were in U of L’s equine program and got hooked on horse racing. “I quickly was drawn to the color and excitement of the races,” he said. “So when painting became a part of my life, that was my subject of choice.”

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What can you say about a place like Georgetown, Kentucky? A lot, actually. From our world-famous equine attractions to world-class dining, bourbon, and outdoor recreation, Georgetown is the home of Bluegrass adventure. It’s your kind of place, you just don’t know it yet.

That’s Georgetown, Kentucky for ya!

FUN ON

West Sixth Farm, located an easy eight miles north of downtown Frankfort, provides a park-like setting that offers its beer on tap, hiking trails, disc golf, family fun, and demonstrations in how ingredients for its products are grown.

A rural offshoot of the popular Lexington brewery, WEST

SIXTH FARM

celebrates beer’s agrarian roots

By Rena Baer

RENA BAER

Joe Kuosman likes to remind visitors to West Sixth Farm that “at the end of the day, beer is an agricultural product.”

He and his three partners at West Sixth Brewing have made it part of their mission not only to sell and distribute beer throughout Kentucky but also to teach about its production and demonstrate its agrarian roots. Te farm, located eight miles north of downtown Frankfort, fulflls that last part, drawing hundreds of visitors each month.

“Kentucky has more small-scale farmers than most anywhere else in the country,” said Kuosman. “It’s got this great agrarian history, and when it comes to beer, we wanted to show that. So we are growing some of the things we actually put into beer and demonstrating to people that beer comes from the earth.”

West Sixth Farm, opened in 2018, is 120 acres that combine hilly farmland with surrounding woodlands containing 4.5 miles of hiking and biking trails, the outside loops of which are open to the public from dawn until dusk. Te taproom days and hours vary seasonally, with the parking lots flling up quickly in the warmer months when the beer

West Sixth Farm offers an abundance of space for friends, families, and groups of all sizes to gather for a relaxing outing, business retreat or meeting, or a couple of hours off the beaten path.

Joe Kuosman, who owns West Sixth Brewing with three other partners, leads a monthly tour of the brewery’s farm. The tour covers the farm’s history, mission, and agrarian connections.Below, the Gilbert family enjoyed a relaxing afternoon this summer at West Sixth Farm.

begins to fow at noon on the weekends and on Tursday and Friday evenings. But the lots are much more likely to be flled with SUVs and minivans than sports cars and trucks.

Tough cold beer is defnitely a big draw, West Sixth has changed the brewery formula to make the farm a family-friendly community destination, including not requiring an entrance fee. Large picnic tables, clusters of Adirondack chairs, and a ton of green space allow patrons to easily fnd a space that fts their group, while those in search of solitude can wander of with a blanket to fnd some quiet under many of the big shady trees.

While adults commune, younger children gravitate toward a big trough flled with durable toys such as dump trucks, front loaders, soccer balls, and playhouses to fnd something to catch their interest, though for many, a bucket, a shovel, and the ubiquitous pea gravel seem to do the trick. Older kids play cornhole, scale monster truck tires, or challenge each other or their parents to an oversized game of Connect Four. Also, for those patrons who like to include their pups on outings, West Sixth Farm allows them to do just that. It’s not unusual to see three or four dogs lolling about with their owners.

Auburn, Alabama, resident Heather Clemons, who was visiting family in the area with her husband and two children, said they were thrilled to visit West Sixth Farm as part of their own tour of local

breweries and distilleries. “Not only can the parents come and hang out and have a beer, but there’s also something for the kids and lots of great outdoors space for them to run around. Tere’s also fshing and hot dogs. We went up to the bar and they said they had popsicles and ice cream for the kids. Most distilleries have water or Sprite. Tis space is so clearly built for families to visit. And it’s so picturesque.”

Visitors are also allowed to bring their own food but no outside alcohol.

Te West Sixth Cantina food truck basically lives at the farm, except when it travels for special events, and serves burritos, tacos, burgers, and the like.

On days it isn’t there, the farm tries to have another food vendor available, such as the hot dog cart owned by one of Clemons’ family members.

FUN ON TAP

In addition to hiking and biking trails, the farm also contains an 18-hole disc golf course that meanders across streams, into the woods, and over rolling hills. Te course is popular for both its beauty and technicality. Visitors also can enjoy those same views as they explore the property and check out the demonstration feld of hops trellises, the 20-variety apple orchard and blackberry bushes, a native wildfower prairie, and the soon-to-come giant sunfower garden and pumpkin patch.

Te property also has two ponds, including a fshing pond, which have been host to rock-skipping contests and fy-fshing lessons.

“We partner up with nonprofts each month as a fundraiser for them; the fyfshing lessons are an annual event,” said farm manager Norm Stark. “When West Sixth got started that was their mission: to make the best beer in Kentucky, start a beer community, and give back to the community.”

Clockwise from left, children are not only allowed but also welcomed at West Sixth Farm, where they will fnd toys, games, and ice cream in the taproom. West Sixth Farm prides itself on being an inclusive community. Visitors can walk the 120-acre property and visit the hops trellises along the way.

RENA

FUN ON TAP

Most of these partnerships come from members of the community approaching West Sixth rather than the other way around, said Kuosman. Tere’s been yoga with baby Nigerian dwarf goats milling about, group hikes, runs, and bicycle rides. Te farm also conducts tours on the frst Saturday of each month, usually led by the farm manager, who lives on the property, but sometimes by one of the owners. Tese informative tours start in the taproom with some background about West Sixth Farm. Kuosman said he and his partners — Brady Barlow, Robin Sither, and Ben

‘‘

WE ARE … DEMONSTRATING TO PEOPLE THAT BEER COMES FROM THE EARTH.”

—co-owner Joe Kuosman

Self — started thinking about adding a demonstration farm afer opening their craf brewery in Lexington in 2012. With their two biggest markets being Lexington and Louisville, where they also now have

Clockwise from top, Heather Clemons of Auburn, Alabama, enjoys a beer while her kids play nearby. West Sixth Farm goats keep grass and invasive species at bay. The farm hosted fy fshing lessons as part of a nonproft fundraiser.

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FUN ON TAP

a brewery, the partners looked for something in between.

“We searched for about two years, and the thing is, Kentucky has some amazing pieces of property, but they’re all back in the sticks,” he said. “We went to Woodford County; we looked at Shelby County, Anderson County, and we found these amazing pieces of property, but they were all down little one-lane roads and 25 minutes of of the highway.”

Kuosman said they were searching for something more accessible that could be a more mixed-use property and also be used to host events like weddings and business retreats. “We came to this spot one morning, and by that afernoon we made an ofer on it and closed by the end of the day. So it was one of those things where when we saw it, we knew it was the right place. Tough it’s come a long ways since we bought it.”

Te partners and employees have put a lot of work into the farm.

“Anybody that works for me knows I’m as cheap as they come, and if we can do it ourselves, we’re going to do it ourselves,” Kuosman said. “Almost everything around here, except for the construction of the taproom, we did ourselves. All the hops poles up on the hillside we did ourselves; we installed all the fencing around the front 40 acres of the property. Tat’s a lot of work. And being from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, I have a whole new respect for anybody that does farming for a living.”

Te reward, Kuosman said, is seeing people come out, enjoy the property like they would a park, and hopefully have a cold beer or take home a six-pack or two along with a lesson on how those products connect to the land.

“As far as what we grow here to go into our beers, I equate it very much like a

In addition to an apple orchard, blackberry bushes, and hops, West Sixth Farm has planted a feld of giant sunfowers to bloom in late summer or early fall.

Below, cornhole is popular with visitors to the farm.

winery,” he said. “If you go to a winery in Kentucky, I almost guarantee you that what you drink is not grown in Kentucky, but it’s more about the experience.”

West Sixth Farm grows a small plot of

Cascade and Chinook variety hops, which they do use in their beer. Tey also grow apple trees for cider and blackberries for their “estate beers.”

Tough the farm produce accounts for only a small fraction of their ingredients, it’s enough to highlight that beer comes from the earth, Kuosman reiterated.

Te monthly tours ofer more in-depth information about the production process and how their beer is mostly sourced from ingredients shipped from other places with more suitable growing conditions.

“Ryan Quarles, the [former] ag commissioner for Kentucky, really tried to do a big push and get more acres on growing hops and trying to incentivize farmers to do it,” said Kuosman. “What we realized is they just don’t grow that well here. Tere’s certain varieties that grow fne, but they’re nothing like the ones out in the Pacifc

Northwest, in the high desert.”

Te tour also captures some of the land’s history, which predates the Revolutionary War, as evidenced by an old graveyard discovered at the back of the property. “Tere must’ve been a church down there because there’s probably about 120 to 150 graves. Tere’s a lot of history and a lot of stone walls. And if you walk the perimeter of the property, almost all of it lies exactly along where these stone walls are, so it’s pretty cool. But when we frst got the old deed, it was interesting because it wasn’t like, OK, go this many degrees to this marker, that marker. It was like, go to this old walnut tree and make a right. It was just completely descriptive.”

Te same could be said about West Sixth Farm today: Turn right of of Shadrick Ferry Road and you’ll fnd a small slice of heaven and lots of beer. KM

» For more information aboutWest Sixth Farm, visit westsixth.com/farm.

108 Court Street, Versailles, KY

TURN RIGHT when you leave

CELEBRATING KENTUCKY’S FOOD

CULTURE

Ouita Michel embraces “third act” of her storied culinary career

By Photos

By Jacalyn Carfagno

Photos by Mark Mahan

PPOUNDING AWAY WITH a pestle at the tapenade taking shape in her mortar, Ouita Michel was at home in her kitchen. Tis particular kitchen is in the Versailles, Kentucky, storefront Holly Hill and Co. that opened last year, and Michel was teaching a class inspired by legendary chef Jacques Pepin.

Te evening had some of the trappings of a traditional cooking lesson: a ceiling-mounted camera provided a bird’s-eye view as Michel and Tyler McNabb, Holly Hill and Co.’s culinary director and executive chef, worked and narrated, shared tricks of the trade, and laughed at their mishaps. (“Tis is so much better than last time,” Michel said when she tasted the tapenade). Michel explained to her happy audience that it wasn’t an ordinary class with recipes (although there were some) and rules (not many) but rather a journey through “the stories that form our food culture.”

Sharing those stories, particularly of the Kentucky food culture she has studied and practiced for decades, is increasingly Michel’s mission in life.

Approaching 60, she sees the years ahead as her “third act,” the phase in which she savors the themes she’s explored and shares them with the world. Although she’ll always be a chef, she said, “mentor, teacher, ambassador, community member, that’s the role that I’m in now.”

More than teaching a cooking class, Michel shares stories about food culture.

FINDING A PATH FORWARD

For most people, the COVID-19 pandemic was a difcult, introspective time. Michel was no exception. In her second act, the three decades since she returned to Kentucky afer working and attending culinary school in New York, Michel and her husband, Chris, built what is now known as Holly Hill and Co. Tey oversee fve restaurants, a bar, a bakery, an events company, the Versailles storefront, and an online sales operation.

All they had worked for was threatened by the pandemic. Tose were, Ouita Michel said, “the hardest years of my career,” as she, Chris, and a core group of managers fought to salvage what they’d built. “We were just putting out fres everywhere we could to try to keep the restaurants operating.”

When the federal pandemic relief money came through, “we used every drop to pay our people and stay open … otherwise we would have gone bankrupt.”

Among all that disruption, stress, and hard labor, she also worried about the path forward. Toughts were “fying around in a tornado — the restaurants, my whole career — what did it mean? — stoves, deep fryers, spaghetti.” Michel laughed as she described the whirlwind storming through her thoughts. But it was not funny when she concluded that without targeted eforts to save it, “a lot of the food culture that I have grown and known and loved was going to be lost.”

And thus began the third act.

It’s not exactly as if Ouita Michel has never been recognized, or spread her message, outside Kentucky. She’s been a James Beard Foundation award nominee many times and is an alumnus of the foundation’s Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change; she’s been a judge on “Top Chef”; she and her restaurants have been featured in a host of national food publications and in places like Forbes; she’s a member of the Eastern Kentucky Business Advisory Council for the

Ouita Michel conducts a cooking class with Tyler McNabb, Holly Hill and Co. culinary director and executive chef, in downtown Versailles.

In addition to hosting cooking classes, the Versailles store offers Holly Hill merchandise and other Kentucky products to walk-in customers as well as shipping for online buyers.

CELEBRATING KENTUCKY’S FOOD

CULTURE

Federal Reserve of Cleveland; and she has been active with the International Society of Neurogastronomy for over a decade.

Now, she is also a true ambassador afer her appointment in February 2023 to the U.S. State Department’s Global Culinary Ambassador Corps.

But as Michel contemplated the path forward during the dark days of the pandemic, she knew that regardless of her personal renown, national media weren’t breaking down the door to tell Kentucky’s story. “Tey’re not going to. We are in Central Kentucky; we don’t have PR companies in Manhattan.”

She decided it was time “to start telling our own stories as much as we possibly can,” a resolve that has played out in several ways.

Her company, once called Te Ouita Michel Family of Restaurants (“I always hated that”) has been rebranded as Holly Hill and Co. Te new website goes beyond promoting their properties to tell stories of the farmers who supply them, the people who staf them, and those who have inspired some of their dishes and drinks.

Michel also collaborated with flmmaker and Kentucky native Harrison Witt to make six short videos the website describes as “a love letter to restaurants, farmers, chefs, artists, and everyone else who’s part of our state’s rich culinary tradition.”

But she was far from done.

SEEKING TO SHARE STORIES

Seeing video as a way to tell Kentucky’s complex story to a wider audience, she has partnered with Macaroni Art Productions, based in Los Angeles and Midway (where cofounder Steve Zahn lives a few miles from Holly Hill Inn) for a series titled “You Belong Here.” Michel and the crew traveled

Visitors to Holly Hill and Co. in Versailles will fnd specialty teas, candy and cookies from the company’s Midway Bakery & Cafe, and gifts.

The store carries Michel’s book, “A Few Miles South,” which contains recipes of popular dishes from her various restaurants.

Below, the shop also features folk art and other Kentucky products.

CELEBRATING KENTUCKY’S FOOD CULTURE

Michel’s commitment to sourcing local food is evident at Holly Hill Inn, where head gardener David Wagoner oversees ever-expanding vegetable and fower beds. The garden’s bounty supplies Michel’s restaurants.

FROM GARDEN TO TABLE

On a bright late June morning after an overnight rain, bird song flls the gardens at Holly Hill Inn.

DavidWagoner, head of Holly Hill’s EarthWorks gardeners, casts a keen eye on the herb garden that recreates, more or less, a formal garden that existed behind the inn several generations back.

“This is newly recreated from scratch last October,” Wagoner said, surveying the array of herbs (seven varieties of basil alone), fowers, and decorative hyacinth beans. Peonies, now past blooming, fank a sundial with a grist millstone as its face. Near the sundial are the four herbs that compose Holly Hill’s logo, Ouita Michel explained. Parsley represents cleansing of bitterness; thyme for strength; rosemary for fdelity, love, and remembrance; and sage for, of course, wisdom.

So, when, asWagoner says, “we hit this bump in the road” in 2020, they turned to the soil.

The relationship between Michel and Wagoner goes back well before he started developing the gardens at Holly Hill. For years, Michel’s restaurants bought vegetables grown byWagoner and his wife, Arwen Donahue, on theirThree Springs Farm in Nicholas County.When Michel’s Honeywood restaurant opened, they agreedThree Springs’ whole crop would go there. And when 2020 hit, “we dove into all this gardening,” Michel said.

Wagoner’s plan included decorative perennial beds in the shady front of the historic inn with herbs and vegetables in the sunny area behind. Last year they went deep into expanding that area, digging new lines from an existing well, and fencing in a large garden plot at the back of the property.

too, this year, andWagoner obliged, taking his tiller to plant tomatoes, summer squash, “and a few other things.”)

The goal is to add about 20% to the gardens each year, reducing mowing and increasing growing.

After years of growing vegetables an hour’s drive from his customers,Wagoner is thrilled to develop beds people can see daily. It doesn’t matter that he’s often long gone when guests tour the gardens. “I don’t need to be here when they’re seeing it, but I love it that it’s being seen.”

That hit home last October on a day he was tilling up lawn for the herb garden. It was a busy day with a flm crew on-site. Catching a moment Michel askedWagoner if he was having fun. He said sure, he was having fun but then thought about it a little bit more.

“I didn’t say it at the moment, but I realized I’m having the time of my life.”

The ever-expanding gardens at Holly Hill are a natural outgrowth of Michel’s commitment to sourcing as much local food as possible. Plus, she said, during the dark days of the pandemic, planning for and working in the gardens “was an exercise in stress management.”

Both Michel andWagoner are excited that the carbon footprint for transporting herbs and vegetables from soil to kitchen has shrunk to zero, except for the overfow that’s sent off to Michel’sWallace Station restaurant down the road. (The manager there asked for a garden,

» Holly Hill Inn offers garden tours with fresh-grown snacks and cocktails twice a week during the summer, and other garden events. More information about them, as well as Wagoner’s drawing of his plan for the gardens, can be found at hollyhillinn.com/ our-gardens.

CELEBRATING KENTUCKY’S FOOD CULTURE

to Maysville to talk with Babz Goldman Nartowicz at her Babz Bistro, across the state to Paducah to interview Sara Bradley at Freight House, and back east to Corbin to check out Kristin Smith’s Wrigley Taproom with a stop in Berea on the way to sample Katie and Michael Startzman’s oferings at Native Bagel.

Michel loved her role as ambassador, introducing the crew to Kentucky and its food. “Working with them has been … absolutely joyful. It’s really fun to show them the things that I love about Central Kentucky’s food culture.”

Now, with one season of fve shows and the sizzle reel completed, Macaroni is shopping the show to fnd a wide audience for these Kentucky cooks and their stories with hopes of a 2025 release.

Edward Lee, Kentucky’s only other member of the Culinary Corps, calls Michel

“the queen of Kentucky food.” Lee said he believes that Kentucky, long overlooked, may be having a moment as bourbon pushes it into the national and international food and drink consciousness. For him, Michel is the perfect person to take Kentucky’s foodways to the world. “She’s kind of like an encyclopedia for Kentucky history,” he said, describing her as deeply familiar with its culinary traditions. “She revives them and makes them cool, makes them relevant … so that those foods and those traditions and those stories don’t get forgotten.” With the spotlight on Kentucky, she’s representing the state “brilliantly,” he said.

MADAME AMBASSADOR

Michel’s brilliance was called on for her frst gig as a culinary ambassador, in Bahrain in August. Her schedule included a week teaching 25 young students about

Southern, and specifcally Kentucky, cooking, as well as talking about the food business and how she got started. For the fnal class they planned to prepare a meal for the U.S. ambassador. She’ll also carry her message to the wider world next year when the Jacques Pepin Foundation will feature a video of her cooking a favorite dish as part of a series that includes famous chefs like Tomas Keller and Daniel Boulud.

At home in Midway, Michel remains deeply rooted in her commitment to her community and her businesses as she reaches out to larger audiences.

She has been on the board of Food Chain, a local nonproft focused on addressing food insecurity, since it was founded and has recently become cochair. Te organization’s Nourish Kentucky initiative has, with the help of many partners including the Keeneland Foundation, provided over a

A practiced public speaker, Michel receives warm applause from cooking class participants. Recently appointed to the U.S. State Department’s Global Culinary Ambassador Corps, Michel will have the chance to promote Kentucky food culture beyond the state.

CELEBRATING KENTUCKY’S FOOD

CULTURE

million nutritious meals, ofen using local ingredients, to people who might otherwise go hungry.

She has lobbied Congress for money in the farm bill to help local, smaller scale producers and to feed hungry people. To her, this work is a natural extension of her life as a chef. “If you’re a chef and you’re not thinking about food insecurity, you’re not thinking,” she said.

Michel also speaks regularly, as ofen as twice a week, in Central Kentucky to classes, in seminars, and on panels about her experiences, the challenges and rewards of committing to buying locally sourced ingredients, and of the cultural wealth she fnds in Kentucky.

Kentucky, she said, “is a complicated place, and it’s rich in that way.”

It’s that richness Michel wants to communicate to the world in her third act.

“I have a dream of cooking a Kentucky meal in Italy,” at Slow Food’s biannual international gathering there. It’s a natural ft, she said, “because the cuisine is so related in so many ways … the pork, the greens, the polenta, the use of corn.”

And she wants to assemble a group of Kentucky chefs — she calls it the “family band” — and take it on the road to spread the good news of Bluegrass cuisine. “I think that’d be fun.”

From the pain, stress, and fear of the pandemic, Michel has emerged to tell the story of her home, this rich, complicated place of Kentucky in any way she can. “I feel that’s very lucky, at 60, to be looking at the future with all this potential in it,” she said.

“Whatever small, tiny light we have, we’re going to shine it.” KM

As she begins what she calls her third act, Michel is excited about sharing the rich and complicated story of Kentucky food and culture.

From top, the Holly Hill and Co. family of restaurants includes Smithtown, Holly Hill Inn, Wallace Station, and Windy Corner.

RESILIENT

The Life Adventure Center uses outdoor experiences to foster resilience in lives affected by trauma

By William Bowden

Photos by Arden Barnes

BY NATURE

Equine Director Lauren Burke leads a trail ride, one of the center’s traditional camping activities.

Making a Difference A

typical summer’s day at the Life Adventure Center in Woodford County near Versailles fnds children enjoying such traditional camp activities as canoeing, horseback riding, and archery. More adventurous pursuits include high ropes exercises and scaling a 35-foothigh rock-climbing wall.

Behind all this fun lies a serious purpose: using these outdoor events, coupled with self-refection, to foster resilience in people afected by trauma. Childhood experiences creating adverse efects might include witnessing domestic violence, being bullied at school, or sufering physical and emotional neglect.

Julie Breitigan, LAC executive director, sees situations every day where the center’s supportive programs have opened the door for children and adults alike to build resilience. One recent example involved a young boy in the Woodford County Public Schools who had frustration and other behavioral issues brought about by trauma.

“He had been here many times and struggled with our rock-climbing wall, one of the physical challenges we use to help develop a sense of confdence,” Breitigan recalled. “He always asked to be lowered down afer climbing part way up and becoming too scared to continue. On the last day of camp, he came back and climbed right up to the top, then spun down the zip line as if it were no big deal. Tat was a huge feat for him.”

Life Adventure Center Executive Director Julie Breitigan, right, and Program Director Megan Patrick encourage camper Sofa, below, as she scales the rock-climbing wall.

Making a Difference

Clockwise from above, Executive Director Julie Breitigan, Program Director Megan Patrick, and Equine Director Lauren Burke bring commitment and compassion to their roles at the Life Adventure Center.

Te LAC uses a variety of such outdoor adventure experiences to allow participants to unlock inner resilience. Te confdence gained through a physical accomplishment can lead directly to emotional and psychological progress at overcoming the harmful efects of trauma.

“Trauma in real life is unpredictable, and it triggers a stress response like fear or anxiety,” Breitigan said. “We normalize stress by creating controlled situations in a safe and predictable way so they know what’s coming. We know they will experience stress again afer they leave here, but hopefully they will have developed the resilience to deal with problems and challenges in their lives.”

Te organization’s tagline — Resilient by Nature — captures both the belief in the natural resiliency of people and the role of purposeful outdoor adventure in fostering that quality. As Breitigan puts it, “Te antidote to adverse childhood experiences is positive childhood experiences.”

A refection activity follows each event to encourage participants to consider what they learned about themselves. Further, each group collaborates on an artwork project that is a representation of their time at the LAC. Tese colorful canvases are displayed in the assembly building for staf and future participants to appreciate.

A BEAUTIFUL SETTING

Te LAC occupies 575 acres of gently rolling farmland in the heart of Central Kentucky’s Bluegrass region. Tere are fve natural ponds for canoeing and swimming and woodland trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Facilities include an equine arena, assembly building, pavilion, a stone labyrinth, a bunkhouse for 42 campers, three cabins that each sleep 10, and a full-service kitchen.

Most people come to the LAC in a group through their afliation with an organization dealing with trauma in some way, such as Bluegrass Care Navigators (bereavement), New Vista (substance abuse recovery), or GreenHouse 17 (domestic violence survivors). Also, individuals can sign up for open enrollment sessions. During fscal year 2023 the center served 3,572 participants.

Succeeding in outdoor adventures such as rock climbing can help participants gain confdence and build resilience.

Te Lexington Cancer Foundation, Inc. would like to thank our generous sponsors.

Your support impacts our mission to improve the lives of cancer patients and their families.

www.lexingtoncancerfoundation.org

Making a Difference

In her role as LAC program director, Megan Patrick is skilled at working with these organizations to fnd the best experiences for their particular populations. For example, with Bluegrass Care Navigators she found that the giant swing can be helpful for those grieving over the loss of a sibling or parent. Camp Hope is the name given to this program.

Participants in a safety harness and helmet climb an eight-foot ladder, are lifed up by rope and pulley by members of their group as high as they want to go, perhaps 20 feet of the ground, and pulled back. Tey are encouraged to think about something in their lives they want to let go of, then they release a tether to begin the dramatic, long-arc swinging.

“We ask them if there is something in their lives holding them back that they need to be rid of to be a better version of themselves,” Patrick said. “As they loosen the tether, it becomes a beautiful metaphor for change. I have many recollections of seeing the diference in their lives through their energy and the smiles on their faces.”

Amachi Mentoring Initiative, a component of the faith-based Lexington Leadership Foundation, deals with children sufering trauma due to parental incarceration. Tey ofer one-on-one mentoring for the children and have worked with the LAC for 11 years.

“I think the LAC does a wonderful job of ofering our mentees a safe, beautiful space where they can challenge themselves and grow

from those experiences,” said Maggie Middleton, Amachi program director.

As an example, she cited the case of one of her girls who, like the boy from Woodford County Schools, was at frst intimidated by the rock-climbing wall, but she eventually overcame her fear and made it to the top.

“It became overwhelming to her, and she was crying, ‘I can’t do it.’ One of our staf members started climbing beside her, saying, ‘How about if I climb it with you?’ She got to the top and then did the zip line down. Sometimes we just need that encouraging voice.”

Middleton thinks that scenario perfectly illustrates the LAC approach to unlocking resilience. “When our kids can challenge themselves in that way, I think their success can translate to other parts of their lives. Tat child can say to herself, ‘If I can get up this big, scary wall, what else can I overcome in my actual life?’ ”

Most of the LAC participants (74% in fscal 2023) are youth ages 6-17, but adults also can beneft from the center’s programs. An example was a group from Refuge for Women, which supports victims of human trafcking or sexual exploitation. During a weekend retreat they did an exercise known as “kintsugi,” the Japanese art of making broken things beautiful again.

Sebastian experiences the thrill of the giant swing while safely harnessed and outftted.

Patrick helps camper Sebastian prepare for the giant swing.

Making a Difference

“Tey took a pot or cup covered with a cloth and smashed it with a rock or hammer, representing what was done to them and the cloth [represented] the support they receive here,” Patrick said. “Ten they glued the pieces back together, suggesting their healing. I remember one woman could not get every piece back in place. She told me, ‘Tis cup still has a hole in it, and so do I. But when I turn it this way you can’t see the hole, and I can focus on the beauty.’ She learned it did not have to be perfect to be good.”

A SUPPORTIVE ROLE

Participants coming to the LAC are not required to share the specifcs of their trauma experience, even though the organization they afliate with may identify a general category. For Breitigan and her staf, this frees them from having to dwell on the negatives of the trauma and lets them focus instead on the positives of confdence and resilience building.

Participants can enjoy swimming and canoeing.

“It’s one of the true joys of working here,” Breitigan said. “I don’t have to defne them as their trauma stories, by something that happened to them that was out of their control. We accept them as they are.”

In the cases of the boy and girl at the rock-climbing wall, for instance, staf members could celebrate the fact that both found something within themselves that let them unlock the confdence to scale the wall and create resilience.

“Trauma is such a disempowering experience, leaving you doubting your abilities, which can become a self-fulflling prophecy,” Breitigan said. “We create situations where people can feel empowered again. Te more practice you have in being confdent here, the more you can rely on that outside of here.”

In following this model of experiential learning and selfdiscovery, the LAC staf takes a “trauma informed” approach as outlined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency of the federal government. Among the principles are safety (paramount in all LAC activities), trustworthiness, peer support, empowerment, and voice.

NOT JUST HORSING AROUND

You spot them here and there as you drive onto the scenic grounds of the LAC. Te horses are lazily grazing in well-kept pastures, ambling over toward the fence to have a friendly look at any newcomer who happens by. But similar to other elements of the

LAC experience, their casual appearance belies the fact they play a serious and very extensive role in resilience building by ofering participants both fun and the chance to challenge themselves in uniquely equine ways.

Trail riding across the felds and along woodland paths gives many participants their frst taste of being on horseback. In the equine arena, the sport of equestrian vaulting — basically gymnastics on a moving horse — lets them try out mildly acrobatic skills as they strike various poses on the back of a gently ambling horse

being led about the arena. Tey prepare for this by practicing on a wooden “barrel” horse.

Lauren Burke, LAC equine director, is responsible for the center’s herd of about 15 horses and their use at the center. She explains that the children’s encounter with the horses begins long before they climb aboard for riding or vaulting. Many have never been around a horse before.

“We frst let them observe the horses loose in the arena, a kind of meet-and-greet event. As they become comfortable with being near a horse and interacting with them, they learn grooming, leading, tacking up. Tey may think, ‘Tis big creature is responding to my presence.’ All of this is empowering for the child.”

Trail riding is an excellent opportunity to get children thinking about the mind/body connection important to dealing with stress. Feeling a large animal moving underneath you can be unsettling for new riders. Tey become aware of how they feel about the horse’s movements and response to commands.

activity.

Burke said, “Tey may ask themselves, ‘How does the horse feel as he’s walking, how can I relax into the walking rhythm and partner with the horse?’ It’s a learning experience for them.”

Back in the arena, they take part in what Burke calls “adaptive vaulting,” a milder form of the highly acrobatic skills of advanced

CIRCLE

Mountain biking on woodland trails is another inviting outdoor

Making a Difference

LIFE ADVENTURE CENTER PARTNERS WITH KEENELAND

The Life Adventure Center has partnered with Keeneland to provide horses for such community events as the Fifth Grade FieldTrips, Breakfast at theTrack, and the recent Leadership Lexington Equine Day hosted by Keeneland in conjunction with Godolphin Flying Start students.

The Leadership Lexington class participated in a mockThoroughbred auction that had its members playing roles as consignors and buyers who inspected and showed horses before bringing them into the sales pavilion ring to be “sold.”

“Keeneland aims to foster a love for the horse and the sport through a physical connection with the horse, and the Life Adventure Center has been instrumental in helping us achieve that goal,” said Kara Heissenbuttel, senior director of community relations at Keeneland.

“These events at Keeneland have given more than 2,000 people the opportunity to pet a horse, many for the frst time,” she continued. “The Life Adventure Center horses are well trained and well cared for, and suitable for engaging with people, especially children.Their team has been wonderful to work with.”

—By Amy Gregory, Keeneland director of communications

TAKE ONTHE CHALLENGE

Would you like to sample some of the Life Adventure Center features that youth and adults use to foster resilience?The Extreme Adventure Challenge, a 5.5-mile fundraising run for teams of four, provides that opportunity.

Teams run and touch base at eight checkpoints, where they complete such activities as canoeing, mountain biking through the woodlands, archery, and fre-starting.The frst challenge run took place in March, and the second iteration of what is planned as an annual event will occur this coming May.

The LAC is a 501(c)(3) nonproft organization that relies on an endowment from the John Cleveland Foundation for its funding, along with grants, private donations, and a limited amount of program service fees.The center is able to subsidize in whole or in part every nonproft and school group it works with.

» For information on signing up for the Challenge run, visit runsignup.com/KY/Versailles/ExtremeAdventureChallenge

Artwork created by campers adorns a wall in the assembly building and refects the meaning of their LAC experience.

vaulters. Te children are assuming various poses — up on one knee, arms extended, reaching up dramatically — while the horse is controlled and led about at a slow pace. In lieu of a saddle, they sit atop a large pad with handles on either side.

“We take the sport of vaulting and adapt it to make it safe and empowering,” Burke said. “Again, it’s the mind/body connection. ‘How do I feel when riding without my hands on the handles, closing my eyes for a few seconds? How can I partner with the horse and notice how he’s feeling?’ ”

Te therapeutic value of interaction with a horse is a concept well known to Amy M. Gill, an equine nutritionist with a Ph.D. in equine nutrition and exercise physiology. It’s what prompted her to donate a horse to the LAC for use in its equine programs. Gill is the owner of Equi-Force Equine Products, a Lexington frm that provides nutritional supplements to the horse industry.

“In New York, where I grew up, I was able to experience the profound positive efects that putting people with physical or mental problems on horses and teaching them to ride had on their outlook,” Gill said. “I was very moved by it and have stayed involved in various therapeutic riding programs wherever I’ve lived.”

Te Appaloosa she donated is named Caesar. “Tis breed of horse has the right temperament to be patient and less reactive to diferent stimuli,” she explained. A previous horse she donated — named Mason — died at 30 afer serving the LAC for several years.

AN IMPRESSIVE HERITAGE

Te Life Adventure Center was founded in 2005 and will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year, but its impressive heritage extends back to just afer the end of the Civil War. Tat’s when John Cleveland established Te Cleveland Home for female orphans in Versailles. He also willed his estate to its success.

In the 1970s a group of community leaders, led by Ross and Cathie Brown and their children, established Life Adventure

Camp in Estill County to work with behaviorally challenged youth. Tis organization merged with Te Cleveland Home in 2005 to form the LAC.

Today, LAC board member Roger Brown, along with his parents, Ross (board member emeritus) and Cathie Brown, provides a living link to that approximately 160-year-old heritage. He sees part of his role on the board as keeping that tradition alive for his generation.

“I think it’s reassuring to others to know that our legacy goes back as far as it does,” said Brown, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “I take it as a big responsibility to use this historical knowledge to improve and guide LAC today.”

Shannon Stuart-Smith, a retired attorney, is in her second term as president of the LAC board. She has a deep appreciation

for the history of the LAC.

“It’s why I fell in love with this organization,” she said. “To think of this gentleman farmer 160 years ago bequeathing his assets to help orphan women, and how that original efort has evolved over the decades with a constant core mission of helping those in need, is truly inspiring.”

Stuart-Smith especially values the many relationships the LAC has with other agencies that provide most of the participants for the center.

“We consider them partner agencies and we love that they bring their populations out here to access our programming, as opposed to our having to search for and invite individuals to the LAC. We feel like we’re leveraging our programming to larger numbers that way.”

A SPECIAL PLACE

As someone who has worked with the LAC for many years, Middleton has seen great benefts accrue to her population of children dealing with the trauma of having an incarcerated parent. Her thoughts surely echo the feelings of many other LAC partner organizations.

“When our mentees can challenge themselves in this safe and beautiful space and gain a sense of accomplishment, that becomes a useful guidepost for us as mentors to point back to and say, ‘Hey, do you remember how you did this really hard thing?’

“Te LAC can ofer a perspective that we cannot create. Tis camp atmosphere is the perfect place to remind our mentees of the truth of who they really are. I think there’s something very special that happens in this outdoor setting.” KM

» For more information visit lifeadventurecenter.org

Camper Clarissa participates in a vaulting session.

A labyrinth, which sits at the highest point of the center, is used as a way to quiet the mind, calm anxieties, and recover balance in life.

BUILD A GREATER LEXINGTON.

Fund for Greater Lexington co-chairs (from left) Wes and Anne Murry, Noa Gimelli and Headley Butler