Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Keeneland

Lexington has two race tracks for horses and the older historical one is Keeneland. We went there two weeks ago for the opening weekend of the fall meet! (It's a way big deal here in horse county.) It was really cool because they let you walk around the stables and see all the horses getting ready for the races. There are tons of stables. Like as far as the eye can see! It was nuts. We got this picture before our camera died. :( We learned a lot about horse racing while we were at the track.
1. Race horses get new shoes every 25 days and it takes 3 people to change them. We saw a horse names California Suffer getting new shoes. It was pretty cool.
2. The dirt is not real dirt. It's poly fiber something. It looks like shredded cardboard with wax bits in it and they lay 10 inches of it over the dirt.
3. Horse races take forever. The horses run however many furlongs they have to and then 4 tractors plow the track. It's about 10 minutes between every 35 second horse race.
4. Getting in the race cost only 3 dollars! but everyone dresses up like its homecoming or something. Us Utah farmers (as dad says) had no idea that horse races were a social drinking event for the rich and famous.
5. You can bet as little as .10 cents on a horse. Doesn't seem worth it to me but I guess if it only cost 3 dollars to get in they try to keep the bidding affordable too.

We are planning to go back to Keeneland this Saturday for "breakfast at the works". It's all you can eat breakfast for 5 dollars while you get to watch the horses getting their morning workouts! Sounds good to me. We'll take batteries this time so you can see how cool the track is.
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3 comments:

Lil Lancaster Fam said...

That sounds fun! Anna is crying right now because she wants me to go back to the horse picture. Make sure to post some horse pictures for her after your breakfast deal.

*rOcKiN rIcHiNs* said...

Looks like fun! Reminds me of 'My Fair Lady' have you seen it? Any who...

Susie said...

Ooh, I am so jealous! I only got to go to Churchill Downs once when I lived there, and we never did go to Lexington. I wanted to see the Kentucky Horse Park. I was such a horse nut then!
I bet my boys would be nuts about the horse picture, too, but they're playing with my parents right now. I'll have to show them later.