If there is one thing that I do enjoy here in Kentucky, it would most definitely be the horses. I was thinking the other day about visitors who come to Central Kentucky and what they have to say about this place. They all seem to say the same things, "Its so green, and its so pretty, everything looks so clean."
I guess I never noticed how green things are until Friday when we pulled up in the parking spaces provided in gate 1, I parked way up on a hill, below in front of us was the Thoroughbred racing track, and surrounding that track it seemed were miles of trees and grass in every direction that you turned.
It took me that long to realize something that has been in front of my face for over 15 years now. It is very green here, everything is. There is more grass and trees here than concrete and asphalt. That is a wonderful thing. Less housing developments, less buildings, less of all kinds of things that cause congestion and the build up of garbage.
Back to the track, Keeneland has to be -- hands down -- the most beautiful racing track here in the United States. The track itself is very old, most of the buildings are of English architecture, mostly stone. Our stone fences here are protected and are not to be torn down which just adds to the scenery here. They have updated and improved many things at the track and still it looks very old, you feel as though you've stepped back in time when you arrive inside the gates. You just have to be there to get the full experience of it, it is surrounded by these very large & old trees, lots of vines trail up several of the buildings, everything is trimmed to perfection. But the main event is the horses they are the stars, they are groomed and polished, it almost seems that they even sparkle. When they bring them out before the race that is when my daughter & I were able to get a closer look at them, she did the picking - and she did good. If only we had bet on each of the races that she picked the winners we would have walked away with some serious cash.
We bet only 1 race, picked 2 horses, 1 to win the other to show. I picked mine which the jockey was Calvin Borel who was the winning jockey of the 2009 Kentucky Derby he was to ride a beautiful grey dappled horse, and my daughter picked a similar horse we bet on him to place. We placed out bets then walked to the rail to watch. It was raining opening day and the temperature was only about 57 degrees. The pressure builds as they set them in the gate and then, you hear the bell go off, and they're off! People are yelling, but when those horses hit that halfway mark the crowd goes wild, I get goosebumps from all of the excitement its tense everyone now yelling at the horses, screaming their horses number shaking their fists into the air like that's going to make the horse run faster. As those 12 horses make their turn into the final stretch I'm snapping photo's as fast as my camera can go. My daughter is yelling, "Come on number 9!" I can see my horse and it doesn't look good. At the end of that race my horse came in dead last, and her horse came in third. Cashed in my little $2 bet and walked away with $6.80, not bad - at least I got my money back. We had such a good time there in the 3-1/2 hours we were there and really would like to go back. The meet is until the 31st of this month I believe. As long as its not snowing I'm pretty sure we'll be there again.
Enjoy the photo's!
..
..
Tags: keeneland, thorobred horses, horse, kentucky, race track
