Keeneland

Last weekend, Mike and I left work early on Friday and we were off to Kentucky. Let me just say that I love Kentucky. It really is a beautiful state. I love all the horses and the horse farms. People love to tell you that some Shak has a house and horses there. Someone told us that Queen Elizabeth has a house there and that she keeps her brood mare there as well. We went to pick up a motorcycle (surprise, surprise). We got it Friday night so we were able to ride it around a bit on Saturday morning. We just explored some back roads around the Frankfurt area. It was a bit chilly but the scenery was worth it.

It just so happened that it was the last weekend of horse racing at Keeneland. We'd never been to a horse race before. We do love some dog racing, so we figured we'd like the horse racing too. It goes without saying that horse racing is a much more refined sport than the dog racing. The race track at Keeneland puts the dog track in the parking lot of the Daytona Speedway to shame. We didn't know what to expect. There were a lot of people there. Some were dressed like us (in jeans) and then others were dressed up fancy.

This is the outside of the track.


This is the inside of the track. We paid a little extra to get a reserved seat. You could stand down by the rails but you really couldn't see too good. We had a good view of the entire track, the finish line and the tote board (so we could watch the money roll in). Just like the dogs, you can place $2 bets. We started off strong (beginners luck).

Notice how you can see the horse farms in the background.

These are the race horses being led to the starting gate.

And they're off....

We had fun watching the races. Our only complaint is that it took too long between races. There was about 30 minutes between races. So, you'd have about 2 minutes of racing and then 30 minutes of down time. During that down time, we'd walk down to see the horses that were about to race.


They'd walk them around these old oak trees. You could look at the horses and pick out the winner before you place your bet. If you were someone of importance, you could be inside that area and be up close and personal with the horses.

Then the jockeys would mount the horse and walk past the crowd, under the seats, and out onto the track.

We left before the last races but it was definitely worth doing.