Queen Elizabeth II, with William Farish III on Oct. 9, 1984, inspected mares at Farish’s Lane’s End Farm in Woodford County. The queen, on a six-day visit to the Bluegrass, toured several horse farms and presented a silver Georgian trophy to the winner of a new Keeneland race named in her honor: the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. Photo by David Perry | Staff
Jockey Don Brumfield looked toward the tote board while leaving the winner’s circle after riding Free Force to victory in The Big Sink stakes at Keeneland Race Course on Oct. 10, 1984. Brumfield won his 16th and final title as the leading jockey at Keeneland. During his 35-year career, Brumfield won 4,573 races in 33,222 rides. He retired from racing in 1989. He rode Kauai King to victory in the 1966 Kentucky Derby. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1996. Ron Garrison | Staff
Horse racing analyst, race caller and television broadcaster Mike Battaglia on Derby Day, May 7, 1988, at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Battaglia has set the morning-line odds at Churchill since 1974, and he was the race announcer from 1977 to 1996. Battaglia also is Keeneland’s longtime oddsmaker and is recognized as one of the best handicappers in America. He also is a racing analyst for NBC’s Thoroughbred racing coverage. At the time of this picture, he was 38. Photo by Jim Jennings | Staff
Oil Painting, with Al Popara up, the less-fancied of Mrs. J.A. Goodwin’s two-horse entry, won the $33,700 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 17, 1953. The daughter of Papa Redbird-Jack’s Jillcame was fast in the stretch to beat Mrs. Janet Hoaglin’s Pegeen and Hasty House Farm’s Queen Hopeful by a length and a half. The winning horse returned $16.66 to win. It was inaugurated in 1952 as a seven-furlong race, but from 1956 through 1980, it was extended to seven furlongs, 184 feet — roughly 9/10 of a mile. In 1981 it was changed to its current distance of 1 1/16 miles. As the 2015 fall meet opens at Keeneland today, the $400,000 Darley Alcibiades will be run for 2-year-old fillies on the main track. Published in the Herald-Leader on Oct. 18, 1953. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
A group of ladies joined Rebecca Edwards in her box during Keeneland’s fall meet in October 1954. Pictured are Ruth Dudley Williams of Frankfort, Nell Dishman of Frankfort, Miss Edwards, Jane Melton of Frankfort, Manila Lyman of Lexington, and Mrs. L. L. Essenbock of Lexington. Published in the Lexington Leader on Oct. 14, 1954. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
An aerial view of the second day of the 1946 Keeneland spring meet, April 12, 1946. 6,000 people were in attendance this day at the track. The parking lot can bee seen behind the grandstand. Click on the photo for a closer look. The 11-day spring meet was capped off with the 22nd running of the Blue Grass Stakes, featuring a $12,500 purse. Admission to the track was $1 for men and 50 cents for women. Published in the Lexington Herald on April 13, 1946. Keeneland opens its 2016 spring meet Friday, April 8. After three straight meets of declines, Keeneland looks for key indicators to rebound. Photo by E. Martin Jessee | Staff
The start of the 35th running of the Blue Grass Stakes, April 23, 1959, at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington. Tomy Lee won the $32,550 race by a half-length. In the picture, the bay colt, who went off as the favorite, is the fourth horse from the rail. Nine days later, Bill Shoemaker and his English-bred mount won the Kentucky Derby, becoming only the second non-American-bred horse to ever win the Run for the Roses. He did not run in the remaining two Triple Crown races because his trainer said he didn’t like to run races too close together, so Tomy Lee went to California to rest. He died in 1971 and is buried at Pillar Stud in Lexington. Read the Sports front page on his Blue Grass victory here and his win in the Kentucky Derby on the front page here. Lexington Herald Archive Photo
Jockey Eddie Arcaro at Keeneland Race Course in April 1953. Arcaro was a Hall of Fame jockey who won more American classic races than any other jockey in history, and he is the only rider to have won the Triple Crown twice, aboard Whirlaway in 1941 and Citation in 1948. He is widely regarded as the greatest jockey in the history of American Thoroughbred horse racing. The Keeneland spring meet concludes this Friday. Herald-Leader Arichive Photo
Only four horses competed in the 1949 Blue Grass Stakes on March 28 at Keeneland Race Course. Leaving the starting gate were, from left, Old Rockport, with Gordon Glisson up; Johns Joy, with Johnny Longden up; Halt, the eventual winner, with Conn McCreary in the saddle; and Wine List, with Toddy Atkinson up. Woodvale Farm’s lightly regarded Halt came from far back to nip Johns Joy at the wire to win the $20,000-added Blue Grass Stakes. Halt, trained by Woody Stephens, went on to place fifth in the Kentucky Derby the following weekend. The 93rd running of the annual stakes race now called the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes will be held Saturday afternoon at Keeneland. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Spectators viewed a close race during Keeneland’s 1950 fall meet. Crowds were generally 5,000 to 6,000, but some days there would would be 12,000 people during the 10-day fall meet. Seven races were held each day except for the two Saturday cards, which featured nine. General admission was $1 for men and $.50 for women. Greyhound had seven scheduled bus routes from downtown directly to the track. The meet featured one stakes race, the Breeders’ Futurity, one of the nation’s fall headliners for juveniles. The winner took home almost $28,000, which would be about $280,000 in today’s dollars. Among the stories making headlines that meet was a 19-year-old Chicagoan who admitted that he took part in a $13,000 Chicago robbery and lost all of his share — $3,000 — during a day at the track. After the fall meet ended, racing shifted to Churchill Downs for its 18-day session. The 2017 Keeneland fall meet, which features 17 days of live racing, ends Oct. 28. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
During Keeneland’s fall meet in October 1976, two members of the Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine, Pete Rose and Doug Flynn, paid a visit to the Lexington track. The Reds had just won the National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies and were about to make history in the World Series, sweeping the New York Yankees in four games, to win back-to-back World Series. The group at Keeneland included, from left, Flynn, the Red’s utility infielder, Mario Nunez, a friend of Rose’s, known as The Cuban, Tom Hammond, then sports director for WLEX-TV, Teri Rubio, a friend of Rose’s, and Rose, one of the stars of the Big Red Machine. Photo by David Perry | Staff
Jockey Gary Stevens, played jockey George Woolf in the movie “Seabiscuit.” In this scene, shot Nov. 17, 2002, the last day of filming at Keeneland, Woolf and Seabiscuit return after winning a match race between underdog Seabiscuit and Triple Crown winner War Admiral. More than 4,200 people turned out in the cold to be unpaid extras in one of the movie’s climactic scenes, a match race between underdog Seabiscuit and Triple Crown winner War Admiral, ridden by Chris McCarron during filming. The real real race was at Maryland’s Pimlico Race Course on Nov. 1, 1938. To portray it, Keeneland was redone to look like Pimlico, complete with the Maryland flag snapping over the old-fashioned tote board. “Seabiscuit,” produced by Universal Studios and based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand, starred Tobey Maguire, Chris Cooper and Jeff Bridges. Many other scenes were filmed around Central Kentucky, including Paris; Eastern State Hospital; and several horse farms, including Calumet. The film’s world premiere was July 19, 2003, at the Kentucky Theatre. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
Extras walked from a paddock created by movie makers during the last day of the filming of “Seabiscuit” on Nov. 17, 2002, at Keeneland Race Course. Parts of Keeneland, including the infield, track, grandstand, clubhouse and lawn, were retrofitted to look like Pimlico Race Course circa 1938. The films makers were impressed with the more than 4,200 extras on hand. In Los Angeles, “No one would have shown up in the cold” to be an unpaid extra, executive producer Allison Thomas said. Photo by Janet Worne | Staff
Inflatable people were used to create a crowd in the stands for the filming of “Seabiscuit” at Keeneland. More than 7,000 mannequins were made, but fewer than 5,000 were placed in the stands on Nov. 8, 2002. “Traditionally we use cardboard cutouts, but they’re two-dimensional,” said Joe Biggins, who was with the production company. “That’s not really good when you have cameras swinging around the turns of racetracks, because the audience is going to see they’re two-dimensional. So we needed to come up with a way to create a crowd that could be easily shipped and set up.” He said it would be too expensive to add a digital crowd for “Seabiscuit.” They looked like store mannequins without arms, legs or faces — but with six-pack abs and their own faces thanks to an artist in Simi Valley, Calif., who painted masks. “From far away, you’d never see the same face,” Biggins said. It took the crew about 12 seconds to inflate each dummy, which were all male, reflecting the fact that horse-racing crowds in the 1930s were mostly men. During filming, the crowd was interspersed with live female extras. Photo by Janet Worne | Staff
Michael James, 12, of Ashland leaned over the rail on April 8, 1987, at Keeneland, looking for possible winning betting tickets. James was in town for the spring meet and visiting family. Keeneland announced Thursday that the 2018 spring meet will be its richest ever. A record $4.4 million in purse money will be distributed during the 16-day meet, which will include 16 stakes races. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
Mrs. Frank Atkins, Mrs. P.J. Sawyer, Mrs. Lewis Bush and Mrs. L.Q. Bickett were guests in Mr. and Mrs. Barckley Storey’s box at during the 1947 Keeneland Spring Meet. The photo was published in the April 21, 1947 Lexington Leader, alongside other social news items. The 1947 spring meet lasted 11 days. Today we are 50 days away from the 2018 Keeneland Spring Meet, which features 16 days of racing. Click here to see other Keeneland images from our archives. Herald-Leader archive photo
