The next morning I was looking through some of the pamphlets I picked up at the Lexington Visitor Center, and started looking through one called “Map to the Stars.” Although you may think ‘stars’ means Hollywood stars, these stars are actually stars of the Kentucky Derby, among others – that is, they are four-legged stars!
Since Loveland OH is on the east side of Cincinnati, I wanted to head in a northeast direction, so, I first tried to get a tour at Gainesway Farm (home of Afleet Alex among others), but it was booked up. So then I looked at Claiborne Farms (resting place of Secretariat) and they had an opening, so I booked a tour for 11am.
After a beautiful drive out of Lexington, passing lots of farms on the way, I arrived at the farm in Paris KY. Lucky – only 2 of us on the tour!
Our tour guide, Kyle, was very knowledgeable about the farm. And, I suppose he should be – housing is provided to many of the workers there since they kind of need to be ‘on call’ all the time. So, he lives on the farm!
Our first stop was at this stables.
We got to see where Secretariat lived. The name on the bottom is the first occupant of the stable, with subsequent horses names listed moving up.
Here’s Kyle with the current occupant – Run Happy
And this is War Front. We got to pet both!
These are retired thoroughbreds, used for Stud now. I didn’t take a photo of the breeding room, but to be sanctioned, breeding has to be performed horse-on-horse – no artificial insemination! The breeding room has padded walls, and a little hump in the dirt in the middle in case the male is shorter than the female. Sorry I didn’t take a photo!
War Front breeds about 80 mares per year. His 2019 stud fee is $250,000! And he sure looks ready to go in this photo!
Unfortunately I don’t remember this horse’s name for certain – I think it’s Blame – but he was so smart! Kyle gave all the horses peppermint candies when we met them, but Blame would take the peppermint, chew it a little bit, get a sip of water and then suck the water in to get the full effect of the mint! He’d stick his tongue out while he was doing it too!
After meeting these few horses, we walked over to the horse cemetery.
Secretariat was such a special horse that he was embalmed and buried in a horse-size coffin. Normally, race horses that died during this rough time period, and earlier, would be buried “head, heart, and hooves” – which represented their racing. Not sure if those parts were put in a coffin or just buried in the ground. Nowadays, the horses are all cremated.
Swale won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes in 1984, and then died of a heart attack 8 days later. 🙁
It was so incredible to learn about thoroughbreds and how they’re taken care of and everything! I’m really glad I stopped by Claiborne Farm – you should check it out sometime!
http://claibornefarm.com/
All right, Road Trip Part 7 will include Georgetown OH (Boyhood home of Ulysses S. Grant) and Loveland OH (visiting friends and going to Loveland Castle)
Stay tuned!