Keeneland Races
Some call it America’s Ascot, but this being America, it’s not half as plummy nor aristocratic as the flagship British racing event.
Sure, people dress up at Keeneland, it is after all the thoroughbred racing Mecca for the US – it’s always voted the No 1 track. Some visitors dress smartly, most casually, and the odd person rather ludicrously – but Keeneland is far more democratic, and way more family friendly than its royal counterpart (with far fewer silly hats, too).
Like Ascot, there’s the fabled car park picnics, but it’s less the posh hampers with shampers round the back of the Bentley or Range Rover than fun barbecues and Budweiser at Keeneland. Well, it’s hardly a car park – the cars sit on the rolling lush bluegrass hills over the 1,000-acre site.
Tickets are easier to buy, too and often available on the day of the prime race, if you are willing to take a gamble on not seeing such hallowed events as the Bluegrass Stakes.
What’s more, tickets are cheaper than the staple £50 ticket for Ascot, just $8 to reserve a grandstand seat for some meets, rising to $25 for the Bluegrass Stakes. Hurry though, such seat applications need to be in by August 1, dining applications in July. General admission at Keeneland is just $5, with children under 12 allowed in free – perhaps more than other factor making it a more family-friendly event.
During my visit to the Keeneland races, I noticed more families and children than ever seen at all my racetrack visits in the UK (OK, four so far). It’s relaxed and fun.
So why the Ascot of America? Well, Keeneland is a venerable track, its old-world grandstand built in the 1930s – some feat in the midst of the Great Depression. That makes Keeneland virtually neolithic given the relatively short span of US history.
It was here that the movie Seabiscuit was filmed, largely because the surroundings here have hardly changed since Keeneland was built.
Perhaps it’s seen at the US Ascot because it is always ranked the No1 course for thoroughbred racing; perhaps because Keeneland was founded as a non-profitmaking track – very noble, though far from aristocratic – built to further the cause of racing in general rather than line pockets in particular.
Perhaps it’s because of the wealth assembled at the great meetings – there’s a Spring Meeting in April, a prelude to the Kentucky Derby on the first weekend in May, and a Fall Meeting in October. Perhaps, it’s because Keeneland likes to retain traditions – it was the last track in North America to broadcast race calls over its public-address system, not doing so until 1997.
Keeneland likes to think of itself as not so much “traditional” but as “selectively conservative”. It’s apt a description, because stuffy Keeneland isn’t, having introduced many an innovation over the decades, including the now ubiquitous polytrack surface – think millions of rubber bands mixed with sand and synthetic fibers and woven into a kind of racing carpet that lays on the mud, all to save the legs and hoofs of the expensive thoroughbreds galloping above.
This year the track at Lexington, the epicentre of America’s horse and horseracing industry, celebrates its 75th birthday – the first race being run on October 15 1936 – so expect a bit more pomp and ceremony than usual.
Want to visit, then pop here to see ticket prices and how to apply, but hurry – it’s the 75th anniversary.
