‍04.06.25: Walking the barns

An outrider leads a thoroughbred through the barn area for a workout at Keeneland, the historic race track in Lexington, Ky.

‍Keeneland, the historic race track in Lexington, Ky., was scheduled to open its annual spring meet on Friday, but something unusual happened. Massive rains and threats of additional days of severe weather forced Keeneland to cancel its Friday and Saturday races several days in advance.

‍I’m sure that was a problem for the thousands of people who attend Keeneland’s opening weekend each spring.

‍I have always looked forward to Keeneland’s spring meet. It’s a sign that winter is finally over and the warm weather of summer is approaching.

‍The track hosts two racing meets a year — a three-week spring meet in April and a three-week fall meet in October. 

‍I have attended spring and fall sessions for years. My father would take me to Keeneland when I was young. I would take my father as he got older. And my wife and I would schedule visits with friends and family in the Lexington area around our spring and fall trips to the track. It’s an enjoyable way to spend a day and, if we bet wisely, maybe win a bit of money.

‍Keeneland is very photo friendly, unlike some other sport sites. Just about everyone is carrying a camera or grabbing photos with their smart phones. It’s a day of fun packed inside one giant photo op.

‍This photo was taken early on a Saturday morning, hours before racing started for the day. My wife and I had attended the opening day of the spring meet the previous day, then came back on Saturday morning for Breakfast at Keeneland when visitors can have breakfast, tour the track, attend informal educational sessions to learn behind-the-scenes information on the care and training of thoroughbred race horses and watch the horses work out.

‍I was in the barn area and was drawn to the repeating patterns created by the doors through a long series of parallel barns. I positioned myself so the barn numbers would align down the center of the composition, then waited in hopes that a horse would walk through the scene. It took a few minutes, but eventually an outrider led a thoroughbred toward the track for a morning training session. I timed the shot so the two horses would be framed by the doors.

‍Keeneland has hosted races since it opened in 1936. It’s one of the nation’s most “traditional” race tracks, retaining the same look and feel through the years while still adopting new technologies (even though it was the last race track in North America to broadcast race calls over a public-address system, adopting that practice in 1997). Keeneland was used for most of the racing scenes in the 2003 movie Seabiscuit because its appearance has changed little in decades.

‍Keeneland is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.