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Published: April 8th 2008
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Thoroughbred Club in the Snow
This was Keeneland opening day in 2007. The ladies had wonderful summery hats and open toes shoes and wispy little dresses on under fur coats. Lexington, Kentucky Horse Park and Keeneland Race Course
Kentucky is beautiful in the spring. Returning to the Horse Park RV Park feels like home. Diner at Le Deauville, in downtown Lexington, is very French and VERY delicious. Niece, Kate McMahon, who sells stallion seasons for Darley Stables, picked up the tab for seven of us (since we all around the table have “shares in mares” I guess we are her clients). Great company, great dinner escargot, moules & frittes, Chateau Neuf de Pape, and so much more! Merci beaucoup, Kate!
Sunday is the first time we have seen the sun since leaving Florida almost a week ago - It is a beautiful day for the races at Keeneland. That McMahon hospitality picks up right where Kate left off with Michael having five of us as his guests at the Kentucky Thoroughbred Club for “bloodies and brunch” (fantastic brunch with eggs Benedict, huge shrimp, wonderful salads, great desserts, and more!). You can even linger at the club past post time as there are two pari-mutual windows and strolling “legal bookers of wagers" all within the genteel and elegant Southern manse setting! The Club provides a shuttle bus to Keeneland Race
Course - which is on adjoining property. The great time continued at the track with a box (secured by Mike) almost on the finish line. The in-field tote board at Keeneland is a technological marvel - digital screen on a GPS “real time” display so that on one can see the horses plotted on the track, not just in lineal order, but also as digital images of horse positions across the track - from rail to far outside.
We have been to Keeneland in such heat as to have to retreat to finish the races in the AC comfort of the Thoroughbred Club AND in a surprise snow storm where we did a similar retreat. This time was the charm --- it was beautiful - sunny enough that ladies were offered white ruffled parasols to protect them from the sun by indulgent ushers, but with a breeze to make the day just right. We got to the Winners Circle when a Winstar horse, Sharp Susan, that Dr. Natanya McMahon had cared for since it was born, won the fourth race. Both Mike McMahon and Wes DeVoe went home as fairly substantial winners! Winning is fun! We took Mike back
to Winstar, Natanya had “peeled off” earlier because of a colicky mare, but she re-joined us for a tour of their own farm. Since our last visit, the barn (which was once a tobacco drying barn) has been painted, the “herd” of horses has grown, the old house is no more, Natanya is planting perennials and summer bulbs, Madison and Aiden have two gray ponies in the field, and it is just beautiful.
After such an elegant day, we returned to the RV for microwave pizza bread. Too exhausted to head out to a restaurant. We are on the very far end of the Eastern Time Zone - the sun doesn’t set until after 8pm - still reading outside while Long Island is in the dark already.
On Monday we went to Georgetown, KY. It’s a wonderful historic town; the sort that we really are drawn to. We passed scores of two and three story Victorian homes, wonderfully landscaped decades ago and ablaze with magnolia, forsythia, and all manner of fruit trees. It’s like Ballston Spa is now (and what Schuylerville - cross fingers- is destined to be), quaint and sweet with nice antique shops and a few
boutiques. We ate at Fava’s in the downtown section. Our AAA Magellan readout said that Fava’s is famous for its Catfish, THAT is an absolute true fact - it was delish! The downtown looked prosperous, very few commercial/storefront vacancies, we walked to the historical society and were surprised to see a collection of earthen ware jugs (some of it just like ours) all made by Bennington Potters or from East Troy, NY (we asked the gallery sitter about Bennington Pottery in Kentucky) he said they were from a board members collection and on-loan. Also another interesting tie-in to home, there was an exact miniature of the first steam locomotive DeWitt Clinton, which also called the Hudson Valley its home. It was made to scale by a Georgetown resident.
We found a Kroger Market to get the goodies for a “bon voyage” get-together we threw for ourselves and the McMahons tonight. What a treat to find a nice, bright, clean, well-stocked market (like Price Chopper home). We had made two mistakes and tried to get milk and bread in “convenience stores” in both Tennessee and Kentucky. Yikes! They smelled of smoke and had “run out” of milk and bread by
Bernadini Trophy at Darley
Wes still feels badly that this winner was put to stud before a few more racing years ... however, Bernadini and Sheik Mohammed might differ with his opinion. noon! Smoking is pretty popular here in Kentucky. It has been a cash crop for two centuries. Wes found me a place to buy a new battery for the digital camera. Feel lost without it. Some of these pix are from other years here in Kentucky.
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bill
non-member comment
camping
looking for camp ground neer keeneland