Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/510262
ABOVE TOP: Race horses competing at Churchill Downs can be worth millions of dollars. ABOVE BOTTOM: Riders and horses go through their morning workouts at Keeneland. Judy Eberspaecher DREAMSCAPES SPRING/SUMMER 2015 38 BY ALEX EBERSPAECHER N o Canadian can stand at the sidelines at Churchill Downs or Keeneland racetrack in Ken- tucky without remembering Northern Dancer, Canada's top horse of all time and one of the most influential sires in the world. After 50 years, it is esti- mated that almost 75 per cent of the world's thoroughbreds have Northern Dancer in their pedigree. There is a curious rumour that owning a horse in Kentucky elevates one into some sort of privileged class, but appar- ently there is more to it; your horse needs to win first to give you that status. Many years ago when Daniel Boone, the famous American explorer and frontiersman, roamed the wilds of Kentucky wearing his legendary coonskin cap, horses were a necessity; they were also much cheaper. HORSE COUNTRY Instead of a feeling of privilege, I was over- come by the expanse of Lane's End Farm near Lexington. Just the driveway is as long as most farms and instead of old rusty metal fences, this one is bordered by black four-board wooden fences that line immense fields of the most scrumptious bluegrass as far as I could see. Chance Timm, the director of Stallion Seasons at Lane's End Farm, is not your typical farmer either. Apparently there are no farmers on Kentucky's horse farms, only directors, breeders and horse owners who visit here occasionally. Chance grew "A HORSE! A HORSE! MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE!" – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, RICHARD III FAST CARS, FAST HORSES AND BOURBON