Tag: Ted Bassett

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I would certainly love to hop on a plane and head to some place warmer with live racing right now.  Perhaps I would go to Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, maybe even Dubai?  While I may be dreaming of a snowbird get away it is a busy time at Blue Grass Airport for arrivals too.  This coming Monday and Tuesday, February 8 and 9, 2016, Fasig-Tipton will hold it’s Kentucky Winter Mixed sale here in Lexington, KY.

When you build an airport in the horse capital of the world you don’t just design any ordinary airport but rather it is a special airport worthy to handle the needs of regular passengers, world wide equestrians and of course, horses!  The Army began using this airport in 1942 and by 1946 the airport went commercial.  Blue Grass Airport sits right in the middle of horse country.  Many flight patterns go directly over Keeneland race track which is across the street and nearby Calumet Farm.  In 2008 the bronze equine sculptures featured in the 2 pictures above and 1 photo below were put on the grounds at the doors to the terminal.  Gwen Reardon designed this paddock scene.  She is the same artist that created the works at Thoroughbred Park, which I featured in an earlier story.  The Kentucky Horse Park has a life sized piece of her art too.  My favorite bronze is the piece below.  It looks like James E. “Ted” Bassett III playing groom.  He is a former chairmen of the board at Keeneland and former president of the Breeders’ Cup.  I like to eat my breakfast with him at Keeneland’s track kitchen, on special occasions, and I read his biography from cover to cover.  I have watched his story played over and again on KET (Kentucky Educational Television).  I own his autographed book too!

Other lovely pieces of equine art are found inside and on the grounds of the airport.  The floor of the terminal lobby has a concentric designed chart depicting the lineage of 800 Thoroughbreds over 300 years.  There is also a nice stained glass piece depicting Big Lex created by John F. “Zig” Zeigler.  Big Lex is a blue horse who is the mascot for the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau.  He is blue from grazing on Kentucky bluegrass.  He can be seen all over Lexington, even on my refrigerator and my car.

One of my favorite works, at the airport, is the enormous trompe l’oeil mural painted by Eric Henn.  It is painted on the retaining wall on the edge of the runway facing Keeneland.  I have a print which I have yet to get framed seen below.

It is nice that all of this beauty is at the airport for the travelers.  I hope as all the visitors make their way into Lexington this weekend to prepare for the Winter Mixed Sale they take time to appreciate the art.  The sale has horses foaled in France, Great Britain, Ireland, Argentina, Ontario, Louisiana, Virginia, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, West Virginia, Indiana, Texas, California, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota and of course, Kentucky!  H.E. Sutton Forwarding Company, also known as Tex Sutton or I prefer the name, Air Horse One, can help them ship here.  They have a specially equipped Boeing 727-200 that holds 21 horses loaded 3 wide and 7 deep.  The company’s symbol features Pegasus, a winged horse.  The plane is labeled “First Class Equine Air Travel”.  The individual stalls have seat belts and each horse is served hay and water.  Human attendants accompany the horses in the aisles.  The horses fly faced forward and the tallest horses are placed in the center stalls.  See American Pharoah fly here: Air Horse One

I’m pretty excited thinking about the horses that will be shipping in for the sale.  There are 528 entries cataloged.  Hips 1 thru 296 will show on Monday and 297 thru 528 will be featured on Tuesday.  The sale starts at 11 a.m. EST each day.  See the catalog here:  Fasig Tipton KY Winter Mixed 2016.  The sale will feature a nice variety including horses of racing age, in-foal mares, 1 or more mares with foals, short yearlings and broodmare prospects, some with graded stakes credentials.  Hip 255 is Trojenna, a mare by Lawyer Ron with a brand new Mucho Macho Man filly, so cute!  Fasig-Tipton held it’s Midlantic Winter Sale last month.  In that sale a yearling colt by Curlin was the sale topper at a price of $76,000.  The KY Winter Mixed sale has 4 horses sired by Curlin.  These are Naked Watch (hip 98), Princess Rocket (136), Split It (213) and Charismata (362).  There are 4 yearlings by Grade 1 winning, Graydar in the sale.  I met him at Taylor Made Farm this summer, so handsome.  Check out some of Graydar’s 1st crop; hips 140, 149, 274 and 454.  Look how sweet Graydar is below.

I hope the KY Winter Mixed sale is a big success.  I would love to watch this sale’s grads race or breed new champs in the future.  I can’t attend myself, due to my job, so if you make it out please tell me all about it.  Who do you think will fetch the best price?

Here’s a You Tube from one of my favorite movies, “Evita”.  When I think about Air Horse One, I think of this song.  I love dreaming about all of favorite horses high flying around the world and how they are truly adored!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7b_p00PiXE

 

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