A bottle signing for this year's commemorative Maker's Mark® bourbon bottle will take place at Keeneland Race Course's Keene Barn on the morning of Friday, April 12. Anyone wanting to attend must first get a ticket online at www.keeneland.com/makers-mark-bottle-signing after first creating an account. The free tickets will become available online at 8:30 a.m. Monday, April 8.
The fifth and final commemorative Maker's Mark® bourbon bottle in the series features the 2011-12 University of Kentucky men's basketball national championship team led by John Calipari, which brought the title home to the Bluegrass for the first time in 14 seasons. Bottles will go on sale at retail outlets in Kentucky April 5.
The sale of the bottles benefits UK's Center for Academic and Tutorial Services (CATS). “Education is at the heart of everything we do as an athletics department,” Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said. “In order to continue and build on the work CATS does to serve student-athletes and position them for academic success, we must innovate. This partnership helps provide the resources to allow us to do exactly that.”
The goal of UK Athletics' partnership with Maker's Mark and Keeneland is to raise $2 million for the CATS through the companies' own contributions and from a portion of the proceeds of sales of special commemorative bottles of the distillery's handmade bourbon.
The first four commemorative bottles in the series honored the program's first seven national championships, with this year's bottle completing the set.
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