Secretariat Center

The Secretariat calendar series, now in its seventh year, will honor Secretariat's daughter Secrettame for the 2024 edition. The series started in 2018 with the Living Legends theme honoring the last living Secretariat sons and daughters, then transitioned to descendants of Secretariat's important broodmares in 2022. Proceeds from the 2024 calendar will benefit The Secretariat Center and Old Friends. The series has already raised more than $33,000 for equine charities through six editions. This will be the first one with The Secretariat Center as the primary beneficiary. "I've always wanted...

The Secretariat Center will hold its annual fundraising event, "Bluegrass Brunch and Bubbles" at Godolphin's Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Kentucky Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET, the organization said in a release Wednesday. Bidding on everything from vacation packages and experience tickets to artwork, halters, saddles, sports memorabilia and more, will go live Oct. 1 and will close at Noon on the day of the event. All proceeds go toward supporting the Secretariat Center's mission of preparing off-track Thoroughbreds for post-track careers through rehabilitation and retraining. "Support...

Stakes winner Get Western (Get Stormy--Marquetessa, by Marquetry) has joined the retirees at Old Friends in Georgetown, Kentucky. The 7-year-old gelding won the 2019 Old Friends S. at Kentucky Downs for trainer Charles LoPresti and owner Ward C. Pitfield. The "Win for Life" contest guaranteed him placement at Old Friends upon retiring from racing. Eventually transferred to J. Reeve McGaughey's barn, Get Western's last race was at Turfway Park in February of 2022. He was transferred to the Secretariat Center, located at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, for retraining...

The Secretariat Center will host "Movie Night Under the Stars," featuring the movie Dreamer Oct. 1. The event opens at 6 p.m. with the movie starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 a person and are on sale at www.secretariatcenter.org. There will be food available for purchase from Salsarita's, Mr. Gyro, and Mister Softee Ice Cream and beverages from Blue Stallion Brewery. They will have a Keeneland Kid Zone, mini ponies, a Lexington FD fire truck and horse jumps for kids. Popcorn is free and there will be special giveaways...

The Secretariat Center will host its first-ever "Bluegrass Brunch and Bubbles" event featuring a silent auction fundraiser to benefit the rehabilitation and rehoming of Thoroughbred racehorses from 10:00 am-12:00 pm Sept. 24, 2022, at the Secretariat Center farm located within the Kentucky Horse Park. Tickets for this unique brunch experience are $50 per person and come with all-inclusive access to a Winner's Circle Bluegrass Brunch catered by DV8 Kitchen, a bottomless Bloody Mary and Mimosa bar, pastries by Magee's Bakery, and coffee by Thoroughbred Coffee Station all generously sponsored by...

Lane's End Farm and Team Zenyatta will hold the Annual Zenyatta Celebration beginning Friday, Apr. 1, after being postponed from last November. A limited edition celebration sticker featuring Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) will be available beginning Friday, the date of Zenyatta's birth in 2004. The vinyl stickers will be available for two weeks in the Lane's End gift shop. Each purchase of a sticker will include an automatic entry into a raffle to meet Zenyatta in person, with 10 individuals winning a visit. The winners will be drawn live on...

American Wood Fibers has announced a new partnership with the Secretariat Center, located at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. The company will serve as the sole sponsor and supplier of animal bedding, contributing to the Center's upkeep and overall health of American Thoroughbreds. This sponsorship allows the Center to continue their work, readying the horses for life after rehab. Through boarding and reschooling, the Center's goal is to create harmonious matches with adopters and educate the community about the American Thoroughbred breed. To date, they have successfully rehoused more...

For the first time since opening their doors in 2004, the Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park will keep its reschooling operation up and running throughout the winter months. Shelley Mann, who stepped on as the program's executive director this September, spoke on their plans for the upcoming season. "Typically in the past, we have fostered horses out or decreased our numbers for two or three months out of the winter," she said. "This is the first year that we really want to stay open. We have an entirely...

Shelley Mann, the former director of marketing and communications for the United States Pony Clubs, Inc., has been named the new executive director of Central Kentucky's Secretariat Center. Founded in 2004 on the grounds of the Kentucky Horse Park, the Secretariat Center provides a highly visible location for off-track Thoroughbreds to be retrained and adopted. "I am thrilled to be joining the Secretariat Center team," said Mann. "The care and placement of retired racehorses and providing these equine athletes a second career is something I am deeply passionate about." Added...

The newly created Lexington-based We Are Here Initiative (WAHI) has been launched to assist Thoroughbreds that have been retired from horse racing due to financial and economic strain brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The non-profit organization will serve as a layover point for Thoroughbreds before being placed in an approved aftercare facility, in an effort to ease the influx of horses on aftercare and adoption organizations. With limited racing opportunities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many owners and smaller training operations were forced to retire some of...

The scope and pace of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected daily life, the national economy, and by extension, the Thoroughbred racing business, is dizzying. For so many, the hardest aspect of the pandemic-induced crisis is the uncertainty about if and when things will go back to the old normal. The pandemic is like nothing we have experienced before and therefore, we have no models on which to rely. With the delayed opening of most racetracks, and with others having no opening day in sight, many people are asking if...