‘Succession’: A New TDN Series – Walker Hancock of Claiborne

In our walk of life, nothing succeeds like succession.

As with any other form of agriculture, a horse farm is not just a business but a legacy sometimes shaped by several generations of rain-or-shine toil and kitchen-table lore. The balance sheet may happen to be in the black, or in the red–but that's just a moment in time. How does one put a price on the decades of patient nurture that have gone into land and bloodlines?

Yet there's never any guarantee about the next generation, whether in terms of its enthusiasm or eligibility. And, even if both those are present, there are bound to be sensitivities over the timing and structuring of transition. In this new, occasional series, TDN will visit with people who have experienced such challenges: whether those who hand over a life's work, or those charged with taking it forward; sometimes, we'll hear from both.

No better place to start than with Walker Hancock, whose accession as president at storied Claiborne Farm at just 25 was, in this context, just about as conspicuous a transfer of responsibility as you'll ever see. Incredible as it must seem, both to Walker himself and to those originally startled by his precocious promotion, this year he will already complete his first decade at the helm. His father Seth has been duly rewarded for that bold vote of confidence, then, the farm now being in hands still full of youthful vigor and ambition, while far more seasoned than could generally be expected in one of Walker's age.

To a degree, of course, the gamble was emboldened by the fact that Seth had been even younger when himself appointed president. At the same time, whatever the similarities, the single factor that most sets their respective situations apart could not be more crucial. For Seth was only elevated so giddily because of the abrupt and premature death of his own father, “Bull” Hancock, such a towering figure in the Bluegrass that people far beyond Claiborne felt that they, too, had in some measure suddenly lost a patriarchal influence. (There was also the incidental drama of Seth's older brother, Arthur, quitting to achieve his own, epic vindication down the road at Stone Farm–and we'll be calling on Arthur and his daughter Lynn later in this series.)

So while Seth had to find his feet in the throes of bereavement, not to mention fireworks between his brother and the powerful advisers presiding over the transition, Walker remains blessed to be able to turn to his father for counsel.

“Dad had a trial by fire, literally had to figure it out on his own,” he says. “So after he gave me the reins, it was comforting to know that he's still in the background, and that I can always run things by him. I can say, 'Well, I'm not quite sure what to do here,' or 'I can't figure out a mating for this mare, what do you think?' So that's been a luxury for me. He never had that. It definitely takes a little pressure off, makes things a little more comforting, at least when you start out.”

That said, just about the first thing Seth was able to do was syndicate a horse called Secretariat.

“So he got things figured out pretty quickly,” Walker says with a smile. “Because he had to! I certainly didn't make that kind of a splash. But maybe one day…”

The common denominator in all these situations is how a relationship based on parental authority, through years of upbringing, can evolve so that a son or daughter, if only in a professional dimension, has the confidence to say: “Sorry sir, sorry ma'am–but I'm the boss now.”

The Hancock Family at Keeneland | Keeneland Photo

“We've always got along for the most part, but like anybody, we're going to disagree on some things,” Walker says. “Thankfully, they've been few and far between. When you work with your father, you're younger and sometimes you'll see things differently, which is fine. But I give him credit: especially in the last few years, he's really kind of said, 'You're in charge. If that's what you want to do, go ahead.'”

Walker suspects that his father had taken note of equivalent handovers faltering precisely because of inflexibility in the older generation. And that's certainly a delicate challenge, whenever a filial relationship extends into business. As from any parent, growing up you receive instruction and discipline–but suddenly they have to back off and leave you, if necessary, to learn by mistakes.

“I think it was hard for me to understand that, at first,” Walker says. “It was like, 'All right, whatever he says, I'm going to do.' Because that's what I've done my whole life. But then there comes a time where you have to say to yourself, 'Well, you're in charge now. You're going to have to stand up to him at some point, if you feel something isn't going right.' But it feels very successful, because we have still managed to maintain that father-son relationship.”

There were bumps on the road, for sure: the little test cases. It sounds as though the opening of a visitor center at Claiborne may have been a case in point.

“It was kind of a big deal for us, in terms of commercializing a brand that has always been pretty close-knit,” Walker acknowledges. “I just felt like that was really what we needed to do at the time, and my sister [Allison] and I had a plan to make it happen. But whenever Dad and I have gotten a little sideways with one another, at the end of the day I think he can appreciate that I'm just trying to do the best I can, and move the farm forward, and that sometimes it might be a little more progressive or at least different from the way he'd do it.”

And, in fairness, Walker stresses that his father always showed due sensitivity to the unique pressures of succession–right back to when he was a kid. It was made perfectly clear that Walker and Allison could chart their own course in life, according to whatever preferences evolved as they grew up. Allison, indeed, never made quite the same connection with horses, albeit remains part of the family operation, heading up the visitor center and merchandising.

“Again, I give credit to my dad: he let me find my way,” Walker says. “At an early age he told me, 'If this is something you don't want to do, don't feel any pressure. You don't have to do this. We can sell the farm, whatever. Because if you don't have a passion, there's no sense doing it. If you don't really, truly love it, you're not going to be successful.' And actually because he didn't pressure me, I think that's one of the reasons I gravitated towards it. If he'd been waking me up at five every morning,  saying, 'Get to that barn, you got to clean stalls!' I probably would have resented that, or maybe got burned out.”

As it was, Walker was able gradually to absorb the enchantment of the Thoroughbred from the environment in which he was growing up.

“At the farm, I started at the bottom,” he recalls. “Weeding double fence rows, whatever. At the time we still did a lot of hay and straw, put it in the barns for a couple of summers. I really did work my way up and can now really appreciate the hard work that so many people have to put in. And at least they all know that I did it at one point, as well, so it's like, 'Well, if he did it, I can do it.'”

By high school, Walker had recognized that he was not going to make a baseball professional–the single menace he ever admitted to his Claiborne destiny. But even once his heart was set on the family business, his parents made sure he went away to college so that he could encounter people from other walks of life, and sample the kind of Main Street existence he'd be turning down. So he went to the University of Florida, majoring in Animal Sciences.

“The idea was that I needed to go away, do something else for four years and figure life out for myself,” Walker explains. “And honestly it was the best thing I ever did. I was able to grow up, make new friends and connections, learn how to deal with uncomfortable positions. You can get stuck in this bubble here in Central Kentucky: you're so used to horses being a part of your life, going to Keeneland in the fall and the spring. And now here were all these people that, if they'd heard of the Kentucky Derby, wanted to know why a horse couldn't run in it twice! So it was really good to be exposed to a different culture.”

So while ever grateful for being raised at Claiborne, Walker could become his own person and develop his own perspectives. In the same way, since taking over, he has had to put his own stamp on things while on keeping aboard clients whose own families have a generational relationship with the farm. There literally came a day, for instance, when “Mr. Phipps” told him: “Walker, you need to call me Dinny now!”

“It's just another part of the transition,” Walker says with a shrug. “You're no longer the little kid they saw at the races. You develop more of a client relationship. That was definitely challenging. Thankfully, we have a lot of outstanding clients that have been with us for a long time. But at some point we need to start bringing in some younger people, too–and that's another challenge, finding the right kind of people to keep the farm special while also moving forward.”

Bernie Sams and Walker Hancock | Fasig-Tipton Photo

Walker feels blessed, in embracing these challenges, by a priceless rapport with Bernie Sams, whose official title as Stallion Seasons and Bloodstock Manager is barely adequate for the deep knowledge and down-to-earth style that guaranteed continuity to all parties: Seth, Walker, the clientele.

“He's been unbelievable, awesome,” Walker says. “We've traveled the world together. He's taught me so much and pretty much been a mentor to me. It certainly gave me a little more confidence to have someone like Bernie around, that's been with Claiborne for 20-plus years and understands so well what we do.”

He feels similarly indebted to farm manager Bradley Purcell, and also to his aunt, Dell Hancock.

“Aunt Dell has also been a tremendous supporter of mine throughout the transition process,” Walker stresses. “She's always there to cheer me up after a bad result in the sales ring or racetrack. Her positivity has helped me persevere through some low times, and I can always count on her to lift me back up and find the bright side of every scenario.

“As for Bradley, he's so professional and level-headed that I couldn't do the job without him.  I never have to worry about the day-to-day operations, thanks to his knowledge of horses and understanding of the Claiborne brand. I can be away from the farm and know that everything will continue to run smoothly, which is very comforting.”

But if some faces and practices stay the same, in other ways even a farm as symbolic as Claiborne must adapt to a changing market. It was striking, for instance, that as many as 171 mares were granted a date with rookie Silver State in 2022. Following the defeat of the proposed 140-mare cap, farms like this one must decide where to strike a balance: should they protect their clients from the inundation of catalogues, the clear risk at more industrial operations? Or should they seek the accountancy advantages of a bigger book, whether in writing a check for a stallion or hiring him out at a milder fee?

“Ideally, we'd only breed our stallions to 120 to 140 mares,” Walker says. “But if a bigger book is how we stay competitive in the marketplace, then that's what we'll have to do. It's right by the horse, because you have to give them a chance to succeed. It's right by the clients that support him, and the syndicate members that own shares. I mean, it's probably not what we want. But the market's changing, and while I wish we could be stubborn and stick to our old ways, we'd get left behind.

“And I feel like we've found a good balance. We're never going to do over 200, or anything like that, but we probably have to beef our numbers up from what we were doing at 120, 130. It's hard to syndicate a horse if the shareholders know that money will be left on the table because you're not breeding as many mares as they'd get investing in another stallion. So, yeah, it's a changing environment and a difficult one. But I'm sure people had a fit when stallions went from 40 mares to 60, and again when they went to 100. The reality is that we have to keep up, or get left behind.”

Walker has not enjoyed missing out on potential new stars for the roster because rival offers were predicated on huge books of mares.

“You get beat so many times,” he says. “And it's like, 'Well, do we just keep doing this in the expectation of a different result?' But that's just not going to happen. So you're better off figuring out ways to change things up a little bit and stay competitive. In today's world it's hard to maintain your traditions and your values, with the market forcing your hand. But I do feel like there's a balance and hopefully we have found it.”

As things stand, the roster is headed by a venerable stallion in the sunset of his career, War Front. But Walker and his team are certainly sticking to their principles with their younger guns: they have gone back to the Danzig mine for Silver State, for instance, besides two of War Front's own sons, War of Will and now Annapolis. The unusual versatility of War of Will on the racetrack, meanwhile, is underpinned by the kind of deep pedigree that has always been a Claiborne hallmark. In other words, even as Demarchelier (GB) opens lines the other way, this is still a farm that can transcend the Atlantic divide.

War Front | Sarah Andrew

“We have a lot of unproven young stallions right now,” Walker says. “We're out there to find the next War Front, a horse that can keep carrying the water for us. Again, it's about trying to find a balance. Because it also makes things difficult that people want to sell these horses right after they win their first Grade I. To me, in the long run, that's a losing proposition.”

So some old principles will stand. Claiborne will continue to seek wholesome genetic models for replication. But the farm will continue to adapt, too. After all, that's just what Bull Hancock did in his day.

“And I'm sure dad did things differently than my grandfather, likewise,” Walker remarks. “When my grandfather died, it was in his will that we had to sell everything. Well, after 10 or 12 years my dad felt, 'You know what? This isn't the way we need to do things.' And Swale came out of the first crop where he kept horses.

“It would be awesome if we could just run Claiborne the same way as we did in 1948. But the fact is that the industry has changed, even in the last five years; sometimes it feels like it changes almost from year to year. And you have to be willing to respond. For the old timers, I think they'd say the industry has gone too far by them. Dad is probably glad that I'm in charge now.

“I'm a fifth-generation horseman, fourth generation to run the farm. You don't want to let any of your forefathers, grandfathers, fathers down by dropping the ball. So you definitely feel that pressure. Keeping places like this going, through families, is not easy. Hopefully my kids are interested, and their kids too. But with the times changing so rapidly, who knows what the future looks like? All we can do is live in the present, and try to do our best.”

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Taking Stock: Mr. Prospector is the Most Influential

A few weeks ago, I was a guest on the weekly Going In Circles podcast, which is hosted by Chuck Simon, the former trainer who's also a top-notch writer at his blog, and Barry “The Sniper” Spears, an excellent handicapper and well-known figure on Twitter. Simon asked for my opinion on which stallion I'd consider to be the most influential of the past 50 years. You can listen to a nine-minute clip of the conversation here. My answer? Claiborne's iconic Mr. Prospector, of course.

The clip generated quite a bit of interest and debate on social media. Simon kept Northern Dancer out of the equation, and I made my selection on North American-based stallions whose careers had begun within the 50-year window. Mr. Prospector, a son of Raise a Native from Gold Digger, by Nashua, was born in 1970–the same year as Secretariat and Forego–and entered stud in 1975 in Florida. This timeframe eliminated not only Northern Dancer but also Raise a Native, another icon.

Mr. Prospector's stud career and substantial influence has been thoroughly documented through the years from the time he went to stud until his death in 1999 at the age of 29. All told, he sired 1,195 foals and 182 black-type winners, a ratio of 15% from foals– not starters. These days top stallions are lucky to hit 10%.

Fifty-odd years since his birth, Mr. Prospector's influence is still palpable. Five of the top 10 sires on the general sire list of 2022– Quality Road, Curlin, Gun Runner, Speightstown, and Munnings–trace in tail-male descent to him, as do four of the top 10 broodmare sires–Street Cry (Ire), Smart Strike, Distorted Humor, and Unbridled's Song.

In 2015, John Sparkman wrote a piece in Daily Racing Form titled “Mr. Prospector line has no American equal” that said in part, “…Mr. Prospector now stands at the head of the most successful classic sire line in the United States. His fifth-generation male-line descendant American Pharoah, who broke a 37-year Triple Crown drought with his Belmont Stakes victory on June 6, is the 32nd American classic winner descending in male line from Mr. Prospector dating back to when his son Conquistador Cielo won the Belmont in 1982.”

According to Sparkman, the Northern Dancer line was second to Mr. Prospector in this timeframe, with 17 Classic winners.

Since then, the Mr. Prospector line is responsible for an additional seven Classic winners in the U.S., the most recent of which was last year's Gl Preakness winner Early Voting (Gun Runner). The Northern Dancer line also has had another seven.

If the Classics are the gauge, Mr. Prospector's impact on them certainly makes him the most influential stallion of the last 50 years.

Florida to Claiborne

Mr. Prospector, who was bred by Leslie Combs ll, topped the 1971 Keeneland July sale at $220,000. He was purchased by A.I. “Butch” Savin's AISCO Stable and trained by Jimmy Croll, but he wasn't a Classic horse himself; he was sprinter, and a brilliantly fast one when he was sound. On the same day that Savin's Regal and Royal won the Gl Florida Derby, defeating Forego by three lengths, Mr. Prospector set the track record for six furlongs at Gulfstream in 1:07 4/5, winning by nine lengths in his third start.

Mr. Prospector, who was unraced at two, would go on to win seven of 14 starts, including the Gravesend and Whirlaway while contemporaries Secretariat won the Triple Crown and Forego three Horse of the Year titles.

Mr. Prospector attained his legendary status in the breeding shed, and improbably at that. Savin retired him to stud inexpensively at his AISCO Stable in Florida, far away from the best broodmares in Kentucky, but Mr. Prospector simply had what it took to overcome lesser mares. From his first crop, he got 1978 Eclipse champion 2-year-old filly It's in the Air, among others. Fappiano, a Grade l winner and top racehorse who became an influential stallion himself, was a member of Mr. Prospector's second crop. Another future successful stallion, Grade l-placed Crafty Prospector, was from Mr. Prospector's fourth crop.

Peter Brant | Sid Fernando

Peter Brant, who picked up an Eclipse award for Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom) as top turf filly or mare last week, was among the first owner-breeders to notice Mr. Prospector's prepotency and was instrumental in acquiring Mr. Prospector and moving him to Kentucky for the 1981 breeding season. I spoke last week to Brant, whose White Birch Farm is in Connecticut, of how he was able to move the stallion from AISCO to Claiborne.

“Butch Savin was in the concrete mix business in Connecticut. When he had Mr. Prospector, he lived in Connecticut and also in Boca Raton in Florida. I started to notice this horse was getting some nice horses from some cheap mares, as I was looking up stallion stats to see who to breed to, and this horse was looking very, very good, so I made it my business to meet Butch Savin. I would go down to Boca Raton, because at the time I was playing polo in Wellington. I kind of lived in Florida three months of the year while I was playing polo. So, I would go down to Boca–he had a condominium overlooking the ocean–and I would pick him up; he had a favorite Chinese restaurant and we would go there and sit and talk of the future plans of Mr. Prospector.

“I'd called Seth Hancock up and told him this horse was the real deal, and Seth was interested but the horse was in Florida and the horse was good with cheap mares but would he do well on the Kentucky circuit against those other stallions, especially the ones Seth was carrying at the time,” Brant said.

“Anyway, I'm talking to Butch and I tell him why don't we move the horse to Kentucky, and he says, 'Well, I'm not going to move. I have a farm in Florida.' And I said, 'Why don't you stay in on the horse, and we'll move him to Kentucky?' So, I'm talking to Seth and Butch Savin–it was really like arbitraging Seth and Butch Savin–and it wasn't the easiest job in the world. Finally, Butch agreed to move the horse to Kentucky and said he would stay in on the horse. I was going to keep like a third of the horse, and Seth was going to syndicate the rest of him. You know, Seth did a great job syndicating him–he had the best owners in there. And then Savin says, 'I don't want to stay in on the horse. I'm not, realistically, going to send any mares up to Kentucky.' So, he didn't stay in. And we paid real money for the horse. It was probably between $175,000 to $200,000 per share, and there were 40 shares.

“I ended up keeping a third, and as the prices went up I'd spin off some shares. You know, at one point he was standing for $300,000 no guarantee. He was a very valuable horse, and what made him a great investment for everybody involved was that the shares went to over a million dollars. And what made him even more valuable was he was one of the few stallions who was breeding to more mares back then, and so you basically got an extra season every other year. Back then, horses were breeding 40 to 48 mares, and he was breeding 64, 65 mares, up to 70. And so it was a very good deal, and he also lived a very long life and was fertile for a long time.”

And he sired some of the best colts and fillies of his era, and they in turn became sires and dams of other high-quality stock, and the cycle kept continuing.

And it keeps continuing, which is why Mr. Prospector is the most influential sire of the last 50 years in North America.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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Longtime Claiborne Manager Gus Koch Dies at 74

Robert “Gus” Koch, died Saturday, March 20, 2021, at his beloved Mt. Carmel Farm, after a 24-year battle with cancer. He was 74.

The retired longtime manager of Claiborne Farm, Koch was a Marine and a Vietnam veteran.

Koch was the subject of one of the TDN and Keeneland's Life's Work Oral History project, and Chris McGrath's story on him may be read here.

Hired when Seth Hancock took the reins at the farm, Koch was at the helm at Claiborne for 31 years, running perhaps the best lineup of stallions ever assembled. “Secretariat, of course, was the hype name for non-horse people,” Koch told McGrath in 2019. “Then we had Danzig, Mr. Prospector, and Nijinsky. Sir Ivor, Damascus. The stallions we had in that barn were just unbelievable.”

Koch grew up on a gain farm north of Cincinnati. HIs father wrote for periodicals on agriculture as well as on horse racing and auctions.

“We always had riding horses,” Koch said. “My first was a former lead pony from River Downs. Horse named Billy. I loved that horse. My dad just loved racing and we were always at the Keeneland sales, or at the old Latonia, or at a fair meet.”

He volunteered for the Marine Corps when he graduated at High School at 18 in 1966, and was sent to Vietnam in July of that year. He was stationed in Da Nang, and was honorably discharged at the end of his service. His son Matthew also served in the Marines as an intelligence officer.

His first job in the racing industry was for Charles Kenney at Stoner Creek Farm, working on the feed truck. He was exposed to Standardbreds there, and started learning about equine reproduction while working with artificial insemination. After five years, he went to work for E. P. Taylor, at Oshawa, where he worked with Natalma, Northern Dancer and The Minstrel.

In 1977, he was approached by Seth Hancock at the suggestion of Stuart Janney.

“Seth needed somebody who could handle stallions, run a breeding shed, handle broodmares,” Koch told Chris McGrath. “Do the whole thing. I just looked him in the eye and said, 'Seth, I can do this. You want some references?' He said, 'No, I'm a pretty good judge of a man.' I never asked him what he'd pay me. He never asked me what I wanted. We shook hands because both of us knew it was the right thing to do.”

For years, Koch had the pleasure of showing off the most famous racehorse in the world, Secretariat, to the thousands of tourists and dignitaries who came to the farm to see him, including Queen Elizabeth. Koch told McGrath that she had arrived with a camera around her neck, just as all the others did.

“I'd be leaving the farm on a Saturday night, and here comes a vanload of people from Michigan,” Koch said to McGrath. “'We're closed.' 'Aw, we just drove all day. We just want to see the big red horse.' And I'd walk up there and show them Secretariat. That horse could load a camera. He loved to have his picture taken. One of the most photographed horses in history, I'm sure. He just never did a thing wrong: easy to breed, easy to handle, easy to keep his weight on.”

Koch retired in 2009.

“It's a sad day,” said Seth Hancock Saturday. “He was a whale of a man, not only was he a wonderful manager out here at the farm, but he was a wonderful father, wonderful husband, 10 kids, all of them solid citizens. Just a life well lived for sure. He was part of the family, which is a little bit unusual, because he was not from around here, he was from Ohio. He had worked a little bit at Stoner Creek Farm, but he came to us from Winfields, first in Canada, and then in Maryland.

“He wasn't a Kentucky basketball fan,” Hancock said with a laugh, “like everyone else around here is, but he quickly became part of the family just because of who he was, and the way that he lived his life and all the respect we all had for him.”

Dell Hanock recalled him similarly. “Gus was a fine person as well as a good horseman,” she said. “He was always upbeat and just delightful.”

As a parishioner at the Church of the Annunciation in Paris, Ky., he faithfully led the Rosary before Saturday evening mass for nearly 40 years, was a past Grand Knight of The Knights of Columbus (4th degree), and was past president of the Parish Council. Gus proudly served the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club as president in 1987 and was honored by that group as the 2004 Farm Manager of the Year. He was also a past member of both the Bourbon County School Board and the Bourbon Community Hospital Board.

Visitation will be Tuesday, March 23, 5-8 p.m. at the Church of the Annunciation in Paris with Rosary preceding at 4:45 p.m. Rev. Daniel Fister will celebrate the Mass of Christian Burial at the church Wednesday, March 24, at 10 a.m. and live streamed on www.facebook.com/paris.cdlex. Interment will follow at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Paris. His sons and sons-in-law will serve as pall bearers.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Theresa, and 10 children: Charles (Katie) Koch, Jennifer (Drew) Alvarez, Becky (Mark) Mitchell, Stephen (Wendy) Koch, Matthew (Kristen) Koch, Anthony (Jill) Koch, Amy (Brian) Sellers, Cecilia (Drew) Adams, Gus (Shelley) Koch, and Mary (Bryan) Flachbart, 33 grandchildren and two foster grandchildren.

All five of Koch's sons work in the Thoroughbred industry; Charles, at Lake Horse Transportation; Stephen, 1/ST; Matthew, Shawhan Place; Anthony, Hallway Feeds; Gus, Shawhan Place.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Horse Farm Workers' Educational Assistance Fund (www.horsefarmworkerseducationfund.com) or Church of the Annunciation Building Fund, 1007 Main St., Paris, KY, 40361

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Bill Farish Succeeds Seth Hancock As Keeneland Trustee

Lane's End Farm's William “Bill” Farish, who serves on the boards of numerous Thoroughbred industry and Central Kentucky organizations, has been appointed a Keeneland Trustee. Farish succeeds Claiborne Farm co-owner Seth Hancock, who is retiring as a Keeneland Trustee after having served since 2015.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to have served as a Keeneland Trustee for the past several years,” said Hancock, “and I know that Keeneland is in very capable hands.” Hancock will remain on Keeneland's Board of Directors.

“On behalf of Keeneland, I want to extend our thanks to Seth for his longtime service, his leadership and his wise counsel,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “As he has done with many others, Seth has taught me so much about the horse industry. He is an iconic figure who has served both Keeneland and the sport with great integrity and humility.”

Farish was named to Keeneland's Board of Directors in 2010. He joins Everett Dobson, prominent Thoroughbred owner, breeder and Executive Chairman of Dobson Fiber, and William M. Lear Jr., Chair Emeritus of Stoll Keenon Ogden, as a Keeneland Trustee.

“Bill's demonstrated passion for racing, his commitment to excellence and his desire to continually better the horse industry is consistent with Keeneland's values,” Arvin said. “We welcome his expertise and guidance.”

A lifelong Thoroughbred owner and breeder, Farish is General Manager of his family's Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Kentucky, which has bred more than 300 stakes winners and is home to such leading stallions as Quality Road, Candy Ride (ARG), Twirling Candy, Union Rags and City of Light. He founded Woodford Racing in 2005 as a Thoroughbred racing partnership designed to attract new owners to the sport.

Additionally, Farish is Executive Vice President and a member of the board of W. S. Farish & Co., a Houston-based trust company.

“This is a tremendous honor for me,” Farish said. “Keeneland holds such a prominent position in the Thoroughbred industry and is such a vital part of life in Central Kentucky that I view this as not only a privilege but an important responsibility.”

Farish has been an active contributor to the Thoroughbred industry throughout his career. He is a member of The Jockey Club and current chairman of the Horse PAC, the federal political action committee of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. He is on the board of the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) and the Breeders' Cup, where he served as chairman for two terms. He formerly served on the board of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association (KTA), on the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association's Graded Stakes Committee and as past president of the Thoroughbred Club of America.

In the Central Kentucky community, Farish is a trustee of the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Foundation, a member of the advisory board of Central Bank and board member of the Town Branch Fund. He previously served on the boards of both the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University.

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