university of kentucky | Horse Racing Free Tips

UK Quarterback Will Levis and Walker Hancock Join ‘Catching Up with Katie’

In the first episode of the TDN's new video series 'Catching Up with Katie,' host Katie Petrunyak sat down with the University of Kentucky's starting quarterback Will Levis and Claiborne Farm's Walker Hancock at Wallace Station Deli and Bakery outside of Lexington to discuss the N.I.L. (Name, Image, and Likeness) deal between Levis and Claiborne stallion War of Will (War Front).

The partnership was announced early last month and is the first of its kind for any collegiate student-athlete with a Thoroughbred syndicate.

“The reaction that we have gotten has been incredible,” Hancock shared. “The Tweet that we sent out has over 500,000 impressions, so it literally went viral. It was cool to see other outlets that aren't necessarily in the horse industry pick it up. We are always trying to find new fans and when we can cross sports like this, getting football fans focused on racing and racing fans watching football, it works out really well for both sports. It has been a perfect synergy of our brands with what we are looking to do.”

Set to take the field this fall for his second season as QB for the Wildcats, Levis talked about the opportunities this deal has provided not only for himself and War of Will, but for the Thoroughbred industry at large.

“[Horse racing] is so pertinent to Kentucky's economic success,” he said. “To bring eyes to the industry and to the people that are a part of it has been really cool. You're getting not only the eyes of people in the horse industry and Kentucky football fans, you're expanding the possibilities for fans from brand new demographics because of the uniqueness of the deal and the amount of people that picked up on it. Regardless of if you have interest in horse racing or football, it's still a cool story to read about.”

Levis, who threw for 2,826 passing yards and 24 touchdowns last year to lead UK to one of its most successful seasons on record, has quickly developed an interest in, and perhaps even a bit of a passion for, the sport of horse racing since his move to Lexington. He has already made several visits to Keeneland and this year, attended his first Kentucky Derby.

Asked if he had any desire to someday get further involved in the industry, Will responded enthusiastically. “100%. It's definitely something I want to keep myself involved in one way or another. I still have a lot to learn and I still have just a very surface-level knowledge of the sport, but I'm going to keep dipping my feet in and learning as much about it as I can because it's so interesting. There's a lot of money in it too, and that's not the main reason behind my interest, but while I'm here I have to take advantage of it.”

Later in the conversation, Hancock shared how he envisions the future of other stud farms potentially partnering with athletes in the N.I.L. space, and both Levis and Hancock discussed how each of their family legacies played a roll in building their own success.

Watch this first episode of Catching Up with Katie on YouTube or on TDNTv.

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UK AG Equine Teams With BGFC

The University of Kentucky Ag Equine Program's Wildcat Wrangler equine student ambassador team has selected Blue Grass Farms Charities (BGFC) as their agency of choice for the semester for community service.

Club members will host a 'canned food, cleaning and hygiene' drive from Feb. 14-25 and will be collecting 'springtime' toys for farm children to play with outside on sunny days.

“We cannot wait to start collecting donations and distributing them to the community while connecting with the equine industry,” said sophomore Jen Zimmerman, a 'Wildcat Wrangler' in the UK equine science and management program.

From Feb. 28 through Mar. 3, the Wildcat Wranglers will meet at the charity to deliver food from Lexington's 'God's Pantry' distribution center to area farms and plan on restocking and organizing the pantry. Farms participating include Mill Ridge, Dixiana Farm and Don Alberto.

“There are days when you just can't reach everyone,” said Julie Kwasniewski, director of BGFC. “But then there's outreach of love and support like this, which brings hope to our farm families who work so hard keeping the horse and land healthy and safe.”

The mission of the BGFC is to provide health and human services to those working in the Thoroughbred industry in Central Kentucky. The BGFC pantry is open Tuesday through Thursday.

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Training, Color Key To Increasing Mustang Adoptions

The number of wild horses on Western rangelands continues to exceed the stocking rate the land can sustain, says the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Adoption remains a key strategy to regulating wild horse populations.

Dr. Jill Stowe, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky, created two studies to determine how much demand is present for Mustangs among people who choose to adopt horses. She learned that there is more demand for horses that have had some training, and more demand for pinto and dilute-colored horses.

For the first study, Stowe partnered with Dr. Kathryn Bender, professor of environmental economics at the Allegheny College Center for Business and Economics. The duo sought to determine what equine characteristics were most desired by adopters and what adopters were willing to pay for a wild horse. They used data from BLM online auctions held between November 2012 and November 2014.

They found that older horses, those that were born in captivity, and those which had spent a longer time in captivity were less likely to be adopted. They also found that horses with more uncommon coat patterns were more likely to be adopted than horses with a common coat color like bay or chestnut. Adopters were also willing to pay about 40 percent more for the horse if it was a pinto, and 20 percent more for a diluted coat than a solid-colored coat.

Additionally, people purchasing horses that had some halter training or under-saddle training were willing to pay 55 percent more for the horse. These findings could assist the BLM in determining which horses it selects for adoption and training.

Stowe completed the second study with undergraduate student Hannah White. The team created a study based on the assumption that current horse owners are the most-likely group of people to adopt a wild horse. They disseminated the survey via social media and received 2,250 usable responses. Of those, fewer than 10 percent had never adopted a wild horse and wouldn't consider adopting one in the future.

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They found that previous adopters were willing to pay more for a horse than those who had not adopted before. People who owned five or fewer horses were also willing to pay more to adopt a Mustang. The average response indicated they were willing to pay $125 for an “ideal” untrained horse, just under $300 for a halter-trained horse, and $415 for a horse that had been started under saddle.

Both studies indicated that training, especially under-saddle training, is key to driving Mustang adoptions.

Veterinary Researcher Swerczek, Who Discovered Secretariat’s Large Heart, Dies

Dr. Thomas Swerczek, longtime researcher and professor at the University of Kentucky, died on Jan. 9. Swerczek was best known to many laypeople in racing as the veterinarian who performed a necropsy on Secretariat and discovered Big Red's abnormally-large heart, which has been credited by many as the reason for his dominance on the racetrack.

Swerczek received his bachelor's degree in 1962 from Kansas State University, with a DVM to follow in 1964. He got a master's degree and a PhD from the University of Connecticut before taking a job in 1969 at the University of Kentucky's Department of Veterinary Science, where he worked until his retirement in 2018. Much of Swerczek's focus as a researcher was the potential impacts of electrolyte changes, particularly potassium and nitrate in winter pasture, and excesses or imbalances of those electrolytes in commercial grain.

According to an interview he gave in 2020, Swerczek came to believe such seasonal changes were responsible for the worsening of Secretariat's laminitis and that they could play a role in fetal losses in broodmares.

Swerczek served as a reviewer for the AVMA's American Journal of Veterinary Research, and had been on the editorial boards for the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science and Journal of Modern Horse Breeding.

A funeral mass is scheduled for Jan. 14 at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington, Ky., with a burial to follow at Calvary Cemetery.

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