Hello all,

I know it's been a while since I've been here but I was crazy busy getting ready for my trip to KENTUCKY!!! I feel like I have had the trip of a lifetime. We arrived on Thursday the 6th late in the evening and just crashed from the drive (13.5 hours). On Friday we got up and went to Churchill Downs, while there we saw the amazing historical architecture and the Twin Spires. It was truly breathtaking. The paddock area quickly filled with people eger to see the next set of horses. The Thoroughbreds were beautiful, I have never seen anything that refined even compared to Canterbury. After watching a few races, well 6 races we went to the photo booth to see past racehorses from the Kentucky Derby. After we left the Churchill Blacksmith approached us and gave us a lesson about racing shoes. They are super light! He gave each of us a shoe that had been on winning horse in the last few days. After getting jockey autographs and pictures with Robby Albarado and Kent Desmoreaux we were ready to call it a day. On our way out we were stopped again by a security guard named Bill. He asked us if we had been there before and we replied "no". He then hurried us off, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. We reached an elevator and all filed in. Floor 5. Before the doors open he said, politely, "I don't mean to be rude, but I am almost positive that never of you will see this level again." The excited grew as we left the elevator. There was 4 private dining rooms and the Queen's room. NOT KIDDING we got to see where the Queen of England comes to watch the Derby. Next stop was outside. "Welcome to Millionaire's Row" the guard said opening the door for us. We watched the paddock and the final race from millionaire's row. We had our competition the next day and we finished 11 out of 50, not too bad. On Sunday we returned to Churchill downs for our tour of the backside and it wasn't as pretty as I had hoped. But is was beautiful. There were 1400 horses on the grounds. Did you know that Churchill has it's own jail? it's in the infield for rowdy crowd members on derby day. After that we toured the Derby Museum and it was pretty incredible. We saw Eight Belle's grave and learned that normally only the head, heart and hooves of a horse are buried, the rest of the body is cremated. hen we let Churchill Downs we headed off to Lexington and the Kentucky Horse Park. We steeped out of the car and it was only 45 degrees outside, cold for Kentucky. The park was beautiful we bought souvenirs and then headed to the Hall of Champions, a barn dedicated to champion Saddlebreds, they bite and weren't very friendly. After leaving the barn we headed over to an arena that had something like a horse show going on. It is called the mounted games and it is a bunch of relay events preformed on horse back. There were teams from London and Australia there. The Canadian team won for the day. There are 25 events and the one of the Teams there just returned to the US from the Australian Championships. When that event was done we went to the national horse museum. I took many pictures and it was very interesting. After the museum everyone was in the gift shop but my mom and I went to see Man O' War's grave. I almost cried it was so moving. He was the greatest racehorse that ever lived. His stride length was a record 28 feet where Secretariat's stride was 25 feet. I truly believe that the Kentucky Horse Park is a part of Heaven on Earth. The last and final day in Kentucky was spent packing our things and trying to find a way to go on one last final tour. The Thoroughbred Heritage company called there most favored driver and he agreed to work on his day off to take us on a tour. W went to Kalumet Farms and saw the amazing architecture and buildings. We went to Keeneland Racecourse and in my opinion it was much prettier than Churchill but had it's own fantastic buildings. We watched an auction and saw a yearling be sold for $35,000! A YEARLING never been raced or anything. after that we went to Walmac farm and saw the grave site of Nureyev (the grand-sire of Big Brown). In 1987 Nureyev was turned into a paddock and he completely shattered his right rear hock. The vets gave him a 10% chance of survival and the owners built him a private barn from where he lived and bred until his death in 2001. Also housed at Walmac is Toby Keith's Horse Cactus Ridge and Bob Hurley (as in the brand Hurley) horse SongandPrayer. After that we went to the Thoroughbred Training Center and it was very nice. The tour guide, Nicholas, had a horse there and there were many very cute yearlings. Unfortunately our ended and we began the 13.5 hour journey home.