"When Lexington was named host city of the 2010 Alltech FEI Games, experts in diplomacy and business heralded the event as an opportunity for people to come together in their love of equestrian sport and build the relationships necessary to overcome the difficult issues of the day. Of course, at Keeneland's September yearling sale, Lexington will demonstrate that the world is already here.
"Keeneland is the big gorilla in world Thoroughbred sales," said Lincoln Collins, a bloodstock agent who was born and raised in the United Kingdom and serves as the North American representative for Tattersalls, the world's first bloodstock auction house and Europe's leading bloodstock auctioneers. Echoing the consensus that the innate geological qualities of the Bluegrass region help produce the finest racing stock on the planet, Collins says "there's no question that Lexington is the horse capital of the world. Sooner or later, everyone has to come to Lexington."
Collins is one of a large and growing number of foreign-born professionals who live in Central Kentucky and who have expertise in and passion for every facet of the Thoroughbred industry. Laura D'Angelo, a partner at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, shares Collins' love of horses and is another foreign-born industry expert. She includes Collins in her extensive list of contacts. "We're here to provide legal advice, but my clients have always expected a certain level of business advice as well," said D'Angelo. "When our clients are looking for experts, we provide them with a list of names and let them conduct interviews." D'Angelo's love of horses began when she was raised on a small farm in Toronto and continues to this day -she owns a Thoroughbred she affectionately named Billable Hours.
In a sport that is arguably more popular in other countries than in the United States, it's not surprising leaders in Thoroughbred racing's most venerated institutions hail from those countries. Given the state of the global economy, it's also not surprising that many of the largest buyers this year will come from outside the United States as well.
"Keeneland is a global marketplace," said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland's director of sales. "We'll see buyers from thirty countries in September, from Dubai to Korea to South Africa." Russell was born in Dublin and came to the United States in 1982. About one-third of Keeneland's sales will go to international buyers. Russell is looking forward to a very impressive sale this year. "We've built a strong foundation here. The building blocks we've laid in previous years are very solidly made. We have a strong catalog, and the response has been very favorable."
Another Irishman looking forward to the Keeneland September sale is Michael Hernon, director of sales for Gainesway Farm. "We've got a strong representation of entries," says Hernon. "This is an exciting time for us." Gainesway has been owned and operated by the Beck family of South Africa since 1989. The team at Gainesway expects robust participation from Europe this year. "The Europeans have a strong currency advantage today, given the value of the euro and the pound," said Hernon. "They're positioned to be aggressive buyers."
The Europeans and buyers of other nationalities may be aggressive this year, but they'll also be smart -after all, it's not as if they're new to Lexington or to Keeneland. People from all over the world have invested their emotions as well as their financial resources here. Ted Burge, a vice president for equine commercial lending at Fifth Third Bank, has followed foreign investment in the industry very closely. "I've been doing this for 18 years, and foreign investment has been significant for all those years," said Burge. "Most have been in business for over a decade, and have substantial domestic capital. We're not talking about neophytes here."
The surest sign that the equine industry has transformed Lexington into a global community is the lengths to which global leaders invest in the area and participate in local issues. Marie Yoshida-Debeusccher was born in France, and owns Lexington's Winchester Farm with her husband, Dr. Naoya Yoshida. Yoshida was born in Japan and studied equine veterinary medicine there. The two have spent their lives breeding and caring for horses, and have built distinguished careers working on global issues facing the industry. "We always wanted a farm in Lexington, always in Fayette County," said Yoshida-Debeusccher. The Yoshida family has already built strong relationships in the local equine community. "Everyone has been great," Yoshida-Debeusccher added warmly. They now devote much of their passion and resources toward the issue of preserving local farmland. As developers convert farmland into commercial properties, the qualities that make Lexington's Thoroughbreds -and Lexington itself -unique are threatened.
"This land is precious," Yoshida-Debeusccher said. "The quality of the soil is really unique, and to see beautiful land developed is tragic -it's irreversible." The Yoshida family has protected their land and has worked with other advocates to encourage conservation easements through local programs. Yoshida-Debeusccher points out that a substantial portion of downtown Lexington remains undeveloped while farmland on the city's outskirts remains a target for commercial builders. "Our farm is beautiful, so we protected it," she said. "Imagine if we sold it to developers. We have to educate more people about this."
The cliche, "think globally, act locally" is at work in Kentucky -and our global neighbors are the ones applying it.
David Wescott is a Lexington-based senior associate for APCO Worldwide, a global public affairs firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.