Kentucky cellist Yoonie Choi puts her language skills to work connecting the equine industry with international buyers.
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When Yoonie Choi immigrated to the United States alone at the age of 13 from South Korea to accept admission as a cello player at the Manhattan School of Music, she spoke little English and knew no one. “When I first got there, my first class was English I, and the first book I had to read was Oedipus,” Choi said. “I was in an English as a second-language class, but that doesn’t help you read Oedipus.” She had no idea at the time that those hard-earned language skills would set her up later in life to connect the Kentucky Thoroughbred market with a growing purchasing force from her homeland.
During the last decade, and initially unbeknownst to Choi, horse racing has grown quickly in popularity in Korea. According to the South Korean Embassy, Kentucky’s exports of purebreds for breeding in Korea increased by more than 14 times from 2005 to 2011, from $483,200 to $6.9 million. As is the case for many emigres who eventually come to serve as crucial links to global trade for the local equine industry and other Kentucky businesses, horses were not on Choi’s mind when she pursued her education in the United States and moved to Lexington.
Choi’s parents sent her to a private school in Connecticut, where she excelled in math, partly because it was the one subject that easily transcended language.
“In six months, I remember hearing words, but [I could] not put them in sentences,” Choi said. “About a year later, I could kind of speak a little bit. But I’m not a shy person, so I think that helped me pick it up.”
Ultimately, she made the cello her career and came to Lexington in 2006 to get her doctoral degree in music. In between her academic work and giving music lessons, Choi heard that someone wanted a Korean-English translator to work with them at Keeneland and inquired about the job, hoping to earn some extra income.
As it turned out, K.O.I.D., a Korean bloodstock purchasing group, was the entity requesting translation services. K.O.I.D. travels the world purchasing horses on behalf of the Korean Racing Authority, a government organization that regulates and participates in the country’s horse racing industry.
“The first time I walked into Keeneland, it blew my mind,” she recalled. “This was a whole new world. I was looking at the [sales] board, just counting zeros.”
Initially, the new job was a little difficult to explain to her parents back home in Korea. Although wagering is permitted on horse races, Choi said that gambling isn’t viewed favorably in their culture and that owning a racehorse is considered a form of particularly high-dollar gambling reserved for the very richest of the independently wealthy.
Since 2006, the Thoroughbred industry in Korea has blossomed, with three racecourses and three major stud farms, and it is in need of horses — both to race and to form a base for the country’s young breeding industry.
Currently, the KRA purchases an average of 300 to 360 horses from the United States per year via Choi’s employer. Initially its primary interest was acquiring pregnant mares and stallion prospects, but now the KRA’s presence is felt more heavily at the recent yearling sales. Maximum budget for the KRA when buying a horse is $20,000, with certain exceptions for age and gender.
Horses purchased by the KRA are either trained in the United States first and sent to Korea to race or sent directly overseas, where they are placed in an auction for private owners unable or unwilling to make the 20-hour flight to scope out several thousand sale entries. Korean-owned horses rarely spend their careers in this country, since their owners fear competition may be too strong for their modestly priced purchases. Typically, once a horse bought by the government arrives in Korea, it may be auctioned to a private owner or group before it begins its racing career, sometimes at a profit to the government, which funnels extra funds back into the racing industry.
Ultimately, Choi’s job grew to involve translation and communications for K.O.I.D. at the major horse auctions across the United States. The bilingual skills that had seemed such an enormous challenge at age 13 now also serve her South Korean clients in making arrangements with U.S. quarantine farms and shipping companies, organizing the horses’ journey to Korea.
Today, her seasonal work at the sale complements her schedule teaching, organizing student recitals and playing weddings and events in Low End Duo with her husband, Paul Reich, a professional bass instructor and player.
Although she works to translate during the sales, she is not responsible for picking which horses to purchase, which she says is a relief. She also finds the analytical, numbers-heavy work during the auctions juxtaposes nicely with the long, artistic process of being a musician.
“I try to balance the two things — music and horse sales,” she said. “You’re never satisfied as a musician; you can’t say, ‘I did that correctly,’ and it’s the end. There’s nothing like that in art … [but with horses] there’s a definite end to each sale.”