Lexington, KY - Horse Capital of the World

BREEZE THE BLUEGRASS 1/19/12

Meet Funny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby, Friday morning, January 20, at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena.  At 10:30am, representatives from our state’s travel and tourism departments will kick off a new tourism campaign, “There’s Only One Kentucky,” featuring 31 “Only One” attractions sure to bring new faces to the state of Kentucky and our great Bluegrass region.  Funny Cide is the poster horse for the new 2012 Kentucky Visitor’s Guide.  This is primarily a media event, but it is definitely open to the public and will be an “only one” opportunity to see this amazing horse in person.   Take a left at the traffic circle after entering the Kentucky Horse Park and drive on back to the Alltech Arena.  There is no admission to enter the Horse Park this time of year, and no admission to visit the arena. 

Funny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby, has an interesting history.   Bred in Kentucky and born in New York, he gets his name from creatively combining his parent’s names:  Distorted Humor and Belle’s Good Cide.  Funny Cide has an impressive lineage.  As if having Distorted Humor as his father, or sire, isn’t enough, Seattle Slew, who won the Triple Crown in 1977, was his granddad.   If you can’t make it to the “Only One” launch then be sure to visit Funny Cide any time at his home, the Hall of Champions, at the Kentucky Horse Park.    

Funny Cide has his own personal website here

Read more about the Hall of Champions here

Funny Cide also has his own Hall of Champions page here

What are some of these “Only One” places to see in our inner Bluegrass region, you ask?   Come see Funny Cide at the Kentucky Horse Park Friday, or any day at the Hall of Champions, and you’ll be at one of them!   The Kentucky Horse Park, in Lexington, KY, encompasses over 1,200 acres.  It is a working horse farm with a wide variety of breeds on display.  The Kentucky Horse Park also features two museums, the International Museum of the Horse, which is a Smithsonian affiliate, and the American Saddlebred Museum.  Lexington, KY itself is another “Only One” because it is considered the “Horse Capital of the World.”  Another “Only One” in the Bluegrass is Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, KY.   Shaker Village, as mentioned in a previous blog, is the largest restored Shaker community in the United States.  

Check out Kentucky Tourism’s website here

Looking ahead, Funny Cide brings to mind the Kentucky Derby Festival.  This four-month festival begins in January each year and showcases a variety of events designed to draw attention to the Big Race the first Saturday in May…May 5^th this year.   Tickets are now on sale for the Derby Festival’s 2012 Basketball Classic, which takes place on April 6, and registration is underway for the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon, which takes place on April 28.  I realize that these are not actual horse-specific events, but they are examples of just how important another one of Kentucky’s “Only One” Kentucky Derby race is to the state of Kentucky, and how proud we are to share it.

Check out the Kentucky Derby Festival website here

Learn more and buy tickets to the basketball classic here

Get information and register for the Marathon here

Enjoy your time in the Bluegrass!

-Julie