VERSAILLES, Ky. (LEX 18) — Just a couple of horses spent some time warming up at Highbramble Park in Woodford County on Tuesday morning.
The new training facility just opened in July, and it’s a place specifically for standardbred horses.
“They're just such a levelheaded, cool horse, and they go out and they do their job every day,” said Alex Riddle, the manager at Highbramble.
Riddle grew up in the horse business, and he wants to help standardbred racing find its footing again in Kentucky.
“My dad has always said that when he moved here in 1978, there were just as many standardbred stallions as there were thoroughbred stallions,” Riddle said. “Then you know some program changes in other states and incentive programs and those types of things have really pulled the standardbreds away from the state of Kentucky and mostly up to Jersey and Pennsylvania.”
Standardbred racing is much more common in the northeast now, but better incentive programs and more racing opportunities are opening things up in the bluegrass.
“Now Kentucky racing is where everybody wants to be because the program is very rich, the purses are great,” Riddle said. "Also, we've had two more tracks open up, so we have more of a year-round circuit, so the horses don't have to move around as much.”
“That's what really opened the opportunity for us to open a training center here, is a year-round circuit, closer to a year-round circuit, and then the purse money, so people want to leave their horses here and not just ship them in for the big stakes races,” Riddle said.
Highbramble currently has 128 stalls – which are all full – and work continues to build more at the facility. Riddle spent some time telling members of the Woodford Chamber of Commerce about the park, sharing how it could help the county – and the horse industry overall.
“Diversity breeds resilience, right? As you have more and more programs and more different breeds and different sports, it breeds a resilience to the horse industry,” said Riddle.
