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How long does it take to get through the Kentucky Horse Park? What to know

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How long does it take to get through the Kentucky Horse Park? What to know


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The Kentucky Horse Park, located about an hour and 15 minutes from downtown Louisville in Lexington, might be worth a visit before the end of the season.

Here’s what we know.

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What happens at the Kentucky Horse Park?

The Kentucky Horse Park, which has been “celebrating our relationship with the horse since 1978,” offers various educational and entertaining experiences from live horse shows to guided trail rides to camping opportunities, according to the organization’s website.

The more than 1,225-acre park has also been home to stellar racehorses like Western Dreamer, the 1997 Pacing Triple Crown Winner; Bold Forbes, the 1976 Kentucky Derby winner; and Forego, an eight-time Eclipse Award winner.

Why is Kentucky Horse Park famous?

The Kentucky Horse Park has been a long-standing part of Kentucky horse racing history through educational, entertaining and engaging methods.

The park is known for its “Hall of Champions,” where accomplished racehorses retire and live out their final days while educating the local community. Horses that die at the park are moved to the “Memorial Walk of Champions,” home to like Be a Bono, Cam Fella and Da Hoss.

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The Kentucky Horse Park is also home to the grave sites of Man o’ War, War Admiral and Isaac Burns Murphy.

How long does it take to go through the Kentucky Horse Park?

The Kentucky Horse Park takes about three to five hours to fully experience during the main season. Those adding on extra rides or attractions should plan for more time.

Can you ride a horse at Kentucky Horse Park?

Yes. The Kentucky Horse Park offers both horse trail rides and pony rides.

What is the weight limit for rides at Kentucky Horse Park?

Guests must be 7+ years old, 4 feet tall and weigh less than 150 pounds to do a horseback trail ride. It costs $30 per person with times available at 11:45 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m. and 4 p.m.

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Ages 2-12 with a 90-pound weight limit can participate in the pony rides. Three times around the paddock costs $6 with time slots at 11:45 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Which American jockey is buried at Kentucky Horse Park?

Isaac Burns Murphy, a three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey who died in 1896, is buried at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Murphy, who won more than a third of races in his career, had brought home five Latonia Derby wins and four of five of the initial American Derby victories.

After passing, Murphy’s grave remained untouched and abandoned in a Lexington cemetery until his remains were found, exhumed and reburied with Man o’ War at his previous site in 1967. The two were then moved again to their current location before the opening of the Kentucky Horse Park in 1978.

What famous horse is buried in Kentucky?

Man o’ War, with 20 first-place wins and one second-place win in his 1919-20 racing career, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1957 and is buried at the Kentucky Horse Park. His grave site is marked with a bronze sculpture near the front of the park and he is buried near his most famous son, Triple Crown winner War Admiral, and several other children, as well as the famous jockey Isaac Burns Murphy.

What movie was filmed at the Kentucky Horse Park?

The 1985 family drama movie “Sylvester” was filmed in part at the Kentucky Horse Park.

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What champions are at the Kentucky Horse Park?

The Kentucky Horse Park Hall of Champions includes seven retired racing horses, one of whom was the U.S. Pacing Triple Crown winner in 1997, Western Dreamer.

Where is Secretariat buried?

Secretariat is buried at Claiborne Farm in Paris, not far from Lexington. It is located at 703 Winchester Road.

Where was ‘Seabiscuit’ filmed?

The 2003 movie “Seabiscuit” was filmed in a variety of locations, but the horse was first introduced at Calumet Farm in Lexington.

Is the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington privately owned?

The Kentucky Horse Park is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

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What was the old name of the Kentucky Horse Park?

The Kentucky Horse Park had many previous owners and previous names, according to the history of the organization. These included Walnut Hall, Senorita Stud Farm and the Ashland-Wilkes Farm.

What do you do at the Kentucky Horse Park?

The Kentucky Horse Park offers various interactive elements like the American Saddlebred Museum, the International Museum of the Horse, horse shows and meet and greets, trail and pony rides, a gift shop, a cafe and more.

How much does it cost to visit the Kentucky Horse Park?

Admission can be purchased at the visitor center, and the cost varies.

  • Adult admission (ages 13-61): $22
  • Senior (ages 62+): $20
  • Military (with I.D.): $12
  • Child (ages 6-12): $12
  • Toddler (ages 5 and below): Free

Tickets purchased during the main season include the next day free except for major holidays and events.

Kentucky Horse Park hours

The Kentucky Horse Park is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday during its main season, which concludes Nov. 3. The park is closed Monday and Tuesday.

Kentucky Horse Park’s day-to-day schedule

The daily schedule is as follows.

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  • Horse-Drawn Trolley: 10 a.m.
  • Hall of Champions Show: 10:30 a.m.
  • Parade of Breeds Show: 11 a.m.
  • Draft Horse Presentation: 11:45 a.m.
  • Facts & Fun at the Museum: 12:30 p.m.
  • Hall of Champions Show: 1:15 p.m.
  • Parade of Breeds Show: 2 p.m.
  • Horse-Drawn Trolley: 2:45 p.m.
  • Hall of Champions Nightcap: 3:30 p.m.

Kentucky Horse Park 2024 event schedule

The current August schedule is as follows.

  • Hats Off Day – Rood & Riddle Kentucky Grand Prix: 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday.
  • Kentucky Summer Classic: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, Aug. 4.
  • International Gay Polo Tournament: All day Thursday, Aug. 1 to Saturday, Aug. 3.
  • EquineEd: Featuring Wren Blae Zimmerman: 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3.
  • USEF Pony Finals: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6 to Sunday, Aug. 11.
  • Bluegrass Festival Horse Show: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13 to Sunday, Aug. 18.
  • Central Kentucky Riding For Hope Annual Open Barn Day: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17.
  • KHJA Show – August: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 21 to Sunday, Aug. 25.
  • Walk to Defeat ALS: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24.
  • USEA American Eventing Championships: All day from Tuesday, Aug. 27 to Sunday, Sept. 1.
  • Bluegrass Classic Dog Show: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28 to Sunday, Sept. 1.
  • KHP Foundation Battle in the Saddle: 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 30.

For more details and additional events, click here.

Kentucky Horse Park location in Lexington

Kentucky Horse Park is located at 4089 Iron Works Parkway in Lexington.



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Kentucky

Former Kentucky defensive coordinator Matt House rejoins Kansas City Chiefs

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Former Kentucky defensive coordinator Matt House rejoins Kansas City Chiefs


Matt House spent three seasons on the Kentucky football staff serving as the special teams coordinator in 2016 before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 2017. The inside linebackers coach called plays for the 2018 unit that went down as one of the best in program history. House left Kentucky for the NFL following that season.

Now the Kansas City Chiefs are getting the band back together after their Super Bowl loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Head coach Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo are bringing House back to the AFC West.

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Matt House served as the linebackers coach for the Chiefs for three seasons from 2019-21 before leaving to become Brian Kelly’s first defensive coordinator at LSU after Notre Dame hired Marcus Freeman and Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White turned down the job opportunity. However, House was fired after two seasons. The linebackers coach landed on the Jacksonville Jaguars staff in 2023 and is now back in Kansas City serving as a senior defensive assistant.

As White emerged as a potential candidate for the Florida State defensive coordinator gig, Matt House’s named was a potential option if Kentucky did undergo a defensive coordinator search. Instead, House is returning to work with Spagnuolo again after spending three seasons with him the St. Louis Rams as a quality control assistant from 2009-11.

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Kids in Kentucky’s care struggle to get help they need. This bill could offer a solution

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Kids in Kentucky’s care struggle to get help they need. This bill could offer a solution


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  • Kentucky Sen. Danny Carroll has put forward a bill aimed at opening several new juvenile detention centers and creating a new process to determine where a kid in the state’s care should stay.
  • Carroll put forward a similar bill last session, which passed the Senate unanimously but was not taken up by the House before lawmakers gaveled out for the year.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The kids who have been housed inside state offices in recent years weren’t born on third base.

One 11-year-old boy who entered a “non-traditional placement” last month, according to Kentucky officials, has ADHD and a history of parental neglect, suicidal ideations, housing and food insecurity and exposure to inappropriate sexual material. He was kicked out of one foster home last year, removed from an emergency shelter last month due to inappropriate behavior and has been denied by all other foster agencies.

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Another 17-year-old girl with an IQ of 83, multiple mental conditions and a history of abuse and neglect has been in out-of-home care since 2020, at one point landing multiple criminal charges after escaping from a residential treatment center. She’s been in a “non-traditional placement” for a week now after being denied by all in-state and out-of-state providers.

These are the children around Kentucky who are lodged in offices operated by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Secretary Eric Friedlander said Tuesday at a committee meeting. They need all the help they can get.

The issue has been on the state’s radar for nearly two years, with The Courier Journal reporting in July 2023 that a downtown Louisville office building had been used to house delinquent, abused and neglected children in the cabinet’s custody overnight.

In the wake of a new report from Auditor Allison Ball’s office, which found the problems have persisted, the issue has again come into the spotlight in the 2025 General Assembly. And while officials say a solution won’t come overnight, at least one lawmaker has filed a bill that could help start the process for getting Kentucky’s kids appropriate care.

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“It is a problem, there’s no question about it. We’ve got to resolve it,” said Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, who chairs the Senate Families and Children Committee. “But obviously there’s a lot more to this, or it would already be resolved.”

New report investigates foster children housed in office buildings

A recent study from the Office of the Ombudsman, which now reports to Ball, provided new numbers on how many foster children were being housed in Cabinet for Health and Family Services office buildings. Key findings from the 2024 investigation, spanning from June 10 to Oct. 29, included:

  • 49 kids spent a total of 198 days in CHFS buildings.
  • The average stay lasted about four days, and about half of all cases lasted just one day. However, one child in Boone County stayed at a state office for 35 days, and Warren County had separate 16- and 17-day stays.
  • Kids have been housed in buildings all over the state, with 70% of stays taking place in regions in Northern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and counties surrounding Louisville.
  • While kids as young as 1 have stayed in CHFS buildings, 47% were between 16-20 and 37% were between 11-15.

Ball said the report revealed “deeply concerning issues impacting foster children across Kentucky” due to “systemic failures.” The report noted many questions raised “still need answers” and recommended further investigation, including examining the conditions children at the facilities have experienced and barriers that prevent those children from staying with other housing providers.

Speaking at Tuesday’s committee hearing, Ball called the report a “preliminary assessment” that confirmed issues in the system are still present.

“This was step one,” she said. “This just showed it is ongoing, it is still a problem and the ombudsman is actively involved right now in doing a deeper dive.”

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When Friedlander spoke to the committee, he stressed the issue is not unique to Kentucky and “no one” wants to see troubled kids who need help housed in office buildings that aren’t a part of the foster system. A significant number are cases that last about a day, he said, when a kid leaves their home and temporarily stays in non-traditional placement before finding a more permanent solution.

“We are not comfortable with the situation at all, but it is the situation that we are presented with,” he said.

Finding placement for kids accused of violence or who suffer from more severe mental or physical issues, though, is a bigger challenge. Hospitals and other centers are often hesitant to take in “high acuity” kids, Carroll said, because they don’t have the option of calling police for other treatment options if those children become violent, which causes staff to leave and conditions to worsen.

Carroll requested Friedlander provide a list of foster care providers around the state, including their specialties and populations they serve, to help legislators identify shortcomings and work to find solutions, including renovating offices where kids are currently staying into “shelter facilities” that can provide better care. The committee meets again next week.

“I’m not as concerned about them being in a office, I’m concerned about what happens in that office,” he said.

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In the meantime, the Kentucky Youth Advocates nonprofit called the ombudsman’s report a “starting point with the need for more complete data” and called on the state to “keep children in safe, supportive family-based care when possible.”

A CHFS statement said the cabinet continues to work to get those kids, many of whom have “behavioral problems and severe mental or a history of violence or sexual aggression,” with families or facilities that can care for them, noting Kentuckians interested in becoming foster parents can learn more at adopt.ky.gov.

Carroll believes a wider-ranging juvenile justice bill he filed last week could also provide some relief.

Senate Bill 111

A portion of Carroll’s proposal, Senate Bill 111, would change the process used to place kids in the state’s custody into treatment or other residential centers, including those determined to need inpatient care with specialized treatment.

Under Carroll’s proposal, a kid charged with public offenses or who is ordered by a court to receive inpatient psychiatric treatment while in the state’s care would undergo a behavioral assessment by a professional first. If that professional agrees the child needs specialized care, they’d then provide a recommendation for a potential treatment center or for outpatient treatment.

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A court could either approve the arrangement for an initial treatment plan or — if the Department of Juvenile Justice and Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities disagree on recommendations — review the case and schedule a hearing to determine treatment.

Hospitals and other inpatient centers would also have to agree that the proper resources will be available, and kids who commit or incite violence in the hospital’s care could be criminally charged, removed from the facility and taken to their last place of custody.

The bill also calls on the Department of Juvenile Justice to run several housing options for kids in the court system, including detention facilities, youth development centers, group homes, alternatives to detention centers and a mental health facility.

“It’s taking the decision away from the hospitals, from the cabinet, from DJJ. The judge is making a decision where the kid goes,” Carroll said. “And then there are avenues if the kid becomes violent where that kid can be moved again upon court order. It establishes a process for all these things.”

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A CHFS statement Tuesday said SB 11 would “provide additional avenues for (high acuity) youth to receive the care and treatment they deserve in order to thrive.”

The bill does more than that, though. It also calls for the state to open at least two more female-only detention centers, with those accused of violent and nonviolent offenses separated, along with a separate mental health detention center for “high acuity” kids.

Several parts of the bill, including the provision to build two new detention centers for girls, were included in a similar bill from Carroll last year. That legislation, which came with a price tag of $165 million and included a number of other provisions, had momentum but failed to pass through both chambers.

Carroll has been public in his disappointment that lawmakers did not pass the 2024 bill after it was approved unanimously in the Senate. He urged his colleagues to support his latest proposal this year in a speech last week on the chamber’s floor.

“I have been very critical that we did not get the job done last session,” he said. “I hope that we can do it this session.”

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Midway though the bill includes a clause that allows the DJJ to publicly release names, photos and descriptions of kids who escape facilities. It also includes language that would allow the department to disclose confidential records and records about juveniles who file civil lawsuits involving information that had been confidential.

That clause was included in the bill that did not pass last year. While the DJJ defended it as necessary to respond to lawsuits in a Lexington Herald-Leader article, juvenile justice attorney Laura Landenwich told The Courier Journal at that time it would allow officials to “publicly smear” kids who have faced abuse “by opening up for public discourse their juvenile records.”

A key factor working against SB 111 is its hefty financial impact. While it does not yet have a public fiscal impacts statement, Carroll told fellow senators the total price of the new facilities included in the bill would cost “tens of millions of dollars.” House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, has said he does not expect to reopen the state budget this year for major changes.

“I know that that is a very large price tag and is a big step, a big investment for this state,” Carroll told fellow senators. “But as all of you are aware, the Department of Justice has been in our commonwealth once more in relation to DJJ and all the incidents that have occurred within our detention centers throughout the state. … This is the answer that we came up with.”

Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.

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Packers get Kentucky CB Maxwell Hairston in new ESPN mock draft

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Packers get Kentucky CB Maxwell Hairston in new ESPN mock draft


A new mock draft from Field Yates of ESPN (subscription required) gave Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston to the Green Bay Packers at No. 23 overall in the first round of the 2025 draft.

Yates believes a cornerback upgrade could allow the Packers and Jeff Hafley to play more man coverage in 2025 and beyond, and he called Hairston a “playmaking ball magnet” who could “fly” during the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

Hairston played in 32 games with 20 starts at Kentucky. He broke up 10 passes, intercepted six more passes, forced three fumbles and had 2.5 tackles for loss. A two-time All-SEC pick (2023, 2024), Hairston produced three career pick-sixes. He missed five games with a shoulder injury in 2024.

Size is almost certainly going to be a limiting factor for the Packers. Hairston competed at the Senior Bowl — an important event for decision-makers in Green Bay — but measured only 5-11 and 179 pounds in Mobile. His arms are only 31 1/2″ long, so it’s possible the Packers won’t see him as a viable cornerback prospect on their board given his weight and lack of length.

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Not everyone agrees Hairston is a first-round prospect, either.

Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Media currently ranks Hairston as his No. 44 overall prospect at this point in the pre-draft process. Here is Jeremiah’s scouting report:

Hairston is a lean, athletic cornerback with ideal play speed and fluidity. In press coverage, he incorporates a one-hand jam before turning and carrying vertical routes. He has plenty of burst/speed. In off coverage, he likes to settle and catch receivers at the break point. He’ll need to play cleaner with his hands down the field at the next level. In Kentucky’s defense, he rolled back to play in the middle of the field versus certain formations/motions, but he was late to diagnose and react from that alignment. He’s willing in run support and is a dynamic blitzer. He was limited to seven games this past season due to injury. He had a very productive 2023 season (five interceptions) but wasn’t targeted much in the games I studied from this past year. Overall, Hairston offers an enticing blend of movement skills and production.

Dane Brugler of The Athletic isn’t quite as high on Hairston, his No. 54 overall prospect. His scouting report:

Hairston moves fairly effortlessly in all areas of the field, and he plays to his help in man-to-man coverage while showing conviction and awareness in Cover 3. He is a natural making plays at the catch point, but he’s also more scrappy than strong, which will show up against physical NFL receivers and in run support.

What does Packers Wire draft analyst Brennen Rupp think about Hairston at No. 23?

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“Maxwell Hairston is a feisty cornerback who recorded six interceptions and 10 pass deflections over the past two seasons. Hairston only played in seven games this past season as he battled through a shoulder injury. He has a loose lower half and is scrappy in run support,” Rupp wrote. “Taking Hairston is at 23 is a little too rich for my blood and Packers fans may not like taking a cornerback with a history of shoulder injuries. He weighed in at the Senior Bowl at 179 pounds. That may be too light for Green Bay’s liking. It will be worth monitoring what he weighs in at combine. Yates has the Minnesota Vikings taking Oregon’s defensive tackle Derrick Harmon with the next pick. I think it’s far more likely Brian Gutekunst invests in the trenches in the first round.”



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