Send Sport of Kings

Posted: 8:22 PM May 17, 2012
Reporter: Michael Gossum

Sport of Kings

Some consider it the Sport of Kings, but many others know it as a business the thoroughbred horse business.

Local horse owner David Garvin has been in the thoroughbred business for awhile.

"I tell you it's a fun business. It's a risky business. I was born to like risk I guess, because I like the horse business," said Garvin.

He is a commercial breeder and currently has about 16 mares, but most of them are in Lexington right now breeding.

They'll be back soon, and Garvin will help raise the foals until they become yearlings.

"You take really good care of them from then on, you let them exercise, groom them, and then you're doing all of this when in about two minutes, you find what the horse is worth in September when you take it to the big Keeneland sale," said Garvin.

He's able to do all of this with a state-of-the art barn.

"It was carefully designed, it's got a nice wide center aisle for the horses, each stall is vented with cross ventilation from the one to the other. They have dutch doors on them, and they've got plenty of light in the barn," said Garvin.

But he's not just a breeder, he's had some successful horses like Sleekfeet, she won multiple races at Churchill Downs and Keeneland.

"I had no clue how good she was until she won her first race. She kept winning. The famous jockey pat day, he was the jockey. He was a wonderful fellow. I think he definitely was the best jockey of his time, one of the best of all time," said Garvin.

The list of people he's sold horses to includes Middle Eastern royalty.

"I said Shaikh Mohammed has spent up here, just today. I think it was 8.9 million dollars buying race horses. That's a lot of money for anybody. How does he do it? He said, don't worry about Shaikh Mohammed, his income is ten million a day," said Garvin.

Soon, these rolling green hills won't be empty, but have several horses.

Garvin said usually this time of year his horses are back.

And he's looking forward to a good sale later on in September.

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