BH 100: In The Beginning

By Edward L. Bowen

The year 2016 marks the centennial of the publication that proved to be the predecessor of Blood-Horse. Through the year we will publish frequent articles that are relevant to the original organization, its successors, and the developing relationship of the publication to the Thoroughbred industry.

Published with the date of Aug. 1, 1916, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Horse Association Bulletin was a four-page small-format flyer whose chief headline proclaimed the "Rapid Growth" of the association. From the beginning the association noted it was not fundamentally restricted to Kentucky. Indeed, that first edition published a proposed amendment to the KTHA charter that would alter the name to the more inclusive Thoroughbred Horse Association.

From the standpoint of a century later, there are pleasing elements of continuity. For example, the president of the KTHA was Hal Price Headley, a dynamic young leader who two decades later would place his name indelibly in the history of Kentucky racing as the chief mover behind the creation of Keeneland. Headley was the son of a racing man, and his own issue continued the tradition.

Among his daughters, Alma married Louis Lee Haggin II, who succeeded his father-in-law as the leader and spirit of Keeneland. Another daughter, Alice Chandler, in 2016 is the grand dame of Mill Ridge Farm that occupies part of the land that Headley and his father, Hal Petit Headley, knew as LaBelle and Beaumont. Alice Chandler's sons, Michael, Reynolds, and Headley, each went into racing. Headley today is involved with the running of Mill Ridge and Nicoma Bloodstock, and his son Price is a rising participant and leader of an enlightened effort that has recruited farms to promote racing through hosting visitors.

Also a member of the old Kentucky Thoroughbred Horse Association board was one A.B. Hancock Sr., whose family's Ellerslie Farm in Virginia was well-established and who six years before had begun operating a second farm, Claiborne Farm, near Paris, Ky., on acreage his wife had inherited.

Like the Headley family, the Hancocks were in the game for the long haul. Hancock became a leading breeder, as was his son, Arthur B. "Bull" Hancock Jr., as are the latter's sons, Arthur III and Seth. In 2016 Seth has passed on the mantle of Claiborne to his own son, Walker. Thus, the fourth generation of the Hancocks of Claiborne is out of the gate while Arthur III operates his separate Stone Farm.

In addition to president Headley and board member Hancock, the original KTHA officers and directors were Milton Young, Thomas P. Hayes, Charles Berryman, J.O. Keene, Fred A. Forsythe, Thomas C. McDowell, J.S. Barbee, and the club secretary, Thomas B. Cromwell. The office address was Room 20, Hernando Building, Lexington.

A great deal of organization had gone into the creation of the original Kentucky Thoroughbred Horse Association. That modest first publication listed 468 members, and the appropriateness of dropping the name Kentucky from the title was evidenced by their being identified by numerous home states. Beside each member's name was a brief identifier, and these included Breeder, Veterinarian, Racing Official, Hay and Grain, and simply Turfman and Horseman.

Members not directly reliant on the Thoroughbred world for their primary vocation listed themselves by such titles as Brewer, Physician, Auctioneer, Lumberman, Druggist, Editor, Judge, and Insurance.

One fellow suggested a pleasant social schedule by identifying himself as "Clubman."

By the time a second publication was issued, a broadsheet format was in place and the change to the slightly different name had been achieved. Vol. 1, Number 2 of The Thoroughbred Horse Association Bulletin was dated February 1917, and set out a wordy rendition of its Aims and Purposes:

"Feeling the absolute necessity of cooperation and unity of purpose and endeavor in the perpetuation of the noblest of sports and the survival of the Thoroughbred, the fleetest and gamest and most enduring of the horses, a quartette of sportsmen called upon men interested in breeding running horses and in training and racing them and in the enjoyment of racing to assemble on Saturday afternoon, April 8, 1916, in the office of Hal Price Headley in the Hernando Building, Lexington, Ky."

A dozen men attended and launched the considerable organizational work, which by that August had resulted in the membership numbers cited above. Only a week later, on April 15, they were able to call a meeting in the "Assembly Room" of the Phoenix Hotel that was described as "Most satisfactory" and "highly representative, practically all of the breeders contiguous to Lexington being among those in attendance." Articles of incorporation had already been prepared for adoption.

The rambling editorial of Vol. 1, Number 2 reviewed the recent history of racing, including the necessity to overcome elements determined to eliminate the sport. "Prior to 1903, there had been spasmodic efforts of some citizens for different reasons in every city where racing was held to abolish the sport." Several states fell to these efforts, and then most damaging was the cessation of racing in 1909 in New York, "the most opulent and sport-living state in the Union, led by fanatical politicians."

Though the interruption in New York lasted only a couple of years, the commentary stated that "During all of his holocost (sic) of their life interests the horsemen—who suffer most of all...had been forced for years to bow in humility to the dictates of the racing associations (track owners)..."

Attempts of horsemen to organize and protect their interests were met with disdain for some years, but "All things will right themselves if properly managed, and this has been corrected by the wisdom of the Racing Commission and the efforts of the horsemen. The purses and stakes in Kentucky have been adjusted in justice to both the racing associations and the horsemen...The Commission and horsemen have restored the confidence of the public and placed racing on the most prosperous basis that it has ever enjoyed in the history of the state."

Edward L. Bowen, president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, was editor-in-chief of The Blood-Horse from 1987-92.