Keeneland: Ramsey turns focus to collecting stakes wins

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Pretty soon you can just call him “Doctor Ramsey.”

Ken Ramsey has been such a phenomenal success as a racehorse owner and businessman that he is being conferred with an honorary doctorate degree.

“I just found out [Tuesday], and it brought tears to my eyes,” Ramsey said this week from his farm in nearby Nicholasville.

Ramsey will be honored this spring by Union College in Barbourville, Ky., a small institution he briefly attended after graduating high school in 1952 and where he has served on the board of trustees for many years. Ramsey and his wife, Sarah, are multiple Eclipse Award winners and fixtures at their hometown track, Keeneland, where last spring their horses won 25 races, more than doubling the single-meet record (12) they previously held at this 77-year-old track.

Asked for his outlook on the spring meet that starts Friday, Ramsey said: “I’d like to leave that record for my son or grandsons to break, so this year we’re more intent on winning all the stakes we can.”

Toward that end, Ramsey has mapped out an aggressive itinerary in which he is planning to have runners in 12 of the 16 stakes on the schedule. Those horses include Thank You Marylou in the Ashland on Saturday, Gentleman’s Kitten trying Wise Dan in the April 11 Maker’s 46 Mile, and Bobby’s Kitten in the April 12 Blue Grass Stakes.

Otherwise, the familiar red and white silks still will be prominent in other races, as evidenced by the three Ramsey entries on the opening-day card.

“We’re really going to be firing at them,” said Ramsey.

Bobby’s Kitten will be one of the favorites in the Blue Grass and will be bidding to join two other Ramsey horses as hopefuls for the 140th Kentucky Derby. We Miss Artie earned his way into the May 3 Derby by winning the March 22 Spiral at Turfway, and Vicar’s in Trouble is in after winning the Louisiana Derby last weekend at Fair Grounds.