Ted Bates, former GM of Fasig-Tipton and longtime farm manager, dies at 92

Lifelong horseman Ted Bates, who was once general manager of Fasig-Tipton Kentucky, died on Jan. 22 at the age of 92.

Born in Louisville, Ky., Bates graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1952 with a degree in agriculture and went to work at several Lexington, Ky.-area farms. He worked at Coldstream Farm, Elizabeth Arden’s Maine Chance Farm, and Calumet Farm before taking over as general manager of Foxtail Farm in Nicholasville, Ky.

When Fasig-Tipton set up operations in Kentucky in the mid-1970s after a long hiatus, Bates was chosen at its general manager. He was in that role until 1978, when he left to manage Hilary Boone’s Wimbledon Farm for four years and then managed B. K. Yousif’s BKY farm for a brief time.

Bates eventually established his own Ted Bates Farm in 1989 on part of the former property of Bwamazon Farm.

Bates is as a past president of the Thoroughbred Club of America and the Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club. He had served as president of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association and was a board trustee at the University of Kentucky for 13 years.