Tickets on sale at Keeneland.com/library
LEXINGTON, KY (May 12, 2025) – Keeneland Library’s popular Lecture Series continues this summer with public events that celebrate recently published works about Thoroughbred racing whose authors conducted research at the facility. They are:
- May 21: Diane Crump and Mark Shrager will discuss Diane Crump: A Horse-racing Pioneer’s Life in the Saddle
- June 18: Celebrating 25 Years: An Evening with The Saratoga Special
- July 16: Andy Plattner will talk about Stymie
- Aug. 20: Catharine Melin-Moser will discuss When Montana Outraced the East: The Rise of Western Thoroughbreds 1886-1900
All events will be held at Keeneland Library from 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET. Each program will be followed by a reception and book signing, and a limited number of books will be available for purchase.
To purchase tickets, please visit Keeneland.com/library or call 859 254-3412.
“Our exciting 2025 series lineup continues with wide-ranging event guests and topics, two Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award-winning authors, three Eclipse Award-winning Turf writers and two big anniversaries: Diane Crump’s historic ride in the 1970 Kentucky Derby and The Saratoga Special’s 25th year capturing racing’s greatest moments in upstate New York,” Keeneland Library Director Roda Ferraro said. “There is something in the series schedule for everyone, and we are pleased to offer our patrons four great evenings this summer.”
Partial proceeds from ticket sales benefit the Keeneland Library Foundation, which supports the Library’s preservation, education and outreach projects. In 2024, Keeneland Library engaged with more than 81,000 community members, industry stakeholders and racing fans from across the U.S. and 30 countries through its free exhibits and youth and adult education and outreach programs.
For more information about Keeneland Library and how you can support its preservation and outreach efforts, visit Keeneland.com/library.
Diane Crump: A Horse-racing Pioneer’s Life in the Saddle
This year marks the 55th anniversary of Diane Crump’s history-making ride in the 1970 Kentucky Derby. Her story, written with Mark Shrager, won the 2020 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award.
In 1968, a few women, mockingly labeled “jockettes,” had begun demanding the right to apply for jockey licenses, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Most of their applications were rejected by racing’s bureaucracy, which alleged that women were unqualified to participate due to “physical limitations” and “emotional instability.” Female jockeys who attempted to ride were met with boycotts by male jockeys.
Onto this rocky terrain stepped 20-year-old Diane Crump, who had long since demonstrated her riding proficiency during a thousand workout rides on a thousand difficult Thoroughbreds (“I basically got on all the horses that no one else wanted to ride.”) On Feb. 7, 1969, having been granted a permit to ride at Florida’s Hialeah Racetrack, Crump, surrounded by a protective phalanx of police officers, walked toward the saddling enclosure as she endured heckles from the crowd. Diane’s mount did not win that day, but just over a year later, on May 2, 1970, after 95 years of all-male entrants, Diane Crump shattered tradition by becoming the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby.
An Evening with The Saratoga Special
Produced and created by the Clancy brothers’ ST Publishing, The Saratoga Specialprinted its first edition on opening day of the 2001 Saratoga meet and has been a staple of the upstate New York racing scene ever since. Printed and available all around the city and on the frontside and backside of the race track, The Special’s730 editions bring Saratoga to life.
The publication’s rich history includes thousands of stories, dozens of proud alumni, two Eclipse Awards and a place in the history of horse racing. Sean Clancy won back-to-back Eclipse Awards for stories that appeared in The Special: on the tragic Test Stakes (G1) in 2023 and the thrilling Travers Stakes (G1) in 2024. Those pieces captured the emotions of the moments, just as The Special puts racing’s characters and stars on display year after year.
The team returns in 2025 with 24 more issues planned, including another set of four covering the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga. The Clancys and Law will share what’s in store for 2025 and some of their favorite moments through the years.
Stymie
Winner of the 2014 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for Offerings from a Rust Belt Jockey, Andy Plattner presents a novel that faithfully follows Stymie’s unlikely career. A castoff as a young racer because of his vicious temperament, Stymie endured challenging campaigns to become a beloved horse in New York, where he raced for most of his career. Stymie’s modest beginnings eventually earned him the nickname “The People’s Horse,” and he was named the 1945 champion handicap horse. The Racing Hall of Famer’s legacy and record have stood the test of time.
The stories in Stymie highlight his early races and his legendary battles with other equine stars of the era, including the great Assault. Eventually the horse is retired and, with the book’s protagonist, takes up residence at the fictional Galileo Farm in Kentucky, where their pasts are revisited through unexpected events.
When Montana Outraced the East: The Rise of Western Thoroughbreds 1886-1900
Catharine Melin-Moser records the untold stories of Noah Armstrong, Samuel Larabie and Marcus Daly, three former Montana frontiersmen who turned from speculation in valuable minerals to speculation in Thoroughbreds. Eastern and southern traditionalists stood firm: The pioneering idea to breed exquisite horses in high-altitude valleys in “that nowhere of the West” was thought to be “the verist madness.”
More than 1,000 miles separated Montana from eastern race tracks, and spotty communications between East and West posed complications. Transportation of valuable horses across the country by rail was expensive, risked injury to the animals and was stressful. Blizzards stopped trains on their tracks for hours, even days. Equine nerves frayed.
But in time, Armstrong, Larabie and Daly were fielding equine stars, and the nation’s eminent Turfmen, newspapers and sporting publications repeated the names of Montana’s swift Thoroughbreds that won the biggest prizes eastern racing offered. The horses shaped historical events while they became sources for local lore and regional pride and stamped a Montana imprint in American horse racing history.
About Keeneland Library
Founded in 1939, the world-renowned Keeneland Library houses one of the most comprehensive collection of materials related to Thoroughbred racing, featuring thousands of books, magazines and newspapers and millions of photographic negatives and prints about all aspects of the industry. Staff at this distinguished public research facility annually assist thousands of visitors, racing fans, journalists, writers, academics, historians and others seeking information for their personal use or for articles, books, movies, documentaries and other projects.
Throughout the year, the Library hosts public exhibits, education and outreach programs for youth and adults as well as special events. Artwork and memorabilia related to Thoroughbred racing are also on display.
Through Aug. 15, the Library is presenting the exhibit Of Turf and Stone: Keeneland Through the Ages to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Keeneland Association, which established the race track and became a leader in the Thoroughbred industry. Showcasing photographs and memorabilia tracing the development of Keeneland’s grounds, architecture, facilities and innovative industry firsts, the exhibit features photographs curated from Library collections and Turf photographers who document today’s race meets and events to highlight Keeneland’s evolution from 1935 to today.
To reach the Library, enter Keeneland at Gate 1 (Man o’ War Blvd.) on Keeneland Blvd. and take the first right on Entertainment Ct. The Library is to the left of the Keene Barn and Entertainment Center. Admission is free.
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Since its first race meet 89 years ago, the Keeneland Association has devoted itself to the health and vibrancy of the Thoroughbred industry. The world’s largest Thoroughbred auction house, Keeneland conducts five on-site sales a year, in January, April, September and November. Graduates of Keeneland sales dominate racing across the globe at every level. In April and October, Keeneland offers some of the highest caliber and richest Thoroughbred racing in the world. Keeneland hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in 2015, 2020 and 2022. Uniquely structured, Keeneland is a privately held company with a not-for-profit mission that returns its earnings to the industry and the community in the form of higher purses and millions of dollars donated in support of horse industry initiatives and charitable contributions for education, research, and health and human services throughout Central Kentucky. Keeneland also maintains Keeneland Library, a world-renowned public research institution with the mission of preserving information about the Thoroughbred industry. To learn more, visit Keeneland.com.
Media Contact:
Amy Owens
aowens@keeneland.com