Rogers Beasley Keeneland Director of Racing
Wednesday September 27, 2006
Rogers Beasley has been Director of Racing at Lexington's Keeneland race course and sales pavilion since 2001, when he relinquished the reins of the position as Director of Sales he had held for the previous 19 years.
“I loved the sales,” the New Orleans native said about making the switch. “I met a lot of wonderful people. But racing was always my first love.”
As Director of Sales, Beasley was an instrumental force behind the introduction of preferred sessions to the September Yearling Sale, the creation of a repository to house X-rays and health information, institution of the wind arbitration process, and the inauguration of the April 2-year-olds in training sale.
Beasley, who lives in Lexington and is married to Turf writer Jacqueline Duke, graduated from Transylvania University in Lexington and worked for several central Kentucky banks before beginning a career in the Thoroughbred industry that quickly led to a job working alongside the late racing secretary Howard Battle in the Keeneland racing office.
Beasley's current job responsibilities include overseeing the condition book, developing new stakes races, finding new race sponsors, providing hospitality for owners and trainers, recruiting top jockeys, trainers and horses for the race meetings, and maintaining the Keeneland training track.
Now, on the eve of Keeneland's first race meet of the Polytrack era and right on the heels of another record-setting September sale, Rogers has agreed to join us for a session of Talkin' Horses.
Arnold, MO:
I think the new Trakus system will revolutionize handicapping, and the article I read about your use of GPS to level the Keeneland track clearly indicates that you are planning to keep Keeneland cutting edge. This can only make life happier for racing fans. Job well done! I hope that Equibase will quickly make Trakus data part of their official race charts and past performances. Just imagine not having to use some archaic formula to calculate the first call to second call split of a horse who was 5th by 3 1/4 lengths at the first call and 7th by 1 1/2 lengths at the second call. Or am I being too optimistic considering tradition and all that? Thanks in advance!
Beasley:
We think that Trakus has the capability to open a whole new world for racing fans and handicappers. Within the year, we will see how many miles an hour each horse is running in each quarter!! The animation races will appeal to younger fans and, during the races, you will be able to see all the horse positions via the Chicklets versus 4 running numbers on the board. Equibase has been a big help to us during our talks with Trakus. It will probably take us a meet or two to fully utilize all the components of Trakus.
McArthur, OH:
What are the best selling freshman sires that you saw at the Keeneland yearling sale?
Beasley:
Vindication, Mineshaft, Empire Maker, and Aldebaran - That is off the top of my head without looking at all the numbers. I am sure there are others who had a great return on their stud fee, but I would need to do a little more research to answer your question more fully.
To read the complete transcript of this chat, along with many others, check out Best of Talkin’ Horses.
Best of Talkin’ Horses features provocative “chats” with some of Thoroughbred racing’s most prominent names. Adapted from “Talkin’ Horses,” the popular weekly online chat series hosted by Bloodhorse.com, this edited collection provides additional insights by Ron Mitchell, editor and moderator of “Talkin’ Horses."
Editor's Note: BloodHorse.com moderators retain editorial control over Talkin' Horses discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests; guests may decline to answer questions. Opinions expressed by guests of Talkin' Horses are those of the guest and do not represent the opinions of Blood-Horse Publications, its employees, associates, or affiliated organizations. Guests, dates, and times of Talkin' Horses discussions are subject to change.