Keeneland Race Track is as much a part of our Central Kentucky culture as the name Bluegrass itself. When I meet people from out of state who don’t completely understand horse racing, I like to tell them that Churchill Downs is home of the Kentucky Derby, but Keeneland and the surrounding horse farms of Lexington, Versailles, Nicholasville and Paris, is where it all starts.

On the surface, races are held at Keeneland during the prime times of the year, the peak of spring and the peak of autumn. But in reality, Keeneland is a place of elegance that never shuts down 24/7/365. Racing on the track is only part of it. It’s a photographer’s dream to watch the horses go through their early morning workouts, as the sun rises over the grandstand, and warm steam rolls off their backs. Thoroughbred racing at Keeneland is one of the few places in sports where the super stars are close and accessible. Its a place where you can get close and rub elbows with horses, jockeys, owners, trainers, grooms, hot walkers, and exercise riders.

A pageant almost as big as the races themselves lies with the variety of thoroughbred sales that take place between the spring and fall meets. The Keeneland Sales bring together a cornucopia of international spectators and buyers, along with the local celebrity horse farms such as Taylor Made, & Gainesway. These buyers are prepared to drop over a million dollars on a single colt, based solely it’s Mommy and Daddy.

Each year the big question is whether or not Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the world’s leading thoroughbred buyer, will be in attendance. He accounted for more than a quarter of all revenues at a sale last month in New York. When I was there Sunday for the opening night, he wasn’t there, but no one ever knows when his luxury private jet will make surprise landing at Bluegrass Airport.

With or with out Sheikh Mohammad, Keeneland is, and always will be, a central Kentucky jewel. Here a few shots from the opening night of the 2011 Yearling Sales.