Horseracing has been called the “sport of kings,” and as Lexington, Kentucky is called “the Horse Capital of the World,” the city will fittingly be the home to the 2010 World Equestrian Games.

     First founded in June of 1775, 17 years before Kentucky became a state, the first frontiersmen to camp on the Middle Fork of the Elkhorn Creek named the new settlement Lexington in honor of the colonial victory at the Battles of Lexington and Concord just two months earlier. This frontier outpost became a permanent settlement four years later, with the first blockhouse erected in 1779. With cabins and a stockade added soon after, the town of Lexington was officially established by the Virginia General Assembly in 1782. This frontier town was the “capital” of Fayette County, which was one of three separate entities in Kentucky Country.

     Less than 40 years later Lexington had become one of the largest and wealthiest towns west of the Allegheny Mountains, earning the nickname “Athens of the West.” By 1850 almost 1/5 of the population of Kentucky were slaves, with Lexington having the largest concentration of slaves in the state. Despite this fact the state remained neutral during the American Civil War.

     Today Lexington is the second largest city in the state of Kentucky, and as the “Horse Capital of the World” thousands flock to Keeneland to view the annual horse races, and to purchase thoroughbreds at its annual horse sale.