Race Street once lead to race track
Question: How did Race Street get named and was there a race track near the street?
Answer: According to Herald-Leader archives, Race Street got its name because it led to a thoroughbred track, the one run by the Kentucky Association for the Improvement of Breeds of Livestock, and simply called the Kentucky Association track. The track was where the Bluegrass-Aspendale neighborhood is today. The track lasted from 1826 to 1932, when it closed after the spring meet ended. The Kentucky Association was organized July 29, 1826 to “improve the breed of horses by encouraging the sports of the turf” according to an entry in the book The Squires Sketches of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr. The association purchased 65 acres and built a mile track, grandstand, stable and small buildings.
Linda Niemi
Filed under: Uncategorized
My mother was a public school librarian. I earned a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Kentucky. The Herald-Leader hired me as a news assistant 25 years ago; soon after, I moved to the news research department, where I’ve been ever since. We used to clip newspapers. Now, almost all of our research is online. We've come a long way.