Field trip: Thoroughbred trainer symposium at UK

I dragged Hayes to the University of Kentucky's trainers talk last night. She was wiggly but enjoyed the food and she seemed pleased to meet a couple of the trainers afterwards.
One of the panel members was Neil Howard, who trains for Lane's End Farm, and used to winter in Camden, S.C., which is where I met him and interviewed him for the newspaper. Neil trained prominent horses Summer Squall (2nd in the 1990 Kentucky Derby, winner of the Preakness Stakes) and Mineshaft (2003 Horse of the Year and Eclipse Award) among others. I was glad to see Neil again, although he didn't remember me from Camden.
Also on the panel was Shug McGaughey, a Racing Hall of Famer, and trainer of notables Easy Goer (1989 Belmont Stakes) and Personal Ensign (1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff) among many, many others. When I used to hang out at the Camden Training Center, it was always at Frank Whiteley's barn and Mr. Whiteley sent his babies to Shug after they'd gotten their first training. So I was really jonesing to meet Shug because of this connection and that he is such a big time trainer.
Also on the panel were Kenny McPeek, who had two-time Horse of the Year in Curlin, and Eddie Kenneally and Michelle Nihei.
It was nice to have a girls' only outing with Hayes until my car blew the fuel filter fuse on the highway for the second day in a row.
One nice thing to learn is that UK is a land-grant school, which means federally enrolled American Indians, like Hayes and Chooj, may attend for free if the college needs to meet its minority admissions. Land grant schools were established after the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 for agricultural and technical education. Each state has at least one land grant college.
I often hear the misconception that American Indians get free college educations in this country. It's far from true. If you want to go to an Indian college and you are enrolled with a federally recognized tribe, sure, but good education and good learning environments aren't assured. My husband is half Lakota, enrolled with the Sicangu Lakota in South Dakota, and attended a land grant college for a couple of years and we had to pay that student loan just like everyone else because the university didn't have to meet its minority quota by having a Native American attend.
Hayes and Chooj will be very, very fortunate if they get to go to a good school, whether free or not.