Horse Racing enthusiasts watch the horses race down the track during the opening races of the Spring Meet at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, on Friday, April 3, 2026. Peyton Tindall/The Watchdog

Families packed the stands, looking on as horses sporting colorful saddle cloths crossed the finish line at Keeneland’s first day of races for its annual Spring Meet.

During the Friday, April 3, race day, families bonded as children watched the race horses trot down the paddock and parents wagered their bets.

The Unkraut family, like many Keeneland-goers, said they try to make it to the track anytime they can and have created memories at Keeneland for several years.

Stacey said she and her husband, Scott, have been bringing their son, Ben, to Keeneland since he was 3 years old.

On the way to Ben’s first Keeneland race, Stacey said she pointed out horses on a farm to him, but he told her, “Mom, I only like the ones with the numbers on them.”

Ben, now a freshman finance student at Transylvania University, said he comes to numerous races throughout both Keeneland’s fall and spring meets.

“It’s all because of my parents,” Ben said. “I feel like I would have never really gotten into it [otherwise].”

Beyond Keeneland, horse racing has always been a staple for the family. Back home, about an hour north in Florence, Kentucky, Stacey said she and Ben would frequent Turfland Park Racing & Gaming when he was young.

“[Ben] grew up at Turfland. I used to take him to watch the workouts in the morning,” Stacey said. “We’d get McDonald’s breakfast and watch the workout. That was our summer, sitting out there.”

Scott, who graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1995, said he had been coming to Keeneland since he started at UK and now gets to continue the tradition.

“It was kind of one of those things, [if] you go to school down here and you enjoy the horses, then you’re gonna spend your time at Keeneland,” Scott said.

Jockeys ride their horses to the finish during the opening races of the Spring Meet at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, on Friday, April 3, 2026. Peyton Tindall/The Watchdog

While the Unkrauts have held their tradition for many years, other families like the Mikulskis from Detroit are just beginning to build their own memories at Keeneland.

Christopher and Stephanie Mikulski brought their two sons after long planning a trip to Kentucky. Stephanie said she had been wanting to come back to the Bluegrass after visiting Louisville for a work conference.

“I loved the city, and have been telling him for years, I would love to come back,” Stephanie said. “Now that the boys are old enough, just logistically, that this has been on our to do list for a while, and it worked out this year.”

Christopher said their sons had never seen live horse racing before, and now that they were “old enough” for the family to make such a trip, they were “sold” on the experience.

With one son donning a horse head hat and the other sporting jockey goggles, Stephanie said the two asked to come back to Keeneland every year after having stepped foot on the paddock. One even told his parents he wants to live in Kentucky.

“This will hopefully be a core memory for them,” Stephanie said. “I can just imagine them thinking back to this day.”

It was not just the races that stood out to the family, she said, but the sense of tradition it evokes.

“You can really appreciate the significance of how much this means to the people here,” Stephanie said. “It’s just a real honor to be a part of it, just to partake in the experience of it.”

An Out Rider laughs at a Green Jacket’s joke about the muddy track during the opening races of the Spring Meet at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, on Friday, April 3, 2026. Peyton Tindall/The Watchdog

Keeneland also gave Adrienne Harrell and Heath Dunkel a chance to spend quality-time together away from their home in Tennessee, on their “yearly couple trip” to the races, Harrell said.

Over the many years of trips, Dunkel said the two, who have been together for six and a half years, have seen different stages of Keeneland throughout their time.

“The last few years, we’ve had to kind of walk through the construction to get to certain areas while they’ve been building it, and they’ve done a beautiful job with it,” Dunkel said. “It’s kind of cool for us to watch that transformation over the years.”

Harrell said she first attended Keeneland while in Lexington as a travel nurse, and once she moved to the city and met Dunkel, the two began going together.

“Once a year, we get to come watch this and experience it together,” Dunkel said. “It’s kind of a fun, I would say bonding [experience] for us every year, to kind of plan it, to experience it and then have that memory to build upon moving forward.”

The couple, growing up as athletes and both attending SEC universities, have a shared love for sports, according to Harrell.

Although Dunkel is “a Tennessee Vol at heart,” he said he loved Keeneland, not only for the horse racing, but for the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a whole.

“I think it’s got a lot of beauty to it and sophistication to it as well, if you will, very classy,” Dunkel said. “It’s kind of a fun trip for us to kind of get out of the day-to-day, get out of town, make a nice little trip that’s not a far drive, but also get to see a really fun sport.”