Blog Post 7

For my secondary source I have chosen to use a thesis paper called "A MODEL RACING PLANT": FOUNDING AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF KEENELAND RACETRACK, by Scott A. Carmony.  One of the main reasons that I chose this source was because of its large amount of content relating to the role of sports, especially horse racing, to America.  Another reason that I picked this source was because of the vast information on horse racing in Kentucky, more specifically Lexington’s horse and racing traditions.  This paper is also full of helpful content on the history of how Keeneland was created and how it became to be what it is today.  This paper discusses some things that I would not have thought of until reading it. A historian named John Rickards Betts argued that "the roots of our sporting heritage lie in the horse racing and fox hunting of the colonial era."  While this is just one man’s opinion, it is interesting to see that horse racing was one of the first sports of our country.  This is just one of the many quotes that would be helpful for my ethnographic project. 

Carmony, Scott A. ""A MODEL RACING PLANT": FOUNDING AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF KEENELAND RACETRACK ." Department of History University of Louisville. (2004): n. page. Print. <digital.library.louisville.edu/utils/getfile/collection/etd/id/472/.../473.pdf>.