The Thoroughbred Center is located in Fayette County, Kentucky, just outside the city limits of Lexington. Built in 1969, and formally named the Kentucky Horse Center was originally situated on 133 acres of prime central Kentucky farmland. Established as a Thoroughbred training and sales facility by Rex Elsworth and Dr. Arnold Pessin, KHC was immediately popular as an alternative to training at the local racetracks. Amenities at the training facility included a 5/8-mile track with a metal roof, two barns made primarily of concrete with metal roofs that could house up to 260 horses and had 40 tack rooms and a state of the art, 920 seat sales pavilion, complete with a lounge and full service bar.
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n 1998 The Kentucky Horse Center was purchased by Churchill Downs out of Louisville and were owners of the facility until April of 2000 when Keeneland, Lexington’s local racecourse purchased the facility. In the transition, the KHC name was changed to The Thoroughbred Center and an expansion was made to the facility with an additional five barns added to enable the facility to house up to 1,180 horses. The facility normally operates with an occupancy of 900-1000 horses and is open year round. Keeneland continues to invest substantial capital into the facility, with the intention of making TTC the most popular Thoroughbred training facility in the country.
