Owners offer cheap shares of race horse to fellow students
March 27, 2008
Story by Laura Pepper | Staff
With millions of dollars spent at thoroughbred horse sales, it can be difficult for the average college student to afford such a risky investment.
However, share ownership of thoroughbred racehorses provides the opportunity to experience what it is like to own a racehorse for those with a stricter income.
“It’s an expensive business and hobby,” said agricultural economics senior Billy Ajello. “The best way financially is if it is in partnerships amongst a whole bunch of people or just a couple people.”
Billy Ajello, left, and Sean Feld are selling shares of their horse, Kentuckysoldierboy, to interested students. Owning shares rather than an entire horse cuts down on the cost. The duo purchased Kentuckysoldierboy in October and hope to race him next month at Keeneland. Photo by Elliott Hess | Staff
This spring, Ajello and his friend Sean Feld, an agricultural economics junior, are providing UK students and the public with this opportunity. They are selling shares in their racehorse, Kentuckysoldierboy, helping students experience - at least a little - ownership in horse racing.
“It’s enough to see the excitement of the ownership side instead of just going to Keeneland to drink beer, go out with friends and have a good time,” Ajello said. “It’s a way to spend money and have some fun with it.”
Ajello said he hopes to race the horse at Keeneland next month and Feld has even higher hopes.
“I hope we go to the (Kentucky) Derby,” Feld said. “That’s everyone’s dream.”
Gibson Wilhite, an equine management sophomore, said he would be interested in purchasing a share because it means investing less money.
“Buying shares in horses are a good thing because they give people the opportunity who do not have a lot of money to still have the dream, to own a horse that is in the winner’s circle,” said Wilhite, who owns horses with his father.
Shares of the horse can be purchased before Kentuckysoldierboy’s first race at $250 for .5 percent share, according to the horse’s group on Facebook.com.
Ajello and Feld bought the horse in October at the Fasig-Tipton yearlings sale in Lexington. They purchased the horse for $5,500, Ajello said, as members of Bongo Racing Stables, which Feld’s family is a part of.
Ajello and Feld had high hopes for the colt from first sight.
“I looked to him and he was really racey-looking,” Ajello said. “He was already galloping with the right mindset of a racehorse.”
Kentuckysoldierboy is out of Offensive Threat and sired by Tumblebrutus, who is a full brother of Giant’s Causeway, the 2000 Europe Horse of the Year.
The dark bay colt was unnamed before the sale. The song “Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)” by Soulja Boy Tellem was on the radio at the time, and from there, Ajello and Feld knew that they had a perfect name. Unable to get copyright permission to use the same spelling from the song, the guys settled on Kentuckysoldierboy.
The two-year-old Kentuckysoldierboy has yet to race. The horse is training in Ocala, Fla. He will be trained by Paul McGee, a family friend of Feld’s and the trainer of Mitigation, the recent three-year-old winner at the Hansel Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Feld will be hosting, “Betting for Beginners,” a handicapping seminar to help students learn about betting. It will be April 3 at 7 p.m. in the W.T. Young Library auditorium.
For more information on Kentuckysoldierboy or to buy shares, visit the stable’s Web site (www.bongoracing.com) or e-mail Feld at seanmfeld@uky.edu.
E-mail lpepper@kykernel.com
Former President visits Kentucky
March 25, 2008
Story by Juliann Vachon | Staff
FRANKFORT - Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, in Frankfort yesterday morning, speaking to a crowd of more than 3,000 on topics of the economy, energy policy, the war in Iraq, health care and education.
Clinton stood in front of a large American flag as he talked for almost an hour about the policies that make his wife “the best candidate I’ve ever had the opportunity to support.”
Among Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top priorities are rebuilding the middle class, restoring fiscal responsibility in the U.S., pulling troops out of Iraq and ensuring affordable health care for everyone, Bill Clinton said, and her work is rooted in commitment to changing people’s lives for the better.
“She’s the single best change maker I ever saw in other people’s lives,” he said.
During his first of four stops in Kentucky, Clinton also focused on the challenges facing college students. Every American deserves to go to college, Clinton said, and his wife would make changes to help all students get at least two years of higher education. He said her plan includes supporting training and apprenticeship programs, more than doubling the tuition tax credit to $3,500 for students, raising the Pell Grant every year to keep up with inflation, making more money available through Americore community service jobs and cracking down on abuses of private student loan companies.
Clinton spoke of Sen. Clinton’s Student Borrowers Bill of Rights, which allows college graduates to change the repayment terms of student loans and fix annual payments at a certain low percentage of their income.
“Now the practical impact of this is that nobody, but nobody, in the entire United States will ever have to drop out of college again because they’re afraid they can’t borrow $10,000 or $20,000,” Clinton said.
UK psychology freshman Gordan Simic attended the rally and said he admires Clinton’s focus on keeping student loan interest rates low.
The former president’s speech probably swayed a few independents and Republicans to the Clinton ship, he said.
Clinton explained in detail Sen. Clinton’s plan for energy independence. She is committed to reducing global warming and creating jobs by investing in alternative fuels research and development, including clean coal technology, he said.
Former President Clinton also worked to convince the crowd why Sen. Clinton’s plans to immediately get American troops out of Iraq is better than Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain’s plan to stay in Iraq as long as necessary. Her plan would leave a small group of U.S. Army Special Forces in the region while also offering American aid to stabilize Iraq.
Another key issue among voters is health care. Clinton said his wife’s plan allows people who are happy with their health care plans to keep them while those who are not covered or are unhappy can opt into one of the plans offered to members of Congress or into public plans, such as Medicaid.
“You cannot solve the cost problem unless you do the morally right thing and cover everyone,” Clinton said.
Some students at the rally from Centre College and Kentucky State University said that while they did not support Sen. Clinton, they came to the rally to hear the opposing side.
Millicent Tennell, a political science junior at KSU, said she did not consider Sen. Clinton a good candidate. Tennell described herself as a “hardcore” Sen. Barack Obama supporter based on his charisma and ability to evoke a movement among young people.
“I think Barack Obama is a better man for the job,” she said. “However this is history, and she would be the first woman. I am African-American, and I am a woman, so I have common-hoods with both of the candidates.”
Tennell’s friend and fellow KSU student Jessica Phillips, however, said she supports Sen. Clinton because of her commitment to the prospect of change and said students are ready to move beyond many of the Bush administration’s policies.
“I just really wanted to come out and see what future president Clinton had to stand for,” Phillips said. “We’ve seen what the Bush administration has done, and we’re none too pleased about it.
“We’re just excited to see what the candidates now have for us.”
E-mail jvachon@kykernel.com
Maker’s Mark and Keeneland unveil 2008 limited edition “Joe B.” bottles
March 25, 2008
Former UK basketball head coach Joe B. Hall shows the commemorative bottle of Maker’s Mark bearing his photo to UK President Lee Todd following a news conference Monday. This 2008 edition is the third and final bottle in the Maker’s Mark/Keeneland “Most Beloved” series, and it highlights Hall’s 1978 championship team. Profits from the 18,000 bottles produced will go to the Markey Cancer Foundation. Photo by Kristin Sherrard | Staff
Story by Wesley Yonts | Staff
Kentucky is known for its basketball, and a company is continuing to honor that tradition by combining it with another Kentucky legend - bourbon.
Maker’s Mark announced Monday the newest edition in its “UK’s Most Beloved” bottle series. The bottles go on sale April 4 and will feature former UK men’s basketball coach Joe B. Hall.
“I guess you could kind of say my life’s complete,” said Hall, who led the Wildcats to their fifth NCAA championship in 1978. “To be on a Maker’s Mark bottle gives me class and dignity.”
Hall was tasked with following the legendary Adolph Rupp, and after winning the national championship in 1978, he was named National Coach of the Year. The limited edition bottle celebrates the 30-year anniversary of that victory.
Hall also coached the Cats to the Final Four three times during his 13-year career and won eight Southeastern Conference regular-season championships.
Sales from the new bottles, which will cost about $45 each, will benefit the Markey Cancer Center, a personal partnership for Hall, whose wife was treated for lung cancer at the Markey Center and died in May 2007.
Maker’s Mark commemorative bottles started in the early 1970s, when former Gov. John Y. Brown asked Bill Samuels, president of Maker’s Mark, to design blue wax seals for his derby invitations, Samuels said.
Samuels agreed - the distillery already had all the components to make the wax, so it wouldn’t be difficult, he said.
The leftover wax sat in storage at the Maker’s Mark distillery until 1993, when UK won the SEC Tournament. Samuels was at the distillery that night bottling an order and decided to dip the bottles in the leftover blue wax instead of the traditional red.
“It was just a joke,” Samuels said, but the bottles proved extremely popular.
After that Samuels decided to donate all the money made from these commemorative bottles and began producing limited edition bottles every year and donating all the proceeds to charity.
In addition to the money raised by Maker’s Mark from the UK series, private donors and money from the proposed cigarette tax will match the profits. The combined donations are estimated to total $3 million over the three years of the series, Samuels said.
“Every dollar given helps Markey achieve their goal of becoming a premier cancer institute,” said Sally Humphrey, chairman of the Markey Cancer Foundation. “When you give to Markey it’s a gift of hope.”
E-mail news@kykernel.com
Mobile-home owners told to leave to make way for student apartments
March 17, 2008
Story by Blair Thomas | Staff
The dishes rattled in the kitchen cabinets, and a picture hanging above the couch fell from the wall.
“It’s the bulldozers,” said Francis Barrera as she hurried out of her mobile home last Wednesday. “They don’t even care that I’m still living here.”
Outside, a bulldozer steered down the paved road and joined two others already sitting at the entrance to Ingleside Mobile Home Park.
“They’ll start tearing all of this down soon,” Barrera yelled over the noise of the machine. “All of these trailers will be demolished soon. But people are still here - I’m still living here.”
Francis Barrera stands in front of piles of furniture and personal belongings scattered throughout Ingleside Mobile Home Park. Barrera and other residents received word in January that they would have to move from their mobile homes off Red Mile Road because the property had been sold to make way for student apartments. Photo by Elliott Hess | Staff
Barrera is one of the remaining Ingleside residents facing displacement from her mobile home as development plans move forward for a new apartment complex aimed at students.
Lexington developer Neal Evans bought the 6.8-acre lot off Red Mile Road for $3.3 million in January to build the complex. In a Nov. 1 meeting, the Lexington Planning Commission unanimously voted to rezone 1201 Devonshire Ave., where the park is located, from single-family residential to a high-density apartment zone.
A court temporarily halted demolition at the mobile home park until Evans obtains a demolition permit. Evans did not have a permit when he started tearing down homes, said Dewey Crowe, director of Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government’s Division of Building Inspection.
Kim Chavarria, far left, and her niece Hayley talk to a neighbor passing by in his car while Kim’s daughter Leah and niece Megan, far right, share a drink. Photo by Elliott Hess | Staff
Evans is scheduled to go before a Fayette Circuit Court judge Friday to petition for the permit, according to a court order issued March 11 by Judge James Ishmael.
The demolition delay came in response to complaints from Ingleside residents to the Division of Building Inspection.
Bulldozers started tearing down several mobile homes Feb. 25 while people were still living in their homes, according to a lawsuit being drafted by residents. Residents plan to file the suit against Evans and Devonshire Apartments LLC for failing to maintain a “safe, sanitary and habitable condition” in the mobile home park while residents are relocating, according to the draft.
Broken chairs, couch cushions and toilets piled next to picture frames lay in heaps throughout the area. Sagging mobile homes with broken windows and missing siding stood vacant among the piles of trash.
Residents were informed in August that they might have to move but were told they’d be “very well taken care of,” Barrera said.
Francis Barrera walks away from a bulldozer parked outside of her mobile home. She yelled at the driver as the machine drove by because she is angry that demolition started while she is still living at Ingleside. Photos by Elliott Hess | Staff
But once Evans announced the terms for relocating after he bought the property in January, many residents were not happy.
They faced a choice: leave their homes for demolition and receive $1,000 compensation, or relocate their homes and receive nothing. Those choosing to receive compensation must sign a notarized affidavit distributed by Evans stating they are abandoning their homes.
“(Evans) told us back in August that this wouldn’t be something we had to worry about,” said Barrera, who has lived in her mobile home at Ingleside for three years. “But he hasn’t held up his end of the deal - $1,000 isn’t fair, $1,000 doesn’t help me move, it doesn’t help me find a new place to live.”
Resistant to move
The development plan calls for 168 apartments with a total of 504 bedrooms and 457 parking spaces to occupy the property the mobile homes currently sit on. Construction is scheduled to begin in April.
Jason Henson, who has lived at Ingleside since 2001, said students who will eventually move into this area would not have any idea of who was pushed out to make space.
“I don’t think they care who was here before them - I don’t think we ever bother to think about that,” Henson said. “But I know I will now because I’m not just trailer trash. I work hard for everything I have, and I shouldn’t be expected to just give up the first place that I’ve bought of my own.”
Mary Chavarria’s daughter Kim watches her children and nieces play in the street outside of her mother’s mobile home in Ingleside. Safety is a concern because of broken windows, sagging trailers and looting, Mary Chavarria said. Photo by Elliott Hess | Staff
Evans declined to comment on Ingleside. Scott Baesler, a developer involved in the demolition of the park, could not be reached for comment.
If residents do not sign the affidavit and choose to move their trailer, they will not receive any compensation or moving assistance.
About 10 families still live at the mobile home park; 18 families lived there when the property was purchased from former owner Mahmoud Shalash. The remaining residents own their trailers and do not think their homes are in good enough condition to be moved.
“That’s the catch,” Henson said. “(Evans) will give us money if we abandon our trailer but nothing if we want to take it with us. If we want to move our home, assuming we could move it without destroying it, we’re on our own.”
Henson said he estimates his trailer is worth about $3,000, and he expects Evans to pay that much plus a “couple of months’ rent at the apartment or house I find.”
Barrera wanted to take her trailer but could not afford to pay for it to be moved. She said Evans has not returned her calls since he gave her the affidavit almost two weeks ago. She has not signed the affidavit or accepted the $1,000.
“It’s mine, and I’ve worked hard for the things I’ve got - I shouldn’t be forced to give them up,” Barrera said.
Legally, Evans, as the owner of the property, can force the tenants who rent the land for their mobile home to move, said Jon Fleming, a property and real estate lawyer for Legal Aid of the Bluegrass.
“When a mobile home is purchased, the owner is given a title, much like is given with a car,” Fleming said. “Different than owning a home, if the trailer is not able to be moved either because it is run down or the wheels have been removed, the property owner has the right to remove it or destroy it if the owner of the mobile home doesn’t remove it upon request.”
The residents can try for better financial compensation by pursuing the full tax value of their property if they have documents proving that they’ve paid taxes on their mobile homes, Fleming said.
“In this situation, with their financial statuses being low and them running out of options, this is one of the last things they can do,” Fleming said.
Concerned about safety
The mobile home park opened in the 1940s but has been the subject of code violations since 2000 when the city condemned 32 of 87 mobile homes in Ingleside, according to records from Lexington’s Division of Code Enforcement. In 2005, raw sewage was found throughout the property. That same year, the state fire marshal found electrical hazards, including electrical boxes without covers.
Early last year, 20 homes were condemned as a result of code inspectors citing unfixed past violations.
Since the demolition began, residents also say security is a major concern.
As part of the court order, residents still living at Ingleside must be provided proper security until the court hearing. Crowe said he was assured last week by the property manager that a privacy fence would be placed around the property and that security personnel would patrol to keep out vandals.
Barrera, who has found a house to rent in downtown Lexington on Jefferson Street, said she is more concerned about safety since the demolition began because people steal siding and other valuables from the mobile home park at night. She is staying in her mobile home while she moves her belongings to her new house because she fears her trailer will be looted.
“People are coming and stealing the siding off of these trailers that people don’t live in anymore to make some money,” Barrera said. “People I don’t know in cars I don’t know are always up here, and they steal stuff and they destroy trailers and strip them. I don’t want to leave mine for them to get.
“I’m scared and I’m stressed, and I don’t know what to do but to cry.”
Approaching eviction
Adult Services/Tenant Services does not have money to relocate the families, but the office provided about eight Ingleside residents with contact information for church groups and non-profit organizations that can offer some financial help, said Shirlyne Mosley, a social services coordinator for the department. Not many came to her office looking for help, she said.
“We’re here to serve, but if they don’t come, we can’t serve,” Mosley said.
The Ingleside families who did seek assistance from city government were given the list of phone numbers for organizations that could help and information for free legal services.
Open Door Church near Ingleside on Addison Avenue is accepting donations to help Ingleside residents. To donate, call (859) 225-3700.
Ingleside residents were given an eviction notice in January that stated they would have to be off the property by March 15 and had until March 20 if they planned to move their trailers. The residents still remaining received a second eviction notice late last week, but many said they will not move until they receive better compensation.
The second eviction hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on March 26 in Fayette District Court. At the hearing, the residents will go before a judge and have a chance to argue against their eviction.
“I’m going to be here when the bulldozers show up,” Henson said. “They can’t make me leave. I’m going to stay and make them come up with the right amount of money, an amount that will pay for me to leave this trailer and to find somewhere new. And I’m not the only one who plans to do this.”
Even though Barrera has found a new place to live, life is not easy.
She works as a waitress at Ryan’s Restaurant on Red Mile Road and has recently taken on a second restaurant job to help pay her bills.
“I’m paying bills here and bills at my new house and trying to afford to move,” Barrera said.
She gets some financial help from her boyfriend but does not ask for much because “he’s got his own bills and I don’t want to be a burden on him.”
“We fight all the time about money, it’s the only time we’ve ever fought,” she said. “I hate it that this situation is putting a strain on us. I hate it more that as a recovering alcoholic of 22 years, this situation makes me want to drink.”
E-mail bthomas@kykernel.com
Being forced out opens new doors for family
March 17, 2008
Story by Blair Thomas | Staff
Mary Chavarria sat in the living room of her new house watching her granddaughters play at her feet.
“I think they like it here,” she said and laughed. “I think they’re excited.”
Two days before, Chavarria sat against a tree across the street from her trailer at Ingleside Mobile Home Park and watched her four girls play in the yard.
Next door, a mobile home stood abandoned with windows broken out. A “V” spray-painted in bright orange marked the trailer as vacated and ready to be torn down.
Mary Chavarria takes a moment to enjoy her new house before bringing her family to see their home. Photo by Elliott Hess
“Used to you could come out here and listen and could hear children playing outside and laughing. Now it’s just nothing,” Chavarria said, sitting in the mobile home park. “But I let my kids out here because, despite all of this, I want to keep things as normal as possible for them.”
Chavarria, 52, just moved from Ingleside with seven children, two grandchildren and her husband.
Chavarria lived at the mobile home park for 19 years before the property was sold to Lexington-developer Neal Evans to make way for a new 168-unit apartment complex for students. She said in her time there, she saw a lot of change in the area.
“It’s changed a lot, it used to be a really nice place to live,” Chavarria said. “But things change, people come and go, and this is our time to leave and find something better.”
Eighteen families lived at Ingleside when Evans purchased the lot for $3.3 million in January from previous owner Mahmoud Shalash.
Mary Chavarria celebrates with her family in their mobile home after signing the contract for a new house. She teased her children that she did not get the house, then surprised them with the keys. She lives with seven children, two granddaughters and her husband. Photos by Elliott Hess | Staff
“A lot of people have moved since then,” Chavarria said. “But a lot of people are still here because they just can’t afford to leave. It’s not that they don’t want to move; it’s that they don’t have the means to, and they thought they would.”
Chavarria and her family bought a house down the street from Ingleside and began to move in early last week. She got a home loan for the house because she has good credit and her husband has a steady job on a horse farm in Lexington, but she said others have not been able to get monetary help.
After a meeting with Evans and Shalash in August, Chavarria said Ingleside residents left thinking that if the property was sold they would be well-compensated for their homes.
Mary Chavarria and her husband, Jose, sign the contract for their family’s new house. Photo by Elliott Hess | Staff
“I knew back in August that things weren’t going to work out like they claimed they would, that we wouldn’t be well taken care of,” she said. “But a lot of the people here believed (Evans) and thought they had nothing to worry about.”
Chavarria left most of her furniture behind when she moved; she bought a new couch, new beds and even new toys for her grandchildren.
Two days after getting the keys to her new house, Chavarria and her family were unpacking boxes and setting up a crib for Chavarria’s youngest granddaughter down the street from their old home.
“It’s a new home for us,” she said and turned to her 2-year-old granddaughter, Leah. “Are you excited about Granny’s new home?”
She laughed as Leah began jumping up and down with her hands in the air.
“I think we’re all excited about the new start,” Chavarria said. “I’d like to stay (with the other residents) and fight to the death for what we deserve, but I have a feeling that death will be coming very soon. And I’m just thankful I’ve found somewhere to go.”
E-mail bthomas@kykernel.com
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