our time warner cable partners worked with c-span city store staff when we travel to lexington to explore the city's rich history. learn about lexington all weekend here on american history tv. >> you are and what we call the best spot in the whole world on the grounds of the keeneland race course in kentucky. keeneland sits as the capital of the world during we are not only a great race course with pastoral settings in a wonderful spot in the middle of the country, but we are the world's largest marketplace in a thoroughbred sales standpoint. we sell a thousand or birds a year from buyers of 52 different countries. they run and race all over the world. our sales company started here in 1943 a few years after the

racetrack opened in 1936. it was started because of the world war ii rail shortage. most of the horsemen were shipping horses to saratoga to be sold. without they roll service, they could not ship the horses to be sold. they started an option here on the grounds to service the local horsemen who are here raising their horses. it was set up as a trust because they did not want to be set up as a dividend paying corporation. they do not want able to feel like they wanted to make money off of this place. they wanted to fulfill the mission it was set out for. we have three trustees to govern our trust that our management team reports two. the association itself is owned by the community. in some ways, we are more like an arboretum than a racetrack. we only raised 32 days in -- 32 days a year, but we are or 65 days a year. we want people to come visit. lexington is unique. based on geography, topography

is great for or since. son we have underneath is the same thing that makes our bourbon great. it makes us great great resources. we are fortunate that the limestone with the calcium deposits in the water and the grass gives strong bones. a 1200 pound animal running 40 miles per hour down a straight stretch, you need a strong bones and a strong background. also, horses look to feed. kentucky is known for its seasons. horses enjoy the seasons. it helps with raising and breeding patterns. the competition with our industry is unique. there is competition for the best horses and having the best stallion, but in a thoroughbred industry, everybody understands that when business is doing well when one farm is doing well, other farms tend to do well as well.

a typical stallion will only breed with about 120 two 150 breeds -- mayors a year. -- mares a year. everybody is competitive and everybody wants the best horse but is one of these unique factors that everybody is happy when everybody does well. it is one of the things that makes this business unique. my background is in our text. the biggest surprise for me only to the horse business was that in politics, the only time you are happy is when everybody else is feeling. in the horse business, everybody is happening -- happy because -- when everyone is succeeding because it makes everyone succeed. we have three sales a year. a one week cell in january, a two-week yearling sale, all of the one-year-old horses in september. another 4000 horses in november which is part of the november breeding stock sale. horses of all ages.

you have horses that are nine months old on to horses that are 12 or 15 years old that are still in production from a greeting standpoint. the peak that we have ever sold from a grow standpoint is $978 million a year. we average 8500 horses that we sell on the ground. it is the thoroughbred market place. our yearling sale -- you have all these horses that you hope within a two-year span will be running and safe from the kentucky derby. you have all these horses coming in. a broodmare sale is like the nfl free-agent market. you have someone who is, the racetrack,, a mare that has produced good fourth. you want some and to bring them into continue to produce those. we are nonprofit. everything we make here at keeneland goes back into the

facility and the industry. the irs deemed us a not-for-profit in the 50's. we maintain the same philosophy on everything that we do. our margins on the sales emily cover is different than what a christie's would be. most option houses charge the seller and also the buyer. we have a flat commission that we charge the seller of the horse. we cover the overhead with that. the catalogues, pedigree sheets, marketing internationally to allow them to get buyers from overseas and open up those new and emerging markets. everything that we do here we try to put back into the business or back into the community that we try to serve. the economic impact globally is significant. we recently finished up a study work keeneland, there is

approximately $600 million a year. between the options any races, the amount of money we generate from people coming out of town and coming here, eating our restaurants, staying in hotels, when you factor that in 32 days of racing, you have a lot of global customers. for about 35 days worth of sales, you have people's -- people coming in staying the entire length of time. people living in community's. the highest and customers want nice restaurant and nice hotels. there are spending powers -- spending patterns are evident of that. the impact that we have is phenomenal. during the race, we have 2000 employees. between guest services, we have a catering company as well. those 214 employees are security and maintenance. we have few office staff.

it is a unique entity from the standpoint. we rely on the community and part-time employees. the track is a mile and an eighth loop. a mile turf track. we are on 1100 acres. we had a large campus, full security and maintenance departments. we are and a 1100 acre city. we have training going on. we are open three new 65 days a year for training. even if we are not racing -- we recently redid our dirt here. we have highly engineered dirt if you can have highly engineered dirt. we are fortunate we have a great service and the trainers in our business love it. at this time of year, lexington is an easy place to ship and out of for a horse that is running in the little, or chicago, or new york, or even florida. we will ship to the other racetracks to run in the figure and then come back here. the trainers enjoy training here. every morning they come out and

see the best horses in the world working out. you see the world-famous trainers, the owners who live close by. so many people because of kentucky and because of the horse farms. they can live anywhere in the world and they choose to live here because of the horse and because of what keeneland means and what they can do locally. i ate -- it is great to hear that keeneland is a fun and social answer. much like an sec football game you have a group that comes early in the morning and started tailgating. the races don't start till 1:00. we only have super 8000, but on the lord saturdays, we have 30,000 people come out inside the gate. some days, 5-10,000 standard parking lot and watch the races on the big screen that we provide. there is nothing like the social atmosphere. one of the toughest things about working here is that everyone is having fun.

you're out here and working hard and making sure that everyone is doing ok and everyone is having a blast. it is one of those areas where win or >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring lexington, kentucky very our staff recently traveled there to learn about its rich history. learn more about lexington at c-span.org/citytour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on the c-span3. >> up next, best selling historical novelist jeff shaara discusses the latter half of the civil war, focusing on general oleum and tecumseh sherman's burning of savannah. he argues against the depiction of sherman as a villain. the