Thoroughbred Club of America to honor Farish
Thoroughbred Times
Posted: 10/6/06

William S. Farish, owner of Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, has been named honor guest of the Thoroughbred Club of America's 75th annual Testimonial Dinner.

Farish was selected by the club's board of directors and will be honored at the Testimonial Dinner at Keeneland Race Course on the evening of November 2.

Farish established Lane's End in the late 1970s and the farm has grown into one of the world's leading stallion operations, breeding farms, and racing stables.

Farish, a grandson of Humble Oil and Standard Oil executive William S. Farish Sr., took up his family's tradition of racing when he became involved in the sport in the 1960s. He won the 1972 Preakness Stakes with Bee Bee Bee, whom he purchased from William S. Miller, but has enjoyed the most success with runners he bred.

Individually and with partners, Farish has bred more than 200 stakes winners, including winners of each of the Triple Crown races: 1999 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Charismatic; '90 Preakness winner Summer Squall, and Belmont Stakes (G1) winners Bet Twice ('87), A. P. Indy ('92), and Lemon Drop Kid ('99).

A.P. Indy, Charismatic, and Farish's homebred Mineshaft were voted Horse of the Year in North America—in 1992, '99, and '03, respectively.

Farish also bred and raced 2003 Espom Oaks (Eng-G1) winner Casual Look.

In partnership with Marshall Jenney's Derry Meeting Farm, Farish bred the prominent sire Danzig, and he has bred six winners of Eclipse Awards while winning two himself in the breeder category.

Farish and partners Warner L. Jones Jr. and William S. Kilroy sold Seattle Dancer in 1985 for a world-record $13.1-million at the Keeneland July select yearling sale. Farish's Lane's End has been the leading consignor six times at Keeneland's major yearling sales.

Farish has a longstanding friendship and business association with the family of Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush, who appointed him Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in 2001, a post he held until 2004.

Farish is the current vice chairman of the Jockey Club and is a former chairman of Churchill Downs and of the American Horse Council. He has been a champio of equine research through support of the University of Kentucky's Maxwell H. Gluck Research Center as well as the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and its Equine Drug Research Institute committee.