Lexington

About Lexington

Lexington is the second largest city in Kentucky, set in the heart of the gently rolling Bluegrass Region, where limestone-rich soil grows the grass said to make the strongest racehorses in the world. Frontiersmen camping here in 1775 named the spot after the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts, which had just started the Revolutionary War. The town grew into a wealthy center of hemp, tobacco and horse breeding, and statesman Henry Clay made his home at Ashland on the edge of town.

Today Lexington has about 320,000 residents and proudly calls itself the Horse Capital of the World. More than 450 horse farms surround the city, with white and black plank fences, stately barns and grazing thoroughbreds lining the country roads. Keeneland, a historic racecourse and auction house, holds races each April and October, and the Kentucky Horse Park is home to the International Museum of the Horse and the graves of famous champions. Lexington is also home to the University of Kentucky, whose Wildcats basketball team is one of the most storied in college sports.

The city sits at the center of Kentucky's bourbon country, with distilleries such as Woodford Reserve, Buffalo Trace and Town Branch within an easy drive, and downtown has a lively Distillery District of bars and restaurants. Visitors can tour Henry Clay's Ashland estate, the Mary Todd Lincoln House and the Lexington Cemetery, explore the Arboretum and Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill nearby, and enjoy a food scene famous for hot browns, burgoo and Southern hospitality.