LSU PRESS. RELEASE DATE: MAY 2025

Alexander Keene Richards (1827-1881) was one of the most important horse importers and breeders of the nineteenth century. Born in Georgetown, Kentucky, he was convinced that the key to improving the stamina of the Thoroughbred was to return to the same roots that had produced the superlative English Thoroughbred, believed to be largely a product of crosses between the horses of Britain and the magnificent steeds of the Middle Eastern desert. Richards traveled traveling tens of thousands of miles across Europe and the Middle East, making two expeditions into the heart of the Syrian desert, in 1852-53 and 1855-56, to obtain Arabian breeding stock of the purest blood. He was the first American, indeed, the first Westerner of any national origin, to venture into the desert to bargain directly with the nomadic tribesmen for their horses. He transformed his grandfather’s farm at the western edge of Georgetown into a premier breeding establishment known as Blue Grass Park.