NEWS
Chris Young
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010 11:16 AM
CHRIS YOUNG
PhotosByZ.com/Keeneland
Overbrook Farm
When it comes to picking his favorite horse, Chris Young is similar to the typical hometown fan, but you will never hear him take shots at Flanders.
As the grandson of the late W. T. Young, who bred and raced horses as the patriarch of Overbrook Farm in Lexington, Young had many options when it came to blazing his own personal life trail, and it was his grandfather’s homebred Seeking the Gold filly Flanders that cemented his path.
Flanders won four of five starts in 1994 en route to champion two-year-old filly honors. Young was a student at Duke University but still found time to attend the eventual champion’s races and realize he wanted to be around the excitement she generated.
“Once it bites you, it gets you,” Young said of the racing bug. “I enjoy all aspects of the horse business—the horses and the people. I don’t know if there’s any one particular thing that brought me back other than the general sense of family and shared experiences.”
The Young family today operates a scaled-down version of Overbrook compared with the empire W. T. Young built, but Chris Young is excited about having 17 horses in training under the Overbrook banner.
“Personally and for the farm, I hope we continue to have graded stakes winners that we either breed ourselves or purchase, but there’s a little more pride involved when you breed one yourself,” Young said. “We just want to breed and race quality racehorses.”
Young said that despite the downturn in the economy, he is very much convinced that there remains a strong market for the racehorse and the racing game.
Date of birth: June 10, 1975
Birthplace: Lexington
Residence: Lexington
Title: General manager
Company: Overbrook Farm
Education: Bachelor of Science in electrical and biomedical engineering, Duke University
Family: Married, two children
Career: Worked in the Silicon Valley technology world following college graduation before returning to Lexington in 2005 to become racing manager for family’s Overbrook Farm
Background in Thoroughbred industry: As a teenager, worked summers at Overbrook Farm in the mare and foal barns; worked a summer during college for Racing Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas; since returning to Overbrook, has served on boards of Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Foundation, and Breeders’ Cup Ltd.
What book are you currently reading? The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson
What’s on your iPod? Josh Ritter, Coldplay, U2
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