Tennis & Kentucky Horse Park; Takeuchi/Hoz de Vila Win 35 Doubles Gold

Draws are here.

Today, Saturday May 20, 2023 was Day 2 of the Women’s 35-75 Indoors (the 30s don’t appear to have shown up except in the men’s divisions). See results at the end. (Spoiler alert, Susan and I are in the 65 doubles final).

After Susan played singles and I played doubles, we watched some of the great match between Betsy Kuhle/Pat Purcell and Shannon Carney/Bunnie Jackson. The split (result below) and we left to do a spot of sight seeding.

Today we asked around and decided to go to the Kentucky Horse Park, though we arrived only 75 minutes before closing. It was about 30 minutes drive from the tennis club, and we saw (I did anyway…Susan had to drive) horses in fields and more pastures and rolling fields on the way.

We didn’t arrive in time to properly view the museum and see the grounds so we opted for the grounds. Most of the horses were already munching on dinner in their stalls, but some were out being walked or walked and we say a couple of retired trotters, one of which was purchased for $2000 and earned $4,000,000 in prize money. Most of the horses we saw were jumpers we found out when talking to one of the horsemen. If not for the tournament tomorrow morning we might have stayed for the 6pm competition…he was really enthusiastic about the jumpers and it sounded like fun.

There were statues around the grounds, of Secretariat of course but also of another champion. The statue is called the Phoenix but may be based on the “Homecoming Queen” owned by the Steven Chancellors who won five World Championships, and of a horse who won two Purple Hearts during the Korean War, Staff Sergeant Reckless. Peeking into the museum window we saw the bronze of Bask++ a champion Arabian horse.

Hopefully we can return another day to see the exhibitions and the museum, but it was quite interesting to see such a variety of beautiful horses.

Tennis Results from Lexington Indoors:

65s:

  • Susan Wright beat Becky Timmis efficiently.
  • Bunnie Jackson beat Helga Immerfall
  • Shannon Gordon Carney won a tight first set against #4 seeded Betsy Kuhle, 64, then Betsy retired with an injury.
  • Pat Purcell beat Kim Dean
  • Tomorrow: Susan vs Pat; Bunnie vs Shannon
  • Susan and I beat Dean/Sherri Bronson
  • Shannon/Bunnie edged Pat/Betsy 75 46 64 (Pat/Betsy served for the first set).

75s

  • Gwenda Ward (2), understandably tired from a cross country jaunt yesterday after playing for the 70s singles title in La Jolla yesterday morning, fell 63 61 to the always dangerous Wilma Lee
  • Ann Bradley upset #4 Betty Wachob 63 75
  • Brenda Carter (3) edged Sue Kimball 63 in the third
  • Toni Novack (2) beat Judy McAllister
  • In doubles #1 Sue Kimball/Carolann Castell and #2 Carter/Wachob both advanced to the final in straight sets.

55s

  • Andrea Rice and Alicia Rowley, doubles partners, will face each other in the 55 final tomorrow, both winning through in straight sets.
  • Doubles is a round robin with Rice/Rowley edging Kristen Charlton/Sue Kaleel today in what may have been the putative final.

45s

  • Laura Ruben is 2/0 in singles in a four player round robin…she faces her doubles partner Michele Mouttapa tomorrow.
  • Kristen Charlton/Sue Kaleel are the only team which has not dropped a match yet in the five team round robin.

35s

  • Monica Hoz de Vila (1) and Marina Galey (upset #2 seeded Jenny Kane) will play the singles final tomorrow.
  • Erika Takeuchi/Hoz de Vila won the 35 round robin doubles with a perfect 2/0 record. The remaining two teams will play for silver tomorrow.

Men’s 30s

  • 5 teams; no results posted yet
  • TD Michael Cunningham(2) will face top seeded Nicholas Ballou in the singles final.
  • Mixed 30s is a round robin and is ongoing

One response to “Tennis & Kentucky Horse Park; Takeuchi/Hoz de Vila Win 35 Doubles Gold

  1. I went to the Museum today about 90 minutes before closing. Very informative. Nice to see a complete history of the horse in one place. It’s worth another trip out there.

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