UK alumnus Gary Knapp combined analytical thinking
and dreaming to breed 2008 Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown.
By Tom Leach
reed to the best and hope for the best. That’s long been the axiom for
anyone involved in the pursuit of producing champion Thoroughbred
race horses.
Even a numbers-oriented guy like Gary Knapp knows one cannot quantify
or control the"hope" component. He does, however, believe science can be
brought to bear on the other side of that equine equation.
That was his approach in selecting the combination of stallion and mare e  _   _ , Il
    ._   3   I   ., that produced the 2008 Kentucky Derby winner, Big Brown. Knapp says he I ¢‘ I  ·‘   ~··—.  f*‘   · * Z ,_ A
  Y ll I I ;_ C learned how to hone his analytical skills as a graduate student at the Univer- ·V  `       I_ ',y. _  
  T ._,  sity of Kentucky, where he secured a doctorate in marketing and applied I  _ "   T I g
` I   V_ *> statistics in 1977.     . r  
.   M II ;·; I Knapp came to Lexington for practical reasons. He and his first wife wanted "  ` V· '_ - Y- f
E `       to go to graduate school but funds were in short supply. UK not only  gi ,· I`,  I °
. . - ° . I ¤ {U Q  accepted them butalso offered scholarship money to both. It was 1973, —  . - ;’ —·_ _V_V V
. [  which also was the year of Secretariat’s breathtaking sweep of the Triple  Z; , : _ A `  
` V, i  Crown races. Knapp, who grew up on a farm near Fergus Falls, Minn., and had ‘.V $*   ` W
. _ ridden horses from age three, instantly fell in love with the stately Bluegrass    C _V_ ·
`C IY.;  horse country. He began to dream of someday returning to Kentucky to buy  ;·I‘ j_ __ _ , -..-=.*_;
V * I`}  his own horse farm. ?  i’‘ I é· "   -. `
‘ i I ~;  . "Secretariatjust captured the imagination of the whole country and I was  QQ _ I
  caught up in it, too,"the 64—year—o|d Knapp said during a stroll through one of     l - .-
[  the Monticule Farm barns. "Then I saw all these farms and the beautiful _" ·;.`
  _ L —;j;_, countryside — and being from a farm myself- all of that came together for {  °`
I JM   me. It was a pretty easy se||." ` ` »r,,' · V I
"‘£" ” · . _ `   After graduating from UK, the next dozen years or so found Knapp   V
V ,,  V   s pursuing several career paths. This included a professorship in marketing .‘`  is _ H _V ‘ ’ ‘ H___
=?-__ .-•-an   at the University of Houston, owning his own consulting business, Knapp t   _j   Z`- ___ ` ·s
_ *     Securities Inc., and a partnership in Park Acquisitions Inc. which bought Park ·· ,1.  . , » ..._ g . ..... V W
. ' »   Communications Inc., a media and communications company with television,  ; 7 ’   c·s,F     . ..`_   »  
 ig radio broadcasting and publishing interests. __ _ri`' ’ In i
  `>`  3 In 1989, Knapp purchased a then 200—acre tract in rural Fayette County that  
_ ‘ .·  I · he named Monticule Farm. (Today the farm encompasses about 600 acres.)   ` 4 _ `
~ - l     It was about eight years later that he divested himself of some business " T"  I "
api? A ventures and put his entire focus on the horses. He knew these animals,
1 ` _ both from his days as a wor|d—c|ass polo player and thefamily farm in 1  I = ~ M .
E   Minnesota. But Knapp was uncomfortable with the lack of scientific data  cj'. · - ‘ ·° . I __..
g ~ on which the breeding business operated. " ` ` I I ` I
if ‘ V "I understand the world best through numbers. I’m a pretty empirical person.
· · ir  I like to see some evidence of success that’s more than one point," Knapp said. E
_ ` I A company named Equix Biomechanics helped to fill that void in Knapp’s = V
` approach to the horse business. When he saw how the company planned ’  
equine matings and projected athletic potential for young horses by measuring _ _
. V   physical characteristics (bone length, cardiovascular capacity, length of stride,   . . _. . I
· · ~  JC *?» · V r etc.), Knapp felt he had found the quantitative data he needed.   Q I I ~` ·