Maurice B. Quirin has been a landscape and transportation photographer since 1972. He's a member of the New Hampshire Aviation Historical Society and National Railway Historical Society. Mr. Quirin is co-author, with Edward W. Brouder Jr., of Manchester's Airport: Flying Through Time (ISBN 0-9721489-9-X). Mr. Quirin also worked as a freelance editor and anchor for The Wall Street Journal Radio Network and was news director at WBNS radio in Columbus, OH.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Lexington's Darley Jonabell Farm

Along Bowman Mill Road in Lexington, you'll wind your way through some of the prettiest post-card terrain you've ever seen.  As you make a 90-degree turn in the road, you'll come upon Darley Jonabell Farm.  The farm is owned by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, and constitutional ruler of Dubai.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Allegiant Airlines Flight 662 (MD-88 N403NV) from Sanford (Orlando), Florida, is on final approach to Runway 4 at Blue Grass Airport, giving passengers a birds-eye view of the Darley paddocks.
 
 
Unfazed by the steel-winged bird that just roared by, one of Jonabell's proud steeds basks in the May sunshine. (May 17, 2012)
 
 
 
 
 
The Darley breeding shed is home to such famous stud horses as Bernardini, who foaled Zenyatta's first born in 2012, recently named Cozmic One.  The cost for the romantic encounter was $150,000 and Queen Z was brought to Darley from Lane's End Farm in nearby Versailles, Kentucky.
 
 
Darley Jonabell is HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s global breeding operation which stands stallions in seven countries.  
 
HH Sheikh Mohammed's personal aircraft is a Boeing 747 that whisks him from Dubai to Blue Grass Airport for the annual Keeneland September Yearling Sale that draws bidders from around the globe.
 
 
More on the history of Jonabell Farm in Lexington can be found on the Darley website. 
 
By the way, Sheikh Mohammed's brother, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai's Deputy Ruler, owns Shadwell Farm, also near Blue Grass Airport in Lexington.