Fly High In Lexington And See The Bigger Picture

[Wandering Eyes]

The Thoroughbred transcends borders, oceans, entire cultures. To do so literally, of course, it will need a little help: ideally, nowadays, a plane. And that's where Andrea Branchini's day job comes in, as a shipping clerk with the transport firm Mersant International. But this is a man himself without frontiers. Branchini has lived and worked in five different countries, and traveled widely in between, constantly absorbing what makes one society different from another, and what brings them together.

Few fields of interest, Branchini has observed, achieve the latter quite like the Turf. Few horsemen, equally, can ever have absorbed its myriad stories and characters through quite so erudite a filter. TDN readers have occasionally been able to sample Branchini's omniscience through his explanation of arcane or witty horse names (“What's In A Name?”); and many in the professional community will have done likewise while enjoying his company at the sales. But now Branchini's Lexington neighbors are being offered the opportunity to tap into his knowledge on a more formal basis, in the nine-week course he will be offering at the Carnegie Center in the new year.

They should be lining up round the block, for even so exceptional a store of knowledge becomes almost incidental to the charm with which Branchini dips into it, with his Italian accent thankfully resistant to the erosion of his years in America.

Branchini was educated at one of the world's oldest universities, in his hometown Bologna, from which he holds a degree in Philosophy. His father, an engineer, had a passion for Standardbreds, as both owner and amateur driver; and was evidently also the source of Branchini's Wanderlust, leaving Italy to seek his fortune in North America in 1959. The horses retained their allure–Branchini has pictures of him at the 1966 Kentucky Derby–but would eventually also summon him home to Italy, after 20 years, to manage the celebrated San Siro racecourse in Milan.

Branchini stayed in the United States, working in New York for a daily newspaper serving the Italian-American community, Il Progresso Italo-Americano. But then his own wanderings began: after a stint back in Italy, he joined the bloodstock and shipping agency Horse France.

“Only with the idea that with this job I could live in Paris, and live a bohemian life,” he admits. “And I do treasure that time. I didn't actually produce any art, but I suppose it was quite bohemian. There was a hotel in Rue de Nesle, a bit of a commune where they put you in rooms with other people. I did stay two nights but there were people in my room, playing the guitar and smoking marijuana until 6 a.m., and I had to show up at the office at 8 a.m. And I thought, 'This is not going to work!'”

So Branchini moved to a hotel where the only phone was in the lobby and they ran a stopwatch on his calls home to Italy. But his English was better than his French, so when the company opened a branch in Ireland he was posted there for a couple of years, before transferring to Newmarket. Finally in 1991 he started his own venture.

“There was a lot of business,” he recalls. “When you're based in England, you have the Middle East, you have America, even destinations in the Far East like Japan and Malaysia. The Breeders' Cup was getting bigger and bigger, and a lot of Europeans were going to Keeneland with the big sale now in September. In a way those were pioneering years.”

Sir Henry Cecil with Prince Khalid bin Abdullah | ScoopDyga

One useful connection was with his compatriot Luciano Gaucci, whose Tony Bin (Ire) won the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1988. That opened a lot of new doors, and consolidated existing relationships with the likes of Sir Henry Cecil.

“Those were happy days,” Branchini says. “It was my company, so of course I burned the midnight oil. It wasn't always easy to be an Italian in the Newmarket of those days: it was still very much 'Olde England' and you needed a lot of cultural preparation to know how to deal with it, to understand how the system works.”

His three children were all duly born in Cambridge, but their mother is American and it was agreed to raise them in her homeland. So Branchini reconnected with Horse France, before joining Mersant in 2014.

“I have always been a sales guy,” he says. “I would stay at Tattersalls all day, and it's the same here. I'm not very pushy, I don't chase ambulances. But in England, it was very easy for me to talk with Americans, having lived here; and then, when I came here, even the trainers and agents who hadn't been clients in Newmarket would talk to me, because I was a known quantity to them. I think the British, in particular, quite like some familiarity when they're abroad.”

So much for his industry credentials. But Branchini has meanwhile always enriched his cultural hinterland, a voracious curiosity nourishing parallel academic activity both as student and teacher. For the last 10 years he has taught his native language to Lexington Italophiles; while he has topped up his Philosophy degree at the University of Kentucky besides also earning a B.A. in History. Recently his evergreen enthusiasm led him to pursue a course in writing for theatre. “Of course it's all young people,” he says with a shrug. “I'm Italian and 70 years of age, but I think they appreciate having somebody different around.”

In this upcoming course, Branchini will take to a new level some of the territory he covered in a somewhat experimental spirit back in 2019.

“I enjoyed that and was amazed by the variety of the people who came,” he recalls. “There were a couple who wanted to know more for their betting, there was a farm owner, there were Flying Start students, grooms, interns.  One person said, 'I've learned more in this course than I did at university!' Somebody in Arizona asked for tapes to be sent. So I saw that there was an appetite for something like this. The Thoroughbred world is very complicated. For everyone who wants to work in it, or participate in any way, it takes a lot of knowing.

“A lot of people who go to Keeneland races in the spring really don't know much about it. If we can give them a frame of reference, they will enjoy the spectacle so much more. But my hope is that this course can benefit anybody: both people who work in the business, or on farms, at all levels; and also people living here, surrounded by the industry, without really knowing about it.”

Keeneland's Library has supported Branchini's scholarly endeavors | Keeneland Library

Branchini is grateful for the support of the Keeneland Library, and will be hosting guest lecturers through the program. He hopes that industry employers might sponsor the attendance of staff whose professional engagement could be elevated by a course designed both to inform and enthuse. “This is a labor-intensive industry that will never be automated,” he notes. “And it has an increasing labor shortage.”

Not that anyone needs a particular reason, beyond the fascination of a world as teeming with color and character as ours.

“People like Tesio, Boussac, their stories are so interesting,” Branchini says. “The theory of breeding has plenty of pseudo-science, really it's theory against theory, a lot of gray areas. I've studied anthropology and when you read about Mendelism and so on, you see how it would actually all be quite boring if it were all a science.

“I don't think I've led a particularly remarkable life. There has been a lot of drifting. But I've seen how my Italian classes have produced a community, among the students. And now, with this long life, and all these experiences of the horse industry in different countries, I would like to share that with whoever might like to listen.”

History and Geography of the Thoroughbred, with Andrea Branchini and guest speakers: Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, 251 W. 2nd St, Lexington, KY 50507. $110 for nine Tuesday sessions as follows:

• February 3: Origins–foundation stallions, the first Epsom Derby (1780), the Stud Book (Weatherbys);
• February 10: Worldwide Expansion–including the stories of Federico Tesio and Marcel Boussac;
• February 17: The Stallion–from the classic era of the 30/40-share stallion to the large books of today (scientific progress/shuttling);
• February 24: USA Beginnings and Consolidation, 18th & 19th Centuries–including the black jockeys's era;
• March 3: Kentucky Derby–and the ascent of Keeneland;
• March 10: Geography–Japan, Australia, England, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany;
• March 17: Modern Times–commercialization, Sangster vs Darley, Breeders' Cup, HISA;
• March 24: Wagering in the World–fundamentals and variations in betting systems;
• March 31: Where does the Money come from?–the funding of horseracing.

Click here for the complete schedule.

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