RTCA Honors Bassett

The Race Track Chaplaincy of America honored former Keeneland and Breeders’ Cup president Ted Bassett, III with its Horace W. “Salty” Roberts Founder’s Award during the 13th annual White Horse Awards Luncheon held Thursday at the Campbell House in Lexington.

WinStar CEO and President Elliott Walden presented the event’s keynote speech, focusing on the call to provide love and support to each other. He recognized the service of race track chaplains, who unwaveringly answer the call to provide much needed emotional and physical assistance to the backstretch community.

Quoting the Book of Isaiah and the prophet’s response of “Send Me,” to the call to serve, Walden explained, “That is what the chaplains do. Whatever it takes. However long it takes. They are selfless.”

Walden also recognized Ahmed and Justin Zayat, presenting the owners of American Pharoah with a painting.

“They have been great ambassadors and have done a great job of sharing American Pharoah with everyone,” Walden said before adding, “I’m just the dumb guy who didn’t get him to stand at WinStar.”

Accepting the founder’s award, Bassett said, “I want to tell you how honored I am to be a part of the racetrack chaplaincy.”

Bassett paid tribute to the 83-year-old Roberts, founder of the RTCA, who was forced to miss the ceremony.

“In all these years, I have never met anyone who was more committed and dedicated to the cause than Salty,” he said. “And this award is Salty Roberts’s award because it really should be awarded to the person who really took a stand for the Race Track Chaplaincy of America.”

Bassett continued, “The chaplaincy through the years, and particularly in its early years, served as a bridge from the front side to the backside, creating a greater understanding about the need to provide service to the backbone of our industry.”

Also honored during Thursday’s luncheon was equine artist Robert Clark, who received the organization’s community service award, and Patsy Payne was honored posthumously with the Tribute to Excellence award.

Erick Najduch, an outrider at Los Alamitos, was given the 2015 White Horse Award to recognize his actions which saved the life of a 2-year-old quarter horse who broke loose and became trapped in the track’s infield lake in 2014. Najduch dedicated the award to unsung outriders across the country.

“When you show up at work in the morning, you just pray for boring,” Najduch said of an outrider’s job. “You just hope that everything goes smoothly and no one gets hurt and there are no incidents. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. This award is a testament to all those men and women out there every day doing that job because they really are heroes every day. They are not recognized. So this award isn’t about what happened that evening, it’s about what these men and women show up every day to do. They are unsung. So to me this award is a testament to the outriders throughout the country. Because without them, we don’t have racing.”

Among the industry insiders in attendance at the Campbell House were Ben Walden, Brereton Jones, Craig Fravel, Walt Robertson, Corey Johnson and James Keogh.