Kenneth McPeek

Kenneth G. McPeek (born August 2, 1962, in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. As of May 2024 he has won over 2,000 races, with 21 horses winning Grade I races.

McPeek is an individual winner of all three races in the American Triple Crown as a trainer. In 2024 he trained Thorpedo Anna and Mystik Dan to victories in the Grade I Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby, respectively, becoming the third trainer in history to sweep both races in the same year.

Life and career
McPeek was raised in Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Arts in business administration. McPeek took out his training license in 1985, and won his first race that October at River Downs (now known as Belterra Park) with a horse owned by his father named Final Destroyer. In 1991 he saddled his first stakes winner at Canterbury Park, and three years later he won his first graded stakes race at Keeneland in the Beaumont Stakes with Her Temper. He won his 1,000th race at Churchill Downs in May 2009, and his 2,000th race at Turfway Park in February 2024. As of May 2024 his horses have earned more than $124 million in purse money.

In 2002 McPeek saddled his first three Grade I winners, starting in March with Harlan's Holiday winning the Florida Derby. The following month he saddled Take Charge Lady to victory in Keeneland's Ashland Stakes. Later that year at the Belmont Stakes with the Triple Crown on the line for War Emblem, McPeek's colt Sarava was the upset winner at odds of 70:1.

McPeek has a record of purchasing thoroughbreds for modest prices at auction or sale, that then go on to become major stakes winners. Tejano Run was purchased by McPeek for $20,000 at the 1993 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and went on to win or place in multiple stakes races, including a second-place finish in the 1995 Kentucky Derby. At the same sale in 2005 McPeek, as an agent, purchased a colt sired by Smart Strike for $57,000. The horse, Curlin, would go on to become a two-time American Horse of the Year and an influential stallion. In 2018 McPeek purchased for $35,000 a filly, Swiss Skydiver, who would later win the 2020 Preakness Stakes.

Mystik Dan won the Kentucky Derby in 2024, giving McPeek individual wins in all three of the American Triple Crown races.

Training facilities
In 2006, McPeek purchased the former Pillar Stud Farm, a 115-acre parcel in Lexington, Kentucky, from William duPont III, who was selling off pieces of his massive landholdings portfolio due to financial difficulties. McPeek renamed the farm to Magdalena Farm in honor of Magdalena Weber Shely (b. 6/2/1793), the original Matriarch of the land.

The office at Magdalena Farm is the home base for McPeek Racing, Magdalena Racing Partnerships, and Horse Races Now, the comprehensive horse racing APP. Currently, the farm has over 150 horses that are either racing, training, or being broken to saddle. The farm also handles mares and foals, as well as layups, thereby covering all stages of a horse's career.

McPeek purchased Silverleaf Training Center in Ocala, Florida, in 2019. Formerly the Padua Farm Training Center, the property includes a six furlong training track, four 24-stall barns, four paddocks, 20 stall/turnout paddocks, six covered round pens, and a five stall quarantine barn.

When horses are purchased as yearlings, they are taken to Magdalena Farm in Lexington. As they mature into two-year-olds, they are transferred to the Silverleaf Training Center in Ocala to be saddle broken, started under tack, and trained to use the starting gate. McPeek then moves the horses to finish their training at a race track, once each horse is ready to compete.

McPeek has made improvements to Silverleaf Training Center that directly benefit the two-year-olds' training such as having the track graded and adding a fully operational starting gate. New fencing and paddocks were also added.

The McPeek Silverleaf Team includes Lead Assistant Trainer Dominic Brennan, Assistant Trainer retired Eclipse award-winning jockey Robby Albarado, and Assistant Forman Shaun Charlton.

Mobile app
McPeek has developed a mobile app to provide comprehensive horse racing video and data for new fans and veteran horseplayers, called Horse Races Now. He reported that he came up with the idea for a horse racing app while watching CNBC's Planet of the Apps, a one-hour program that explored the explosion of mobile technology, specifically through phone applications. "During the show, I Googled 'horse racing apps' and there weren't any. I kind of politicked around and checked with some people to see if this was something that was happening. Long and short, I ended up doing it on my own because I just felt like it needed to be done."

McPeek launched Horse Races Now on March 27, 2012, and four years later, McPeek reported in a radio interview that the app had been downloaded over 500,000 times.