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The Keeneland Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held annually the third weekend in July on the grounds of the historic Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. The Concours weekend consists of four days of events, and the organization also conducts a preview event each year, the Maserati Mingle, in May.

A Concours d'Elegance (French, literally "a competition of elegance") is an event for collector cars in which they are judged for authenticity, function, history, and style. Classes are typically arranged by type, marque (manufacturer), coachbuilder, country of origin, or time period.

At the Keeneland Concours, judges select a winner and runner-up for each class in the event, and also confer a "Best of Show" award on one car from the group of first-place winners. In addition, the judges select a recipient for the "Judges Award." A group of teen-aged judges inspect all the entrants and award their own "Junior Judges" award, and the "Children's Choice" trophy is selected by a group of children of Concours friends and family. Attendees also select a "People's Choice" winner by voting for their favorite car.

The event typically includes displays by noted automotive artists, a silent auction of collectibles and memorabilia, and new car displays. Surrounding the show field is the large Car Club Paddock, in which members of car clubs such as Porsche, BMW, Corvette, Cobra, military vehicles and individual owners exhibit their vehicles as well.

Including approximately 160 entrants, there were about 1,000 collectors cars on site for the 2017 event.

The event weekend includes the Bourbon Tour on Thursday, the Concours Bash gala on Friday evening, the Concours d'Elegance on Saturday, and the Tour d'Elegance on Sunday. As part of the fundraising efforts a Porsche Boxster is raffled off.

The competitive field
Each year a featured marque is named, and there are unique classes each year, such as orphan makes, TV & movie vehicles, horse drawn carriages, motorcycles, and racecars. In addition to the feature marque, classes cover the history of the automobile from the Vintage Class through Future Classics.

Car owners can self-nominate their cars or may be invited to exhibit by the car acquisition committee.

In 2013 students and faculty from the University of Kentucky Applied Statistics Laboratory and the Student Statistics Organization created a system to help judges track class winners in real-time during the event.

Competing cars are drawn from the region as well as national contenders such as this year's Best of Show winner, the 1933 Delage D8S coupe roadster that previously won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

In addition to the featured marques of Rolls-Royce and Bentley, the 2017 event included a class of Allard cars and cars similar to those featured in The Fast & The Furious film franchise.

History
The event began in 2004 with a group of classic car enthusiasts who wanted to bring a first-class car show to Kentucky. Early on it was decided to create full-fledged concours d'elegance similar to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.

Since then, the event has matured into a top regional concours that draws cars of international significance while also offering a high quality opportunity to show cars from the region that might not travel to other concours.

The Keeneland Concours was featured in Season 19, Episode 17 of My Classic Car and in "Horsepowered: The Keeneland Concours" presented by Kentucky Life on Kentucky Educational Television.

The Keeneland Concours has been named a Top 20 Event in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society for several years, most recently in 2016 and 2015.

The event has been named a Top 10 Festival by the Kentucky Travel Industry Association for several years as well.

Charitable contributions
Since the first Keeneland Concours in 2004, the event has raised more than $600,000 for Kentucky Children's Hospital.