This is about women in sports – the athletes and those who write about them in American newspapers and who interview them  on television.

There are a lot of them. But there was a day…

…Sports editors of all of America’s great newspapers were gathered for the annual convention  of Associated Press Sports Editors. A woman was an invited speaker – and did she ever tell us what we were doing wrong and why more females weren’t reading our sports sections.

The president of the association that was then running women’s  collegiate sports introduced us to a new word. She said, “More of us don’t read your sports pages because you have ‘acultured’ us out of them.”

Don’t look for that word in the dictionary because you won’t find it, but the sports editors got the point and knew what she meant.

Meet Alicia Wincze

I couldn’t wait until she was finished talking and answering questions because I wanted to tell her that I had hired two women who were full-time staffers for The Courier-Journal Sports Department, Christine Johnson and Reene Wilkins.

For years readers of The C-J and The Lexington Herald-Leader who are interested in the thoroughbred racing industry have enjoyed excellent coverage in The Courier-Journal by Jennie Rees and in The Herald-Leader by Mary Jane Wall.

The Lexington paper lost Mary Jane to retirement but replaced her by another really good writer,  Alicia Wincze, who should win a prize with the superb story she wrote on WinStar Farm where this year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Super Saver, was bred and born.

Alicia’s story told about how Bill Casner and Kenny Trout’s 1,600-acre farm produced a Derby winner and other top horses. The farm, formerly Prestonwood Farm, is on Pisgah Pike and near Old Frankfort Pike close to Versailles. It is in Woodford County, just over the line from Fayette.

Takes good people

A lot of people with money have entered the thoroughbred industry. They have lost a lot of money without success.

At the farm that produced the Derby winner,  owners Casner and Trout,  know that it takes good people to achieve success. They have been the John Calipari of racing. Casner, a Texas cowboy, told The Herald-Leader writer: “Most importantly you have to surround yourself with the most ethical, hardworking, passionate people that you can. We hired people with the right kind of attitude, and that’s the foundation of any company. Every day, Kenny and I can trust our people to do what is in the best interest of our horses.”

Following their Derby win, the owners have been asked what makes WinStar special. Casner said.  “I really feel it’s the team.”

2 more Cauthens

Two Cauthens (brothers of the great jockey Steve) are in responsible positions. Doug is president and Kerry is Four Star sales managing partner.

From the lowest stable hand, every member of the team works to make the farm work.

I have always insisted that horse racing has more great stories just waiting to be told than any other sport. I mean, what other sport has the colorful characters, the goats, the cats that keep the high-strung thoroughbreds company and calm?

Alicia Wincze has proven it again.

Brennan, Roberts

Another female sportswriter who has reached the pinnacle of her field is Christine Brennan of USA Today. She has blistered Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger repeatedly where they need to be blistered. Another top woman writer is Selena Roberts, the featured columnist for Sports Illustrated.

It was hard for some coaches and athletes to accept women writers. A friend of mine made the mistake of shunning a woman in his dressing room after a big football game and it led to his firing and the end of a promising coaching career that was on the fast track with the support of none other than the greatest college coach of all, Paul “Bear” Bryant.