Lambert has spent his career applying his knowledge of equine physiology to predict performance in horses for equine industry owners and breeders. In the last decade, he also has developed a wearable biometric sensor technology to help identify horses at risk of serious injury to prevent catastrophic events, serious injury and improve overall safety for horses and riders.

A native of England, Lambert received his bachelor’s degree in veterinary science from Liverpool University. He came to the U.S. to conduct research at Cornell University and decided to stay. Lambert worked in private veterinary practice and with the United States Equestrian Team before founding Equine Analysis Systems in 1987 in Midway, Ky. The company consults with Thoroughbred owners and breeders to predict performance of individual horses and has advised clients in the purchase of Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup winners, top Thoroughbred sire Tapit and numerous graded stakes-winning horses.

In 2019, Lambert launched StrideSAFE, wearable sensor technology to document a horse’s movements at high speed and analyze that data to identify physical problems that could lead to catastrophic injury. StrideSAFE later incorporated advanced sensor technology and data from StrideMaster^SM of Australia. The current product is a fast, reliable and inexpensive screening test that can be run on every horse in every race that alerts trainers and veterinarians to horses at high risk of injury. StrideSAFE has been tested and utilized at 11 racetracks in the U.S., including its current use at all racetracks in Kentucky.

“I’ve spent my life studying racehorse physiology and have accumulated a tremendous amount of data and understanding during that time. As the issue of addressing the safety of the horse (and rider) became more and more prevalent, it just seemed like the right thing to do,” Lambert said. “This award is a significant compliment and great honor for me and my team who work hard and quietly behind the scenes to make a positive impact.”

In nominating Lambert for the award, Gwen Davis, owner of Davis Innovation, LLC and consultant for StrideSAFE, pointed out that his innovations’ success is ultimately driven by a passion for and love of horses.

“In my years of providing marketing support and services to clients throughout the Thoroughbred racing industry, I have never encountered someone with as much vision, intelligence and conviction for the Thoroughbred racehorse as Dr. David Lambert,” Davis said in her nomination. “I am proud to be associated with this effort and with Dr. Lambert himself. He is an inspiration to all who hope to keep horses and jockeys safe and ensure the future of the industry.”

“David Lambert has made significant contributions to quality and safety in the sport of racing,” said Amy Lawyer, assistant professor and chair of UofL’s Department of Equine Administration. “The Galbreath Award was created to recognize just this type of innovation and business efforts that move the equine industry forward. Dr. Lambert is a most deserving recipient of this award.”

Recipients of the Galbreath Award are selected by a committee of faculty in the in the UofL . The award is administered by the UofL Equine Industry Program. The award is named for the late John W. Galbreath, a self-made man who distinguished himself in both business and as a horseman. A list of all Galbreath Award laureates and nomination information is available at the website.

For information on the award presentation dinner to honor Lambert to be held Thursday, Dec. 5, contact Kimberly Spear at kimberly.spear@louisville.edu or 502-852-7727. A video of the presentation of the Galbreath Award will be available on the  after the event.

In recognition of his innovations to improve the safety of horse racing, the  has named Dickinson the 33^rd recipient of the John W. Galbreath Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship in the Equine Industry.

“The safety of the horse has always been a long-term goal of mine ever since I was a child when on small ponies I had to keep up with my mother who was on a Grade A International Showjumper. We used to jump post and rail fences, some with ditches and drops, and stone walls. Since then, I’ve always felt very grateful and indebted to all the horses I rode,” Dickinson said. “I am honored and flattered to receive the Galbreath Award.”

A native of Yorkshire, England, Dickinson was a champion steeplechase jockey and trainer prior to becoming a successful Thoroughbred trainer in the United Kingdom. Since coming to the U.S. in 1987, he has won more than 80 stakes races in the U.S. and Canada. In 2000, he led all New York-based trainers with a win percentage of 35% from starters. One of his greatest achievements in training was conditioning 1996 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Da Hoss to a repeat win in that race’s 1998 renewal at Churchill Downs after a two-year layoff.

Dickinson is a member of the Steeplechasing Hall of Fame and has four listings in the Guinness Book of World Records, including the record for the most racing wins in one day – 12.

In 1996, Dickinson began building his own Thoroughbred training facility, , in Maryland, employing the most innovative technology in equine care and horse husbandry. Unsatisfied with available track footings, he began developing , now recognized as a safe, consistent all-weather synthetic surface for racing and training Thoroughbred horses.

“The focus on safety for its equine and human athletes is paramount in horse racing today,” said Michele Fischer, president of horse racing and gaming consulting firm Darting Star LLC in his nomination. “Michael has demonstrated a willingness to take personal and career risks in the development of a new racing surface. In the beginning, he was met with great reluctance by an industry resistant to change. He has continued to refine the science and today the Tapeta surface has been installed at racetracks and training centers across the world.”

Tapeta 10, the latest version of Tapeta Footings, has substantially reduced equine fatalities and outperformed conventional dirt and turf surfaces. Tapeta surface has been installed at Turfway Park in Kentucky and at Gulfstream Park in Florida, Golden Gate Fields in California and Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania as well as facilities in Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

“We are excited to present the 2022 Galbreath Award to Michael Dickinson for his contribution to the sport of racing through the creation of Tapeta and synthetic track surfaces,” said K. Amy Lawyer, assistant professor and chair of UofL’s Department of Equine Administration. “The nature of the Galbreath Award is to recognize innovation and business efforts that move the equine industry forward. Mr. Dickinson’s business achievements added a new element to a sport that had been largely unchanged for centuries.”

Recipients of the Galbreath Award are selected by a committee of faculty in the in the UofL College of Business.

The award is named for the late John W. Galbreath, a self-made man who distinguished himself in both business and as a horseman. The 32^nd Galbreath Award recipient was Tom Aronson, an original business architect of two of the most successful companies the history of horse racing, the Television Games Network (TVG) and Exacta Systems, both of which became billion-dollar wagering companies. A list of all Galbreath Award laureates and nomination information is available at the website.

For information on the award presentation dinner to honor Dickinson to be held March 30, contact Kimberly Spear at kimberly.spear@louisville.edu or 502-852-7727. A video of the presentation of the Galbreath Award will be available on the  after the event.

Aronson is an original business architect of two of the most successful companies the history of horse racing, the Television Games Network (TVG) and Exacta Systems, both of which have become billion-dollar wagering companies since their creation. 

“Tom Aronson is a true ‘horse enterprise architect,’ as defined by the criteria governing this award,” said Ted Nicholson, senior vice president of Kentucky Downs, in nominating him. “He turned a youthful fascination with horses and horse racing into what has been a remarkable career highlighted by repeated innovation, business building and cutting-edge thinking for the industry.”

TVG is the pioneering national television network and groundbreaking account wagering platform. As the company’s chief business development officer in the 1990s, Aronson secured the live racing content from America’s most prominent racetracks needed to fuel the network. He also devised a national revenue-sharing scheme to properly compensate all of racing’s stakeholders as the new company moved horse racing into legal home wagering coupled with daily national broadcasting. 

More recently, Aronson helped launch Exacta Systems into the world of Historic Horse Racing (HHR), the electronic entertainment that has fueled the rapid growth of racetrack revenues and prize monies (purses) over the past decade. Since 2015, Exacta has generated over $14 billion in bets on races and more than $1.2 billion in revenue for racing, including allocations to purses paid to horse owners and breeders that helped revitalize the sport in Kentucky, Wyoming and Virginia.

“Horseracing in Kentucky is only as strong as the health of the game. Many of Tom’s initiatives have been significant in building the industry and helping it become more mainstream and available to people,” said Karl Schmitt, president and CEO of the Louisville Sports Commission. “He is passionate about horseracing. He also is very analytical – he understands how to analyze an issue from a theoretical perspective, and he has practical experience, so that is the best of both worlds.”

Upon graduating from Harvard in 1977, Aronson chose a career with horses as his personal and professional path, serving first as an executive assistant at Harness Tracks of America and then as director of legislative affairs for the American Horse Council in Washington, DC. In 1989, Aronson started his own marketing, development and analytics company, ., from which he stepped periodically to build other companies. The first of these was AXCIS Information Network, subsequently AXCIS TrackMaster, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Jockey Club.

Aronson also served as corporate vice president of programming and product development at Churchill Downs, Inc., and as a faculty member at UofL in the Equine Industry Program, where he instructed students in entrepreneurship, networking, business capitalization and enterprise building.

“I am privileged to have had the opportunity to help build two of the horse industry’s greatest start-ups from the ground up,” Aronson said of his TVG and Exacta experiences. “Helping to make horse sports more economically viable in a challenging world has been an exciting and rewarding career for me, and the honor accorded to me here by the University of Louisville is truly gratifying. The list of previous winners is breathtaking, and I am deeply appreciative of the inclusion and recognition.”

The award is named for the late John W. Galbreath, a self-made man who distinguished himself in both business and as a horseman. Previous Galbreath Award recipients include John A. Bell III, Cothran “Cot” Campbell, Tom Meeker and B. Wayne Hughes. Last year, the award was presented to Elizabeth James, Ph.D., an educator and equine career coach and co-founder of the Liberty Horse Association, the first organization supporting the discipline of liberty training.

“Horses and horse sports are not naturally inclined toward change,” Aronson said. “Horses in America have survived and prospered despite momentous changes around them over the past 125 years. They have earned and deserve the tireless efforts of all of us to keep their many uses viable, safe, proactively recognized and participated in by the public. My career has been all about doing that, and the acknowledgment the John Galbreath Award represents is a genuinely great reward.”

Recipients of the  are selected by a committee of faculty in the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship in the UofL College of Business.

NOTE: The presentation of the Galbreath Award to Tom Aronson will be streamed live on the on Wednesday, April 20, from 7:30-8:15 p.m.

James is a lifelong equine enthusiast who turned her love of horses into a career as an educator and equine career coach. She also co-founded the Liberty Horse Association, the first organization supporting the discipline of liberty training.

“I am most proud of the role I’ve gotten to play in helping other people accomplish their career goals. From students in higher education to clients as a coach, nothing has meant more to me than getting the call when they landed their dream job or their dreams were becoming reality,” James said.

See the award presentation , released March 23, 2021.

For a decade, James served as a lecturer and internship coordinator at the University of Kentucky, where she received her Ph.D. In 2018, she founded Equine Career Coach, an equine career coaching program, and co-founded the International Liberty Horse Association, the first association dedicated to the discipline of liberty training. In liberty training, the horse performs completely free of tack and equipment, instead relying on trust and attention to verbal or other cues from the handler. James earned her bachelor of science in animal science from the University of Nebraska and her master of science in animal biology from the University of California – Davis.

“Elizabeth epitomizes the cream of the crop when it comes to being a horsewoman: She has the academic background all the way through a Ph.D., has experience in many facets of the industry, from working with ranch horses to thoroughbreds, to owning and managing a horse training facility, to being an equine entrepreneur, to starting an association and launching a career coaching business,” said Fernanda C. Camargo, associate professor and equine extension specialist at UK, in nominating her for the award.

James said she is honored to be recognized by UofL.

“I have always seen UofL as the premier program when it comes to equine business, so to be recognized by these professionals carries more weight than I can say,” James said. “On top of that, to see the caliber of people who have won this award before me – people I admire, and to think a committee selected me to be among them is very humbling.”

Recipients of the demonstrate original and creative techniques or approaches to business, a willingness to take personal or career risks, forward-thinking and visionary management planning, an ability to render a business firm or organization more effective and profitable and the respect of peers as evidence of character and integrity. The recipient is selected by a committee of faculty in the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship in the .

The award is named for the late John W. Galbreath, a self-made man who distinguished himself in both business and as a horseman. Previous Galbreath Award recipients include John A. Bell III, Cothran “Cot” Campbell and Judith Forbis. The 2019 winner was B. Wayne Hughes, who re-established Spendthrift Farm as one of the largest stallion stations in the world through innovative marketing techniques such as the “Share the Upside” program.

Blowen is the founder of Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement sanctuary based in Georgetown, Kentucky. A retired Boston Globe movie critic and arts journalist, he established Old Friends in 2003 and, ironically, the first big name Thoroughbred entrusted to his care was Sunshine Forever, who had been owned and beloved by the award’s namesake, Galbreath.

The Galbreath Award has been given annually since 1990 to honor entrepreneurial leadership that has had a significant and positive impact on the equine industry. Galbreath was the visionary owner of Darby Dan Farm in Lexington and a former Churchill Downs chairman who distinguished himself as both a businessman and a horseman.

A facility like Old Friends devoted solely to retired Thoroughbreds without bells and whistles to interest tourists “was an unproven idea … and skeptics predicted it wouldn’t work,” said attorney Milton C. Toby in his nomination letter for Blowen. “They were wrong.”

“I am flabbergasted,” Blowen said, “especially when I think that John Galbreath’s own Sunshine Forever helped me build a foundation for success. I had a simple idea and I was always surprised someone else hadn’t done it before me. This award reinforces our belief at Old Friends that aftercare is an important part of racing.”

Today, Old Friends has a main facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, and two satellite farms. It is unusual in that it accepts retired stallions. The organization has grown from a leased paddock and one horse to a 236-acre farm, a herd of over 200 rescued and retired horses, and the two satellite facilities: Old Friends at Cabin Creek just outside of Saratoga, New York, and Old Friends at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Kentucky.

“Michael Blowen represents everything the Galbreath Award celebrates,” said Sean Beirne, director of the equine program. “He saw an opportunity to showcase Thoroughbreds in their twilight years and let them continue to thrill their fans in a unique way. UofL is proud to acknowledge his achievements.”

A dinner in Blowen’s honor is scheduled for Jan. 16, 2019 at the University Club.