"That's right you're not from Texas
But Texas wants you anyway."

-- Lyle Lovett

Owner Ken Ramsey has been to 50 tracks all over the world, but this will be his first time at Lone Star Park. Ramsey should feel right at home in Texas for he has all the attributes associated with the state -- a self-made risk-taking kind of guy whose confidence can border on braggadocios and whose success is a larger-than-life story.

Ramsey grew up in Artemus, Kentucky (pop. 500), won a college scholarship by being class valedictorian, joined the Navy and graduated officer cadet school, married his hometown sweetheart, worked for a trucking company, went into real estate and won a lottery that led to multi-millions. That's a story that can be appreciated from Corpus Christi to El Paso.

He is the Thoroughbred-owner equivalent of an oil wildcatter, challenging conventional rules with a common-sense wisdom, daring fate and never afraid of failure.

Ramsey is so self-confident that he couldn't care less what others thought when one day he charged across a sloppy track -- sans shoes and socks -- to lead his horse back to the winner's circle. The common man cheered; The well-healed cringed; Ramsey laughed, as he does a lot.

Ramsey and wife Sarah Kathern weren't even noticed at their only other Breeders' Cup showing with Catienus, a former claimer who ran 13th in the 1999 Classic. But it will be a different story in 2004, with a trio of stars in their stable heading to Dallas. Kitten's Joy is the likely favorite in the Turf; Nothing to Lose a top contender in the Mile; and Roses in May is yet another solid shot for them running in the Classic It's the Ramseys best year ever, ranking them among the nation's leading owners and breeders.

"We're going down there to kick butt," Ramsey exlaims as he lets out the laugh, yet only half-joking. He is kicking back on the sofa of the great room overlooking about some of the 1,200 acres on the Ramsey Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., just a 15-minute drive from Keeneland. Next to this room is his office where only the top of his desk is visible. Surrounding it are four-foot-high stacks of Daily Racing Forms. "I have about 15-years-worth of Forms. Every six months they come up from the [farm] office and pick them up to take them down there and put them in a big room." The door bell rings, Ramsey doesn't move. It's just after 10 in the morning, so of course it is the courier with his daily Ragozin sheets. "I get them every day," Ramsey says proudly. "The guy just rings to let me know they've come."

Yes, unlike many owners and breeders, Ken is a diehard gambler. For a decade before he got serious in the horse business and buying his big farm in 1994, Ramsey was a successful realtor who supplemented his income by wagering on horses. "It was another business venture for him," Kathern (as family and friends call her) notes. "And he studied it and worked at it as if it were a business, he'd make $30,000 or more a year while he was selling houses and land."

Last year at Saratoga, Ramsey hit a $721,000 Pick Six on the final day of the meet. He had already notched eight more during that summer at The Spa. He studies so much, he is one of the few owners who trainers will not flinch at when he brings around the Conditions book. They welcome his thoughts about putting his horses in the right race.

It was the payoff from his biggest gamble that afforded Ramsey the comfort and cash to plunge full force into horse racing in the early 90's after dabbling with mostly claimers in the 1980's. In 1989 he literally bet the farm -- not the one he has now but a smaller one near 1-75 in Lexington -- when he saw a future in cellular phones and went after franchise rights in states all across the country. Before they could get in the lottery being offered by a rural cellular phone company for those rights, the Ramseys had to prove they had a net worth of $1.2 million, so the paid-for farm was mortgaged again. A few weeks later the numbers 2-2-7 were drawn, Kathern's numbers. That got them the second-best market in Georgia. They built from there into other states, still owning cell towers and rights in Oregon, North Carolina and Kentucky.

"It was life-changing for sure. But I've always believe you have to follow your dreams," Ramsey says. "I have this sign up at the house 'A Turtle Doesn't Get Anywhere 'Til He Sticks His Neck Out.' I started with nothing and if I end with nothing, I've had a great life along the way. I really feel my best memories are ahead of me."

Some of those might come October 30 at Lone Star. Either way, Ken Ramsey will have some Texas-sized fun. You can bet on it.