| The plush turf on the track at the
17th annual Steeplechase at
Callaway, in Pine Mountain, is a
bright green; the sky a brilliant blue.
Leaves on 200 acres of hardwoods
wear their resplendent fall colors of
scarlet, gold and bronze. Flags flap
in a mild breeze. Crowds are setting
out lavish lunches on tables and on
tailgates, eager for the Sport of
Kings Challenge, a premier racing
event featuring glossy-coated horses
and silk-clad jockeys intent upon
establishing records that will qualify
them for future races here and
abroad.
Across the field stands a lone
figure dressed in red and white and
wearing a top hat. He holds a brass
bugle, awaiting the signal to step
forward and announce in melodious
short bursts the first race.
His name is George Sallee, or
"Bucky" to his friends. He’s married
to Barbara, and has three children,
three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
He’s been the head
bugler for 15 years at Callaway’s
Steeplechase. As a traveling bugler–
he lives in Georgetown, Ky. and has
also been the head bugler at
Keeneland Race Track in Lexington,
Ky., for 39 years–he has met many
dignitaries including Queen
Elizabeth, presidents, dukes,
duchesses, governors and actors.
Sallee’s merry face and the
sharp high notes of his bugle have
become a fixture at Callaway’s
Steeplechase. However, few of the
high-spirited onlookers at
Steeplechase are acquainted with
him, save as the figure with the
bugle who is as much a part of the
field as the thoroughbreds, their
trainers and jockeys. A young 72, he
has traveled across the nation to
horse race tracks from Keeneland
and Churchill Downs to the
Kentucky Downs and steeplechases
such as the Iroquois Steepleland in
Nashville, Tenn., where he has been
blowing his bugle for 25 years.
A music major at the University
of Kentucky, Sallee studied trumpet. |
