Welcome to the website of Billy Reed, longtime Kentucky-based newspaper columnist, magazine writer, radio talk-show host and guest, TV commentator, political pundit, communications specialist, public speaker, and book author.

Reed, a 62-year-old native of Mount Sterling, Ky., and a 1966 graduate of Transylvania University, succeeded the late Joe Creason as general columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1974 and then followed Dave Kindred as the newspaper’s sports editor in 1977.

He also was associated with Sports Illustrated magazine for 29 years (1968-’97) and spent more than 15 years as a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. For Sports Illustrated, he wrote more than 800 bylined articles on 15 different stories, and authored 12 cover stories.

Reed will post fresh columns on this website every Monday and Thursday. Newspapers and magazines have permission to reprint the material. We ask only that they credit Billy Reed Enterprises LLC.

Publications who can’t afford to send a writer to cover the 2007 Kentucky Derby may get special coverage from Reed, a two-time Eclipse Award winner and veteran of 36 runnings of the Derby, by contacting Billy Reed Enterprises at 502-893-5900 or billy@billyreedsays.com.

More About Billy….

Billy Reed began his career at age 16 with the Lexington Herald-Leader covering Henry Clay High School sports. This beginning evolved into full time work at the Herald-Leader during his college years. Upon graduation in 1966 with a BA in English from Transylvania University, Reed joined the sports staff of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

In 1968, Reed joined the staff of Sports Illustrated in New York City as a sports writer where he worked until 1972, when he returned to Louisville. There he became special projects reporter for the Courier-Journal and in 1977 was named sports editor.

In 1986 Reed returned to Sports Illustrated and served as senior sports editor there from 1988 to 1998. Upon retirement from Sports Illustrated in 1999, he continued to work as a free lance writer until he was appointed Director of Communications for Kentucky’s Commerce Cabinet in 2003.

Reed has written or contributed to twelve books, many about racing. Having attended and covered all but two Kentucky Derby races since 1966, Reed’s book, My Favorite Derby Stories, is a compilation of selected stories previously published in Sports Illustrated, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Keeneland Program, Churchill Downs Website, the Kentucky Derby Program, and the Courier Journal, among others. Each of Reed’s stories is informed by years of interest, research, interviews, and the genuine and lasting relationships he has formed with owners, trainers, jockeys, and others players in the industry.

Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame, and his list of journalism awards is long. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award twice. His stories on racing and the Derby have won him the Red Smith Award for Derby coverage eight times and the David Woods Award twice for his coverage of the Preakness. His honors include an award from the National Headliners Club in 1982 for “Consistently Outstanding Sports Columns” and the Sigma Delta Chi - National Journalism Society’s award for “General Investigative Reporting.”

While Billy Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades, he is perhaps one of media’s most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky’s spectacular annual event. In all of his writings about thoroughbred racing, Reed brings together a deliciously clear and concise blend of historical facts, interpersonal relationships, rich details, genuine love of the beauty of the thoroughbred breed, and the surrounding landscape and culture from which it springs.

The Kentucky Derby is richer for having Billy Reed standing by, listening to its stories, documenting the horses, the people, the histories, the traditions, the romance and the drama of this great Kentucky event. Best of all, we can count on Billy Reed to masterfully weave all this into words that resonate – so that everyone can feel and experience this great horse race held the first Saturday in May - Kentucky’s annual “Run for the Roses.”