A great night of good, clean fun for the whole family will be found April 10 at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington, Ky., at the Celebrity Team Penning event to raise money for the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund. Emmy-winning actor and comedian Tim Conway, who is co-founder of the MacBeth Fund with Judy McCarron, wife of Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, will be there to host the event.

A pre-event cocktail reception and dinner hosted by Conway and Outback Steakhouse will kick off the evening at $50 per ticket. Sixteen sponsored teams of three riders apiece will compete in the night’s event, which can be seen for an admission price of $10, with children 12 and under free admission.

Team penning is one of the fastest-growing equine sports in the country. In the event, 30 “cows” (usually steers) numbered from 0 through 9 stand at one end of an arena. There are three number 0s, three number 1s, etc. Three riders enter the other end of the arena and proceed to the start line. When the timekeeper calls the start, the riders are given a number, 5 for example. They have to move all three number 5s from the herd down to the other end of the arena and put them into a pen. The fastest seven teams will come back for a “pen off.” The team with the quickest combined times wins the event.

Celebrity jockeys such as Chris McCarron, Pat Day, Angel Cordero Jr., Jean Cruguet, Gary Stevens, Patty Cooksey, Don Brumfield, Robby Albarado, and John Rotz will each partner with two paying patrons to demonstrate their team penning skills. The team spots are full for this year’s event.

Governed by in impressive board of directors and advisors that includes Burt Bacharach, Merv Griffin, Jenny Craig, Dick Van Patten, and numerous jockeys, the MacBeth Fund assists in ways from paying the rent, to purchasing a house trailer, to purchasing medical equipment needed by permanently or temporarily disabled riders. There are 1,825 injured riders from every racetrack in North America who have received assistance. That number does not include riders assisted multiple times with different injuries.

The gates open at 5 p.m., with the cocktail reception and dinner from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and the penning starting at 6:45 p.m. Anyone interested in sponsorships, donations, or cocktail and dinner tickets should contact Judy McCarron at 859/361-0394, or Tony DeFranco at 310/550-4542. Please visit www.macbethfund.org for more information