Got our invitations from NTRA for derby week today, and we're stoked.
151st Kentucky Derby
- Thread starter SSGT.
- Start date
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Haven't been for over 30 years but it was always enjoyable.
I was asked to be on The National Thoroughbred Racing Association Medical Staff in Texas and we've been able to go to the Derby and Belmont for the past eight years. If you're a people watcher there is no better place to do it than a big horse race. Well stock car racing fans run a close 2nd, but those are my people horse racing is a different, yet the same crowd.
Except at the NASCAR races the ladies trade in thier tent sized feathery and flowery hats for a black trucker hat with the number "3."
As a lifelong denizen of the Derby City, you will not find me there.
Oaks is for us..
There's nothing quite like watching classy, immaculately dressed women get shitfaced and act like teens on Spring Break.
Oaks is for us..
There's nothing quite like watching classy, immaculately dressed women get shitfaced and act like teens on Spring Break.
We get there on the Saturday before the Derby, this year April 26. It's a working vacation for me throughout the week of racing there will be many hours of monitoring horses and testing for doping and a week of horse racing for the family. So, we're there for the whole week and I agree Friday's running of the Oaks is always a goodtime
This will be the first year for my daughter, who got her veterinary license two years ago to work alongside dad. While Grandma spoils the grandkids with all the goodies she can find.
I tell ya.. back when I started in college I contemplated going in to equine study/management. I never had a LOT of horse experience, but thought it could be fun.
Ended up going in a different direction..
Just got back late yesterday from our weekend in Louisville and the 151st Kentucky Derby. My wife and I have been many times and she, especially, really loves the color, excitement, dresses, hats, etc. that come with it. I usually have a good time, but not being a big "crowd person" I can get my fill pretty quickly.
This year it was wet and rainy, but still nearly 150,000 attended and there were some good races and no injuries.
After a rather lackluster day of betting, I had won a little (around $20) on a horse in an earlier race and when I went to the window to cash it out, on a complete whim and while looking at the program of the Derby line up, I told the cashier to just let that $20 ride on the #18 horse in the Derby race. Well, the #18 horse was Sovereignty, who at 9 to 1 odds won the race!! So, while I did not make a fortune, I did soften the blow from some of the earlier loses, ha.
I guess that is about all you can ask for.
Oh, on a smoking note, I have never seen so many people smoking cigars as this year. Even a large number of women were smoking. No pipes, though. Maybe I should try to make that a trend.........
This year it was wet and rainy, but still nearly 150,000 attended and there were some good races and no injuries.
After a rather lackluster day of betting, I had won a little (around $20) on a horse in an earlier race and when I went to the window to cash it out, on a complete whim and while looking at the program of the Derby line up, I told the cashier to just let that $20 ride on the #18 horse in the Derby race. Well, the #18 horse was Sovereignty, who at 9 to 1 odds won the race!! So, while I did not make a fortune, I did soften the blow from some of the earlier loses, ha.
I guess that is about all you can ask for.
Oh, on a smoking note, I have never seen so many people smoking cigars as this year. Even a large number of women were smoking. No pipes, though. Maybe I should try to make that a trend.........
Over the years, I have heard about the Derby occasionally, usually after the races. But, this year is the first year I have seen so much information and advertisement. I wonder if it is because that band Metalica has a horse in it. I have seen several ads in my social media feeds about that band and the race.
I have been one time to the races when I was younger, but I don't remember seeing the pageantry and stylish clothes that we hear about. I must have not been in the same seating area that was going on in.
I have been one time to the races when I was younger, but I don't remember seeing the pageantry and stylish clothes that we hear about. I must have not been in the same seating area that was going on in.
Well, I've been to about 25 Derby's and my wife, a Louisville native, has seen over 40 and I can say that it has grown in attendance (last year it was nearly 160,000) when the weather is even remotely decent. The pageantry is huge and so is the celebrity attendance, ownership and interest. Although much of who is called a celebrity nowadays, I have never heard of......
Cosmic, I would imagine that if you were to attend, and word got out that you were there, some nicely attired "hottie" would shove a microphone in your face and interview you for the big screen!!!
That and the late Toby Keith's horse was running. When I get picked for the race I spend a lot of time in the paddock, but we all make sure we get to watch the hat parade.
The paddock at Churchill Downs is absolutely unbelievable. Hard to describe.
I have a meerschaum pipe that belonged to a jockey who won the Kentucky Derby!
If anyone is interested I'll dig out the pipe and the letter from I think the grandson who sold me the pipe many years ago. It is a very plain and lightly smoked meerschaum 'cutty' pipe in a case.
That is very cool. If it would not be too much of an ordeal to find it, I would love to see it and to know who the jockey was. thanks.
@Choatecav: As requested here is the pipe and case along with the letter that accompanied the pipe. It would appear that the pipe belonged to the grandfather of the chap who won the 1951 Kentucky Derby. As you can see I have not even smoked the thing and it was in a drawer with the note from when I purchased it twenty odd years ago so my apologies for my faulty memory!
That is such a cool thing. Thanks for taking the time to dig it out and post the photos. I took a look at the Derby Mint Julip glass that we brought back. They always list all of the derbys by year and the winning horse and in 1951 it was a horse by the name of "Count Turf" that he would have been riding.
Thanks again for sharing!
@Choatecav: You are most welcome. I am not a huge collector of previously owned pipes by the great and the good but I am glad this one gave you a smile. Until you posted I had completely forgotten I owned the thing and that I had it in a drawer in my office somewhere with its accompanying letter!
A half mile South of Bug Tussle, other than the local stock car races and high school basketball teams an interest in sports was considered somehow not socially appropriate. Good Christian men had to milk cows, and supply our mothers with money. Sporting events were for the beer joint crowd.
This social taboo did not apply to the Indy 500, the World Series, the Heavyweight Champion of the World title matches, and of course, the annual Run for the Roses at the Kentucky Derby.
We knew all the horses, and picked a favorite, and knew that horse would only have one chance at fame and glory one time.
Our mothers tried to minimize the mint juleps and gambling that went along with it.
We knew we’d only have one run for the roses on this world here below.
This social taboo did not apply to the Indy 500, the World Series, the Heavyweight Champion of the World title matches, and of course, the annual Run for the Roses at the Kentucky Derby.
We knew all the horses, and picked a favorite, and knew that horse would only have one chance at fame and glory one time.
Our mothers tried to minimize the mint juleps and gambling that went along with it.
We knew we’d only have one run for the roses on this world here below.