The Kentucky Derby is touted as being the most exciting two minutes in sports. True, but the Run for the Roses experience goes on for a month. Mint juleps, hot-air balloon races, lawn parties, steamboat races, Kentucky Oaks (the Friday before the “big one” races), riverside concerts, celebrity sightings, private galas and hats. Lots and lots of hats. Let me tell you my great experience when I went to Churchill last year to watch Kentucky derby and do Kentucky derby betting there.
Louisville has so much to offer. They have a great history and great places to visits. But this seems to be invisible when Kentucky Derby is on.
I’m not a fashion editor, but I must tell you about my hat. You absolutely have to have a hat for the Kentucky Derby. The bigger, the more lavish, the better. Mine was brown horsehair (appropriate) with brown-tipped white feathers around the wide portrait brim.
I’m also not a food editor, but I feel compelled to share this coveted recipe for mint juleps:2 tablespoons super-fine sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
24 mint leaves, plus 4 for garnish
2 cups finely crushed ice
1 cup Kentucky bourbon
Combine sugar, lemon juice and mint leaves in a pitcher. Crush with a wooden spoon. Add ice and bourbon. Mix well. Pour into frosted silver cups and garnish with mint.
Legend has it that, on a hot day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, accompanied by his chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, arrived at West Point to give the commencement address. Mint juleps were being served. When asked by a waiter if he wanted a second mint julep, MacArthur wisely declined, saying, “No, thank you. I think I’ll stop now while I still know who is president.”
Looming over the whitewashed grandstand, infield and racetrack are the iconic twin spires of Churchill Downs, officially opened in 1875. Kentucky derby Betting booths and computers are everywhere, and there’s even a “Millionaire’s Row” floor for those who want to lose big. With so much to take in at the tracks, it’s easy to miss some of the sights inside.
I’ve spent many a first Saturday in May watching the Kentucky Derby on television, and every time the crowd is quieted as the glorious thoroughbreds are marched before the grandstands, as the University of Louisville Marching Band marches forward and more than 10,000 spectators begin singing Stephen Foster’s nostalgic “My Old Kentucky Home” — every single time, a tear or two slides down my cheek.
I’ll tell you — being there in person, standing and watching from the grandstand railing, gazing on the magnificent 3-year-old horses parading below and joining in singing with the exhilarated, fancifully bonneted throngs, it is definitely a two-hankie moment. I’ve definitely enjoyed my Kentucky derby betting experience at the race track itself.
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