Derby Dreams

Since I was a small boy the Kentucky Derby has always figured prominent in my daily dreams.  Growing up on a farm in Kentucky I listened to stories about legendary horses and their exploits in the most famous race of all.  Citation, Whirlaway, Gallant Fox, and Count Fleet were magical names that stoked the fires of my imagination.  I remember laying out a race track around the garden, just beyond the old farm house, and riding tobacco sticks through the dust and screaming the names of these titans of the turf.  I know riding a pointed stick was probably as dangerous as if I had been riding Hill Gail to the finish line, but the memories are still vivid to this day.  If it was a particular lucky day I coerced my cousins to mount a tobacco stick and the taste of the dust from those Derbies is still fresh in my mind.

I guess that's when I fell in love with the drama of the Kentucky Derby even though it was all conceived in a youthful mind.  It wasn't long until I attended my first Derby in 1958, I was ten years old.  My father was a National Guardsman who at that time had the high honor of guarding the rail at Churchill Downs on Derby Day.  I remember dawn breaking and the twin spires of Churchill Downs rose from the mist as if in a dream.  That moment did not disappoint.  The rest of that day is a blur, Tim Tam won,  and for me a life long passion for the Kentucky Derby still burns.  I have been to many Derbies since that day and have raced many horses of my own at Churchill Downs, though not in the Derby, and I still get cold chills when I think back to that morning long ago when I first saw the twin spires.  I suppose that's what the Derby is to me, a dream I still enjoy to this day, and come to think of it, that might be the best thing about the Kentucky Derby.  After all if you could talk to everyone who ever attended or participated, I think they all would echo that the Derby is a magical dream. 

Muddy Derby

The weather here in Kentucky has been anything but nice.  Rain and clouds have been never ending and some of us are wondering if it will ever stop.  We are just a little over a week before the 135th Kentucky Derby, one of the most glorious times in this state, and the picture for the Derby seems as muddy as the racetracks that these 3 year olds are training over.  No super horse has emerged to capture the public's imagination and therefore the prospect of a Triple Crown Champion seems as dim as the weather.

Uncle Mo, the 2 year old champion was poised to shoulder the mantel of greatness until he hooked and lost to a mediocre field in New York in the Wood.  Dialed In, a lightly raced winner of the Florida Derby is now the favorite but luke warm at best.  The Factor was supposed to be the next great thing until he was beaten in the Arkansas, and now he's not even going to run.  Archarcharch was the surprise winner and now looks like the sentimental favorite because of his connections,  Pants On Fire, because of the name will get some play but nothing is solid there.  Several other contenders are waiting to get their turn, hopefully in the sun, but are they contenders or pretenders?

So, the 135th Kentucky Derby is much like our weather cloudy and rainy.  However, come May 7th at around late afternoon, we all hope the clouds part, the sun shines bright, and one of these young colts will dapple in the winner's circle at Churchill Downs, and maybe that colt's future will outshine a muddy start to Derby week. 

Triple Crown Trouble

We are three weeks away from the 137th Kentucky Derby and consequently embarking on another run for the Triple Crown.  I often get asked the question of why has it been so long since there has been a Triple Crown winner.  Thirty-two springs have come and gone since Affirmed accomplished the feat.  There have been many near misses but none to ascend to the status of legends.  There have been many great three year old racehorses in this time period, Big Brown, Smarty Jones, and Alysheba just to mention a few, but none could do it.

Could it be that it's just that hard?  We ask a three year old racehorse, and folks that's a young thoroughbred, to run a distance, one mile and a quarter, a distance that none of them have ever gone before.  We ask them to walk over before a crowd of somewhere near two hundred thousand, a multitude of which they have never seen or probably will never see again.  Run the one and a quarter distance against competition of the best three year old racehorses on the planet, and win!  Great right?  Now lets take them two weeks later on a plane or a van to Baltimore, and pretty much do the same thing again except this time they are going to have to run a shorter distance of one mile and three-sixteenths, with tighter turns that requires more speed, and win!  No problem?

Three weeks later let's go to New York ask them to run a mile and a half, a distance that none of them have ever run and will probably never run again, and all the while fresh horses that haven't been on the Triple Crown trail with you, having every intention of ambushing your dream.  If this special horse manages to overcome this and win, well then his name gets spoken in reverence, because that's why we haven't had a Triple Crown winner in a generation, it's that hard to do. 

Eleven horses have won the Triple Crown and one day another will come and when he does, know what trouble he had along the way to greatness. 

Spring Formal

This Friday marks the 75th opening of the spring meet at Keeneland.  For me it has always been one of the most anticipated days of the year.  Basketball season is over, football is a distant memory, and baseball is one of those long affairs that allows us all to join at anytime.  Keeneland is the renewal, the rebirth of all that holds promise in our lives.  The trees are flowering, the tulips are blooming, that smell of grass,  freshly cut makes Keeneland and Kentucky one of those fairytale lands that no poet can do justice to.

Each spring for 75 years the best horse, the best trainers, and the best jockeys have come to Keeneland with the hopes of securing that special place in the Sport of Kings, a Derby horse that will take them a little way up the road to Chuchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.  For them horse racing immortality is just a clean trip and a very fast thoroughbred.  Oh, but how rare and elusive those kind are.  Luck may be their best friend along this treacherous road.

For the rest of us we go to Keeneland to see the beautiful horses and people,  that posture on the lawns sporting parasols and ornamental hats.  Somehow it makes us all feel dressed up.  Yes there is something special about Keeneland, something special about the horses and the people, something special about the time of year, and something special about the feel of formality that no other racetrack in this country exudes.
Keeneland only lasts for a few days during April and it's not that far, it's just over the hill, right in our own backyards.

Reflection

Basketball is officially over for me it ended last night a little after eleven when Kentucky lost in the National Semi-Final game.  What a glorious fun season it was, 29-9 when most of us thought at the end of February that we would be lucky if we got in the NCAA tournament.  One month later the Cats would sweep through the SEC tournament, revenge a loss to West Virginia, beat the over all number one seed Ohio St. and take care of our ancient rival North Carolina to make it to their 14th Final Four.  Not bad!

Who among us didn't take pride in our Jorts and marvel at the wildly talented freshmen.  Coach Cal had done what he said he would, restore Kentucky back to the top of the mountain and make us relevant again.  Maybe they didn't win the 8th National Title but they did make us proud to be a fan of the Greatest Tradition In The History Of College Basketball.  And with what Coach Cal has coming on the horizon the future looks very bright.

So, I put the lid on another basketball season and think about the future, I come to the realization that there are only 190 days until Big Blue Madness, and I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait.