Derby Day

Even with a likely sloppy track, few sporting events compare to the first Saturday in May.

Interestingly, one horse running in today's Run for the Roses is long-shot Join in the Dance, who has run 2nd and 4th on previously muddy tracks. Harmonic convergence in 2009?

Feel Good Marathon Eve Friday

The two big races of the Spring in these parts are coming up with the Country Music Marathon tomorrow and the Kentucky Derby (perhaps the biggest race in any parts) next Saturday. So, go speed racer, go.

The Humane Society Answers the Bell

What I said the other day about thoroughbred breeding in the wake of Derby 2nd place finisher Eight Belle's demise? I'm in good company:

The Humane Society of the United States also weighed in today, arguing that horses are becoming more fragile because they're being bred for speed, not durability.

"There are problems coming to light more than ever -- problems related to breeding," said Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president. "Breeding too many horses, and waiting for someone else to clean up the problem. And breeding them for body characteristics that make these animals vulnerable to breakdowns, especially those spindly legs on top of these stout torsos."

The Week of Bourbon

As a former resident of Louisville, KY, I understand that there is no bigger time in the city than the past week preceding the first Saturday in May. I've been too busy with work lately to keep the Derby anywhere but in the back of my mind, but I have noticed myself drinking a little more bourbon this week than usual, and it probably goes back to my days of living in Louisville and participating in the run up to this day.

I have handicapped the Derby in the past, but I haven't paid the field enough attention this year to do it justice. I do think Big Brown will win, but I'm rooting for a working class horse named Bob Black Jack who was originally bought by a former pool shark for $4,500. He's a blue collar horse in a field of equestrian blue bloods. This Saturday is for the "Sport of Kings," but maybe, just maybe a peasant horse can wear the roses in the end.


UPDATE: Big Brown wins it going away. Bob Black Jack lead until the back turn and then seemed to run on empty as it looked like the entire field, including a surging Big Brown, passed him. In a freak accident the horse that placed (finished second), Eight Belles, broke both of her ankles after the race and she was euthanized on the track. I say "freak," but the way these horses are bred to have such thin cannon bones and fetlocks, I'm only surprised that such tragic events don't happen more often.


UPDATE: Some commenters over at the Louisville Courier-Journal website are questioning the owners and breeders in the wake of Eight Belles' tragedy at yesterday's Derby. Here's some samplings:

I can accept that these horses probably do love to run and maybe even compete. But two horses are euthanized at the Rolex Event last week, one breaks his leg at the Oaks, and one euthanized at the Derby yesterday. That is ridiculous.

Eight Belles' head actions were (probably) in response to pain in her legs. She tried to pull herself up, which is the natural instinct for a horse to do when they're in pain. It probably means a hairline fracture at that point.

The jockey (Saez), however, seemed to ignore her actions and began to whip her harder. Eight Belles responded as she had been trained to do, which is to run harder.

When she tried to stop, however, the momentum shifted on the front legs, and what was possibly a hairline fracture snapped the legs, first one, then the other.

You have to wonder when the media is going to start asking tougher questions rather than reveling in the pageantry and celebrity of horseracing.

Place Your Bets

The 9th race of the day at Churchhill Downs has just finished and next on tap is the Kentucky Derby (did you know that there are also two more races today that follow the Derby?). So, it's time to make my yearly wager on the Derby field. Here's my trifecta for this year:

1. Street Sense
2. Circular Quay
3. Any Given Saturday

I go now to pour myself some Makers, sing "My Old Kentucky Home," and enjoy "the most exciting two minutes in sports."


OFFICIAL RESULTS UPDATE:

1. Street Sense
2. Hard Spun
3. Curlin

1st Saturday in May, Updated

While Nashville had its big spring event last weekend with the Country Music Marathon, our neighbor to the north, Louisville, is having its huge events this week at the Kentucky Derby Festival. I lived in Louisville (pronounced "Loo-ah-vull") for several years, and I can tell you that there is no week of events in Nashville that compares with Derby Week. I was in the Grand Stands of Churchill Downs in 1989, the year that Sunday Silence won the Kentucky Derby (pictured below), and I can attest to the claim that the Derby is "the most exciting two minutes in sports." And the city of Louisville matches that excitement with a week long celebration with their own marathon, balloon race, parades, steamboat race, golf tournament, food offerings, and parties galore. (Louisville is also a city that preserved its older neighborhoods while Nashville tore its historic homes down during urban renewal, so one feels immersed in the tradition of Louisville pageantry that has been running now for 132 years).

Derby Week left such an impression on me that the first week of May means very little except a run-up to the "Run for the Roses" on Saturday afternoon. While I don't appreciate mint juleps as much as some, I've been sitting on our porch each evening this week getting prepared with my little sipping concoction of Makers Mark, lime club soda, and a splash of lemon juice (shaken with ice). And I'll be doing the same tomorrow evening (before the Sounds game), and a good part of Saturday up until the big race. Then I'll be singing "My Old Kentucky Home," with the crowd at Churchill Downs to celebrate the 1st Saturday in May.


05/05/2006, 4:00 p.m. Update: Before the bourbon starts dulling my logic this evening, here is my choice trifecta for tomorrow's race:

Win -- A.P. Warrior (late close, by a nose)
Place -- Barbaro
Show -- Steppenwolfer

05/06/2006, 5:30 p.m. Update: The official results of the Derby:

Win -- Barbaro (running away)
Place -- Bluegrass Cat
Show -- Steppenwolfer

Congrats to the horse that I think will be our next triple crown winner (that is, winner of the Derby, the Belmont, and the Preakness): Barbaro.

Oktoberfest Rockin' Eve

I lived in Louisville before moving to Nashville back in the late '80s. One of the annual rituals before the first Saturday in May (otherwise known as the day of the Kentucky Derby) in Louisville was the Kentucky Derby Festival, which was celebrated the two weeks preceding the Derby, and included parades, fireworks, and general revelries. Among my favorite parts of the celebration were the Derby Parties thrown by Louisvillians in their own homes either the Friday night or Saturday morning/afternoon before the Derby post time around 5:00 or 6:00. I especially liked the Saturday parties where everyone would sip on mint juleps and watch and wager amongst themselves on each of the races (broadcast on local TV) that preceded the Derby. I like the idea of pre-parties.

I don't expect even a week-long party to precede Oktoberfest; after all, the Kentucky Derby has been called "the most exciting two minutes in sports," while Oktoberfest is merely a polka-punctuated, beer-saturated, brat-logged celebration of a part of the heritage of North Nashville. But it would be great to start having pre-parties the night before Oktoberfest. I think I'll talk to S-townwife about planning a Friday night pre-party for the 2006 edition of Oktoberfest. Maybe have a backyard soiree or even a poker party. It could become an annual Salemtown tradition.