When my father was in high school, he lived with relatives in Louisville so that he could go to high school. (One of his older friends road a horse six (hilly) miles each way every day for four years. Riding the street car two miles to a better high school was much easier.) In 1929 he went to the Derby with one of his uncles. It was a rainy day, like this one. His uncle had a winning ticket on the race just before the Derby, so he waited to cash it until afterwards. They were supposed to meet at his car. The crowds were such that my father couldn't get to the car, or find Tom, and he didn't have streetcar fare on him, so he walked home eight miles in the pouring rain. Ever since, most of my family have refused to try to go to the Derby. We listen on the radio, or watch television, in the comfort of our homes.
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Is it TODAY???!!! I thought it was on Sunday. Too busy today to watch - hosting a huge surprise birthday party for a shirt-tail relation.....
ReplyDeleteIt's always the first Saturday in May. By the time of the first Derby in 1874, Kentucky had long since outlawed Sunday racing. (According to some colorful historians, once Kentucky frontiersmen began racing their horses against each other, you couldn't get them to stop and go back to work.)
ReplyDeleteI refuse to go to the Derby unless I'm invited by the Governor or something and get to sit in a box and be waited on hand and foot.
ReplyDeleteWasn't that a great race, though!! I think Borel outjockeyed quite a few people that day.
(BL, what is a shirt-tail relation?)
ReplyDeleteYou're so lucky to live so close to the Derby! I've always said it's a good thing that I don't live right beside a race track because I'd find myself there betting on a winner! I saw highlights of it, though, and was quite amazed at how many lengths ahead the winning horse was- and Canadian bred at that!
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Lexington I went to the races at Keeneland at least twice every season. My schedule allowed me to go on weekdays when it isn't crowded. I'm not really a thoroughbred person, I'm a saddlebred person (for someone so allergic to horses she can't ride, anyway), but I enjoy watching them run in person.
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