The Kentucky Derby shindig.........

[Bob Wright]

So today was the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby, just another horse race? The Derby is one of the three races that constitute horse racing's triple crown. But for Louisville, Kentucky, is a special day. It a day for the song "My Old Kentucky Home," for mint Juleps in silver cups, and ladies' outlandish hats. Its a day of festivities in which I sort of wish I could be there and glad I wasn't.

I once checked into a hotel in Lexington, KY, and having settled into my room, glanced through the yellow pages for find a restaurant. I noticed there were two airlines listed under that heading, and maybe a dozen or more catering to horse transport.

Kentucky is sure enough horse country. And Bourbon country too, if that's your thing.

Bob Wright

Oh, yeah. A horse named Rich Strike won, the purse being just over one million dollars.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Rich Strike . . . at 80:1 odds!!!

 

[Johnnu2]

I stopped by while on a business trip.... a long time ago.

 

[badguybuster]

A $30G horse paid out $1.86 Million. The jockey had never ridden in a major competition.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Snuck up along the rail and passed the big-time leaders right at the wire. Fantastic.

 

[rugerguy]

now THAT was a horse race............;)

 

[eveled]

“I’ll be in my basement room..”

 

[gunman42782]

I have lived in KY my entire life, and the first 18 years in Louisville, and have never once had the itch to go to the Derby. Have watched it on TV, but I wouldn't fight those crowds if they paid me! Watching horses race (or NASCAR for that matter) is about as exciting to me as watching paint dry!

 

[rugerguy]

wait a second??? what about this year !!:unsure:

 

[Bob Wright]

Well, this year, 2023, there was a similar shindig going on over in England. Though not as impressive.

Bob Wright

 

[Colonialgirl]

Well, this year, 2023, there was a similar shindig going on over in England. Though not as impressive.

Bob Wright

Speaking of the "Church Hill Downs" where all the royalty shows up ?

 

[KIR]

In 1958 I watched my first Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. I also watched the Indy 500. This was the beginning of watching these races every year on my TV or recording them when I was working. Lots of memorable moments during those races. Interesting how the Indy 500 used to be approximately three hours long and now due to the increased speeds it runs about two hours or so. Of course my fave year was the year Secretariat won the Triple Crown. Then the most exciting and disappointing year was the year of the Turbine cars at Indy. Every year, I am guaranteed of at least four exciting races.

 

[RSIno1]

Wife's roots go deep in KY, her GGetc Grandfather gets a lot of credit for the horse racing there.

By the 1790s, the settlement at St. Asaph's developed into the town of Stanford. William Whitley and his family built a large brick house outside town, near what would later become Crab Orchard, Kentucky. The plantation was named Sportsman's Hill. It was the first brick house built in Kentucky and still stands, preserved as the William Whitley House State Historic Site. The plantation originally included a racetrack. This racetrack set several traditions for horse racing in the United States. It had the first clay (instead of turf) track in the United States and here horses were raced counterclockwise (instead of clockwise, as was the British tradition). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Whitley

 

[Dave P.]

Wife's roots go deep in KY, her GGetc Grandfather gets a lot of credit for the horse racing there.

It had the first clay (instead of turf) track in the United States and here horses were raced counterclockwise (instead of clockwise, as was the British tradition). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Whitley

So it's their fault I can't turn right on a dirt-tracker.

 

[Fox Mike]

One time in Louisville. Weekend liberty from Basic Training. Went to the Brown Hotel for a great bed and a steak dinner, then back to D-10-4. Never been to a major horse race. Pimlico is about 20 minutes away and never been there.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

The FIRST Churchill Downs was 3 miles from me in the small town of Fulshear.

FULSHEAR, CHURCHILL, JR. (1808–1892).Churchill Fulshear (Fulchur), Jr., early Texas scout, the son of Churchill Fulshear, was born in Tennessee on July 10, 1808. He came to Texas with his family before July 1824 and lived at the family plantation on the Brazos River

After the Texas Revolution Fulshear married Minerva Cartwright, daughter of Jesse H. Cartwright. They became parents of five children. In 1840 Fulshear held title to 5,904 acres in Gonzales County with another 865 acres not yet surveyed. From 1850 to 1870, after his father and brothers had all died, he operated a race course called Churchill Downs on the family plantation in Fort Bend County. His property was valued at between $10,000 and $20,000 in 1856. He was a member of the Texas Veterans Association in 1874. He died in 1892.
Churchill Jr. raised cotton, corn, rice, pecans and livestock, including some of the finest race horses in the United States.