Tomorrow is...

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby.  This is just an ordinary old day for millions of people in the United States and billions of people in the world.  But for some of us horse crazy kids it is a big and very important day.  

Horse racing has fueled great debate over the years among horse lovers and your every day animal lover.  Many feel that horse racing is cruel, the horses are started too young, they face great danger for injury and death, etc… But horse racing in our American blood and it isn’t going anywhere.  Instead we have turned to science to make the tracks safer, the horses stronger and the sport better.  I am not here to write about the merits or demerits of horse racing.  I’m here to discuss to what it means to me.  

America's horse - Secretariet

I grew up looking forward to that one day a year when everyone, or almost everyone, actually tuned into their TV to watch horses.  The rest of the year we watched football, baseball, basketball, golf (yawn), you name it - it occupied our 3 channels.  I couldn’t have cared less about any of them.  But for a few short hours on the first Saturday in May, my favorite thing in all the world were paraded across our TV set.  

First winner of the Kentucky Derby - Aristedes

I may not have heard of any of the horses before that moment.  Chances are pretty good that I didn’t.  But I would stay riveted to the TV and hear all of their back stories and watch them flash across the screen and I would make my picks.  I would wait anxiously for that call to post and watch the thoroughbreds dance alongside their steady pony horses.  I thrilled at the colorful silks the jockeys wore and every Black Stallion book I had read and reread was playing like a movie reel in the back of my mind.  

The song “Old Kentucky Home” would come across the speakers and goosebumps would crawl up and down my arms as it was almost starting gate time.  And then that magical clank of the gates as horse after horse was secured into their positions.  Then there were those few tense seconds as you waited for the bell and those magical words, “And they’re off!”  

I would be on the edge of my seat cheering on my favorites but always secretly hoping that the underdog would pull off a fantastic win.  I’m a sucker for a Cinderella story.  In my mind I was always on the back of one of those horses, straining for the finish line and fighting through the crowd.  

When the race would come to a close and a winner would go down in the history books, it didn’t really matter to me who won.  I was never disappointed in who the winner was.  For me it wasn’t about who won, it was about the horses and getting to spend time watching my dreams come true in front of me on the TV.  I can mark time periods and places in my life on where I was when the Derby was run.  I have distinct memories of several years watching from a hotel room as my dad competed in International Prelims with his barbershop quartet and chorus.  I remember sitting in our living room inches from the TV.  I remember the weather, the sunlight streaming in, the laughter.  Every year the Kentucky Derby is etched in my mind.  Sometimes barely sneaking it in before I had to rush off to do something else, but always doing my best to be near a TV screen when the call to post came.  

First filly to win the Derby - Regret

Tomorrow is the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby.  A race that was started by none other than the Clark of Lewis and Clark on some land given to him by his uncle’s, John and William Churchill.  That race had 15 contenders, this year there will be 20 colts running the “The Run for the Roses” and the chance to wear that blanket of roses on their neck.  I will be tuned in and I will have my favorites.  Thanks to social media and following a few (okay - loads) of racing Instagram accounts, I already have my picks in mind.  But who knows?  For old time’s sake those might change the day I see them in the paddock across the big screen.  Who will you pick?