Derby Extravaganza Post - Part I

Do you hear that? It is the sigh of one contented but exhausted gal, trying to recover from 3 straight days at Churchill Downs, including the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby. What a fun time we had - rain and all! I've been busy uploading pictures and there are so many, I knew I had to break this up into two posts (also, the program I use to edit my photos is giving me grief with the pictures from Derby day, grrr...). So without further adieu, here's a recap of our first two days at the track...


We were delighted to head out to the track on Thursday at the invitation of some of our closest friends, Andy and Amanda. Andy works for a local State Farm agency and invited us (as his friends and also his clients) to join them in their corporate suite in the infield. Now, I know what you're thinking, but the infield does not become a crazy place until Friday! It was a really nice setup - food, bar and betting windows on the first floor, and on the roof were lots of tables and chairs covered by umbrellas, another bar, and an absolutely perfect view of the twin spires and grandstand.


See what I mean?? And what perfect weather we had - 80 degrees, sunny, and not a cloud in sight. Most of the afternoon we found ourselves standing at the railing, soaking up the sun and admiring that wonderful view. I love this image I caught of the shadow cast by my hat on the turf below (mine is the shadow on the far left):


There might have also been a few drinks involved...


And a little betting, too. You know the old saying, when in Rome....Here I am studying the racing program, but without much success. Last year I won a few hundred bucks, and this year I didn't cash one ticket - oh well!


There was not too big of a crowd at the track on Thursday, so Ryan and I took advantage and wandered the grounds. We stopped by the gift shop and picked up this cute tee for this even cuter little girl:


We also had a chance to explore the paddock area, which for once was not covered by a throng of people. A couple of lovely statues grace the paddock - the first is of legendary jockey Pat Day, and the other is a thoroughbred horse which I think may be Secretariat (Triple Crown winner), I just can't remember.






We also admired a gigantic mural in the clubhouse that depicts many famous horse owners, trainers and jockeys:


Before returning to our seats, we stopped in the paddock again to admire a few of the horses who were being walked - aren't they gorgeous?? I cannot get over the muscles on these beautiful animals.




There was a bit of excitement when we returned to our seat - one of the thoroughbreds got loose while being prepped for the next race and took off the wrong way down the track! No worries, though, they quickly caught him without too much of a problem.


We had great seats for one of the afternoon's turf races which loaded just in front of us:


And they're off!


The leaders coming around the final bend:


Needless to say, we had a perfect day on Thursday, and considered ourselves lucky to enjoy it with such great friends.

We headed back out to the track on Friday for the Kentucky Oaks, which I previously posted about here. We were blessed to have another picture-perfect day with gorgeous sunshine (I guess we got our fill of it those two days because it was certainly the opposite on Derby Day!). The winner's circle at Churchill Downs:


Churchill Downs asked all in attendance to don pink in support of breast cancer, and I certainly wanted to comply. You've already gotten a brief taste of my hat that day, but let me show you a couple of more pictures:




Yes, my hat was THAT big and it was FABULOUS! I have to admit, I went back and forth as to whether I should wear the hat, wondering if I could pull it off (and I'm still doubtful that I could pull off such a hat after looking at pictures!). I cannot claim it as my own - I borrowed it from a partner at our firm who had won it at a silent auction/Derby fashion show a couple of years ago. It's a Frank Olive hat, which is a brand of hats you typically see at the Derby. It was just as big as it looks in these photos - I could not wear the thing through the crowd, it would have been impossible to navigate a path to our seats. People were commenting on this hat left and right, and I had five offers to buy it on the spot! It was a great hat, but I certainly had a headache at the end of the day (whether it is from my head supporting the hat or the exhaustion, I'm not sure).

Our friend Natalie also wore a lovely pink hat - here she is with her husband, Rick (whom you will recall me talking about here). Rick was showing his support for the fight again breast cancer with his pink tie (did you also notice Ryan's pink tie), and his horse running in the Derby - Mission Impazible.



Little Big Town sang the National Anthem and did a wonderful job:


The anthem was followed by the parade of Breast Cancer Survivors, which was sponsored by Kroger (for those of you not in the Southeast US, this is one of the region's biggest grocers):


All of the ladies selected to walk in the parade were divided up by the number of years they had been cancer-free - there were some who had been in remission for over 20 years. Most were joined by loved ones. I teared up as I read a sign held by one daughter which read something to the following effect (not verbatim): "In 1973, Secretariat and my mother both fought and won the hardest races of their life." The mother of our very good friend David was also one of the participants in the walk (she is the one in the lovely hot pink hat in the middle of the photo and is escorted by David's father - David was also on hand to support his mother):


I love how many of the women took off their high heels in favor of brightly-colored wellies to cross the dirt track!


We enjoyed watching lots of beautiful fillies race their way to glory that afternoon.


Whew, what a long, picture-filled post! I'll be back shortly with a smaller post about our rain-soaked Derby!