You Won't Find Winston Here!

The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports takes place here!  We managed to make it to Churchill Downs on a day they were actually racing horses.  The atmosphere was obviously a little more low key than what would be expected during the Kentucky Derby.....but it was worth the stop.

Churchill Downs filled a void in Louisville left by the closing of Oakland and Woodlawn, two earlier race courses. The then-rural location was along Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks, allowing for easy transport of horses. Clark, who preferred longer races to the relatively short ones that had become popular by the 1890s, was running short of funds, and in 1894 sold the track to a syndicate led by William E. Applegate. The new ownership would soon institute many changes, such as commissioning the famous twin spire grandstand in 1895, shortening the length of the signature race to its modern 1 1⁄4 miles in 1896, and adorning the winner of the Derby with a garland of roses, a tradition that also began in 1896.

Racing at Churchill Downs occurs in three meets though for the majority of its existence there were only two meets per year. The spring meet starts one week before the Derby and continues until early July. The Kentucky Derby is held the first Saturday in May and the Kentucky Oaks is run on the Friday before the Derby. A fall meet picks up in late October and closes Thanksgiving weekend in late November.

Jenesa made me place a few bets throughout the afternoon.  You can probably guess how that went!  That's kinda the way I placed all of our bets......by guessing!  Not a good way to invest your money.  So we left the race track a couple bucks poorer than we arrived.  From this point on I'll invest my money in drinking Bourbon on this trip.....at least that way I won't be able to remember how much money I started with!

There were scattered showers forecast throughout the day.....but none of them caused a delay to any of the scheduled races.  The video above was probably one of the wettest races of the day.  I expected to see the horses slide right through the Finish Line.  Our $2 bet on horse #3 looked good right up until the end.  Ouch!