The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports

"And they're off!" 

It's Kentucky Derby weekend, and I'm probably paying more attention than usual. On a very cold day in January, we visited Churchill Downs in Louisville. It was one of our stops on the whirlwind tour of Kentucky, as we traveled to visit Brent in Morehead, KY, two hours away. We got our own private, behind-the-scenes tour of the grounds. Our tour guide took us into the suite where the Queen of England watched the Kentucky Derby. (I don't think that was a regular part of the tour, but the guide was cold, too.)

I'm going to have to DVR the Derby this year since we are host/hostess for a wedding for the daughter of friends. (Happy Wedding Day, Erica - Brent's birthday "twin.")

My Mom has always liked watching horse racing. I remember Saturday afternoons in the spring, watching the three races of the Triple Crown on the TV in our family room. I think horses must be in my Mom's blood. Her grandfather, Charley Neelly, was a farmer in Pratt County, but he made extra money by trading horses. He owned a total of 11 race horses during his lifetime. He also liked good driving horses. (Information from a family history written by my brother, Kent Moore.)

My Grandpa Shelby Neelly is the 2-year-old (far left) in this 1906 photo.

Racing in Louisville dates back to 1783 when races were held on Market Street in the downtown area. Churchill Downs was established after 26-year-old Col. M. Lewis Clark traveled in England and France in 1872-1873. After his return from Europe, Clark began development of his racetrack which would serve to showcase the Kentucky breeding industry. The track would eventually become known as "Churchill Downs."

We also toured the Derby museum, and I was especially interested in a display which featured a John Deere tractor.

A lot of people don't realize how much goes into really taking care of the track ... I live and die this. I live and die the weather.

Butch Lehr

Churchill Down track superintendent

While wagering and odds are beyond me, this Kansas farm wife can definitely understand the dependence on the weather. Another panel said this:

When the horses are running, the track must be watered, conditioned and properly graded so that animals don't trip on uneven ground. As soon as the weather gets warmer, preparations begin again for early March when the horses will return to the Downs. ... There are no artificial surfaces at Churchill Downs. As track superintendent Butch Lehr says, "We're kind of proud of our track."

We didn't see any racing. The top photo was a huge video screen in the museum.

There may be rain during the 139th Derby this year. And I've been thinking about the workers who will have to do all in their power to keep Verrazano, Hunch Bet, Revolutionary and 17 other horses and jockeys safe as they run for the roses. (I have a feeling that Randy's favorite horse this year will be Charming Kitten, despite odds of 40-1, because of his affinity for felines.)

Since our tour of Churchill Downs and of Keeneland Race Track at Lexington, Randy has been watching the racing channel as it's rained here this week, waiting for glimpses of places we saw and experienced. (Who knew we got the racing channel? Not me, but of course, my channel flipper found them!)

I'll probably DVR all the pre-race festivities, hoping to see some of the landmarks we toured earlier this year. And I'll be silently saluting the people behind the scenes, getting on their tractors and doing the job without fanfare or accolades or multi-million-dollar horses. They must be kindred spirits.

For the record, the Derby may be the "most exciting two minutes of sports." But it takes 3 hours of television to properly cover it. At least I can speed through the commercials. 

It's like being a concert pianist. You can't think about the hours of study and the tears, the disappointments, the frustrations. Otherwise, you would never do it. You can only think about the day that you are on the stage.

Carl Nafzger

Hall of Fame horse trainer

A Horse of Course!

We brought Kinley a horse from Kentucky. Lucky for Jill and Eric, it was stuffed. Unlucky for them, a 13-month-old needs help zipping and unzipping her horse into its handy carrying case. (Just remember how many Barbie dolls I dressed and undressed for a certain someone, once upon a time.)

The stuffed horse was practically the only horse we did see at Keeneland Race Track at Lexington, Kentucky. We got up before dawn in Morehead to make the hour-long drive to Lexington. Last fall, my parents watched a morning workout at the race track while traveling back with a tour group that attended the K-State & West Virginia football game. Of course, that was in October, not January, but Keeneland's website proclaimed that mornings were the best time of day at the racetrack because that's when the horses workout. This was the scene we got instead.

The website needs an asterisk. Horses don't work out when the temperature is 16 degrees. Duly noted by this Kansas farm couple who were admitted into the stadium by a kind guard.

We saw the finish line - just no horses to run past it. We did eat breakfast at what the website calls one of Lexington's best-kept dining secrets, the Track Kitchen. I'm not sure I'd go that far. Randy compared it to eating breakfast in town with his farming buddies. But, instead of talking about rain (or lack thereof), the locals were talking about the cold. We also shared the tables with some of Keeneland's workers, who came in for a hot breakfast on a very cold morning.

Down the road on a neighboring farm, we finally did see some horses and their bundled-up riders.

Honestly, we couldn't blame Keeneland for keeping the horses inside on such a frigid morning.

 

We don't think these riders were jockeys, since they seemed normal sized. The only jockeys we saw were these statues near the stadium.

I had to take a picture of this one: Even though it wasn't representing Morehead State, it sure looked like it could have.

Since we didn't get enough of the cold at Keeneland (Is my sarcasm meter going off?),  we then went to the Kentucky Horse Park. As we walked in, the lady who took our money said, "Oh, a few more crazy people!" Yes, we concur.

The horse at the top is Funny Cide.

We met a retired Kentucky Derby winner, Funny Cide, and Da Hoss, who is one of only two horses to win two Breeders' Cup trophies. We checked out Cigar, who earned $9.9 million over his racing lifetime and is a descendent of Seattle Slew. Next time we visit, we'll have to pick a warmer day. That gives us a reason for another visit to Brent's, right?

A Penny for Your Thoughts

A Penny for your thoughts. Really, Penny was in my thoughts last Friday as Randy and I went to the Stafford Rodeo.

I've never been a horse person. I didn't go through the preteen fascination that seems to afflict a bevy of girls, including my sister, Lisa, who had a horse named Penny. I left the fancy fringed shirt and cowboy boots to Lisa and her 4-H project. I was much more inclined to have both feet planted firmly on the ground. Give me a foods project or even a sewing project - both decidedly indoor activities - and I was much happier. I even liked working on 4-H books. (I know I am an anomaly, but I've always liked the art of telling a story.)

Lisa on Penny and me on the ground - where I belong!

But even though a rodeo is not something I want to do every weekend, I have to hand it to them. They sure know how to honor the American flag. That's not to say that my patriotic pride isn't similarly stirred at the Bill Snyder Family Stadium on K-State game day.

But there's still something moving about watching as the American flag is honored before a small-town rodeo.

This year, they included a reading of Johnny Cash's poem, "The Ragged Old Flag" while our own local cowgirl Jayme Ramsey carried a threadbare flag on horseback through the rodeo arena.

And then a brand new flag was similarly ushered past the assembled crowd that stood, hands over hearts and hats in hand, as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played. What a way to begin an evening of small-town entertainment!

The night at the rodeo had me remembering visits to my Grandma and Grandpa Leonard's house near Sublette when we were growing up. We often timed our summer visits to coincide with the Haskell County Fair in August, and a rodeo was always part of the fair's attractions.

When our kids were little, we took them to the rodeo, too. Neither of them went through the horse phase either. But that didn't mean they didn't enjoy the rodeo parade. They just saddled up their bikes instead of horses.

Brent and his friend, Erica, at a long-ago rodeo parade

A pink and white cowboy hat complete with feather trim came home from a rodeo once upon a time with a little girl who just may have talked her Daddy into an impulse buy. I couldn't find a photo of Jill in the pink cowboy hat. But the memory is still as vibrant as that hot pink hat.

Jill at the same parade

Small towns mean rodeo, parades and patriotism. There's nothing wrong with that.

If you'd like to hear Johnny Cash's "The Ragged Flag" click on the YouTube link. Enjoy!