Derby Days

I am very lucky to have grown up in the gorgeous state of Kentucky, a state known for it's bold and beautiful thoroughbreds and horse racing.  On a recent trip to my home state, I took a tour of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.

The starting gate inside the museum

"One thing about Kentuckians, is that they are extremely hospitable.  They definitely have the Southern charm down to a tee." - Nigel Barker

Johnna loves the derby hats

A man created a replica of churchill downs including the grandstands, horses, people, etc. and came to Churchill Downs to sell it for $1 million.  They asked him what he was going to do
with it if they didn't take it off his hands... they now store it for
him as a display until he figures out what else he can do with it.

The sacred area where only the winner of the Derby every stands, no matter how many races are run at Churchill.

The old scale they used to use to weigh in a jockey.  Apparently jockeys are very superstitious so they won't let Churchill take it out or change anything about the "Back of house" of the place because they think it would be bad luck.  Therefore, it looks nothing like I expected!

 Another cool thing we learned in the scale room was they want the races to be as competitive as possible, so they have a list of guidelines where you can get 5 pounds added to your horse to make the race more even.  Now they use a thick foam pad that goes under the saddle and the jockey weighs in and out and everything that goes on the horse, including the saddle and padding, but they used to not weigh out and they would just add lead weights to pouches on the saddle.  The jockeys weren't monitored as closely as they are now with video cameras, etc. so they would drop the lead weights out throughout the race.  This is where the term "getting the lead out" came from.

Silks worn over years past, including the blue and white diamonds worn by Ron Turcotte when he rode Secretariat.  Surprised that a big winner would wear the blue and white?  I think not!

You can't tell from the picture, but the ping pong table is badly warped, but the jockeys won't let them replace it, again because they're superstitious.

The jockey's locker room - Again, not updated.  The only new item I noticed was a plasma TV.

The iconic twin spires

I highly recommend going on a tour of Churchill Downs.  We took the "Behind the Scenes" Tour and it was so worth it.  It's beautiful and interesting and you see a big part of Kentucky's history.