Kentucky Derby Saturday!

[eagle eye]

The Sport of Kings is rising up this Saturday as the Kentucky Derby will be run for the 147th time in it's long history. Last year we had American Pharoah win the triple crown for the first time in nearly 40 years and the cream of this year's crop of 3 year olds seems to a horse named Nyquist. This horse goes off a 3-1 and is the clear favorite to win the Derby. Exaggerator is next at 8-1 and Mohaymen is next at 10-1. There are 22 horses in the race this year and who knows what happens in the scrum out of the starting gate or how it affects the horse's ability to get clear to make a run for the roses.

I'm not a huge horse racing fan but I always watch the Derby. It's kind of like The Masters is to golf in importance to the sport. There is no other golf tournament that compares to the pageantry of The Masters and the same holds true for the Derby. People like the US and British Open golf tournaments but not like The Masters. I have yet to find someone who likes the Opens better that The Masters and unless somebody is eligible to win the Grand Slam nobody thinks much one way or the other about the PGA even though it is the final leg of the Grand Slam of golf. In race the Preakness get some love because people want to see if the Derby winner takes the second leg of the Triple Crown but it's not as popular as the Derby. Finally, the Belmont Stakes only gets noticed if a horse is trying for the Triple Crown meaning it has won both the Derby and the Preakness otherwise the race is an afterthought.

Anyhoo, I'll watch the Derby like I always do and maybe I'll place a bet or two on it. Should be a cool event as usual as long as it doesn't rain. Kick back with a cold mint julep and enjoy good old fashioned southern charm and good old fashioned horse race to boot. BTW, I guess I'm just a drink heathen because I've never had a mint julep and I sure didn't know they are made with Bourbon. For the Derby it seems to be sacrilege use anything but a Kentucky made bourbon, and no, Jack Daniels is a Tennessee whiskey. Your going to want to go with Jim Beam (Old Crow or Old Grand Dad or Jim Beam) or Wild Turkey or Four Roses or Ezra Brooks. All are premium whiskeys from old Kentuck. Before or after Saturday you can go with Jack Daniels which is my whiskey of choice but on Derby day you have to go with the Kentucky blends. If you don't know how to make a mint julep Google is good to go for that information. A julep is easy to make, you just need whiskey, water, sugar and mint leaves. After two or three of them you may say to heck with the sugar and the mint leaves and maybe even the water but a nice nap in your easy chair on a Saturday afternoon ain't bad either.

[eagle eye]

The top 3 horses won in the order the odds said they should finish. Nyquist won, Exaggerater placed and Gun Runner showed. In my first the other day Mohaymen was the 3rd best horse according to the odds and he finished 4th. It was a beautiful day for a horse race. The track was fast and the beautiful people were beautiful. It was a pretty exciting race but in the end Nyquist was the best horse and he is undefeated in his career, 8 starts-8 wins. Nyquist is the first horse to leave the Derby undefeated since Big Brown did it in 2008.

In case you missed it here is the race in it's entirety. BTW if you stick with the video it is followed by interviews with Nyquist's owner and jockey Mario Gutierrez.

 

http://www.sbnation.com/2016/5/7/11617252/2016-kentucky-derby-video-nyquist