Kentucky Oaks 137: I'll second that!

Today is the Oaks, the annual fillies race held the day before the Kentucky Derby. Oaks is really all about the girls, both equine and human - tens of thousands of women attend with girlfriends, the stands are a sea of pink, there's an annual breast cancer Survivor's Parade, and the race is run by fillies.

Am I attending? No. The crowds are more than I want to deal with, and frankly, I'm always terrified for the horses, all that beauty and brawn barreling around the track on those delicate, fragile legs. Even so, the allure of Oaks is had to resist... 

Be careful out there ladies.

 Rachel Alexandra, 2009 Oaks Winner

From wikipedia:

The Kentucky Oaks is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred fillies staged annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The Kentucky Oaks is held on the Friday before the Kentucky Derby each year. The winner gets a $500,000 purse and a large garland of lilies, affectionately called the "Lillies for the Fillies." A silver Kentucky Oaks Trophy is presented to the winner.

The first running of the Kentucky Oaks was on May 19, 1875 when Churchill Downs was known as the Louisville Jockey Club.  The race was founded by Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. along with the Kentucky Derby, the Clark Handicap, and the Falls City Handicap. The Oaks and the Derby are the oldest continuously contested sporting events in history, and the only horse races to be held at their original site since its conception. The Kentucky Oaks was modeled after the British Epsom Oaks. In the first race, the horse Vinaigrette won the then 1½ mile race in a time of 2:39¾, winning a purse of $1,175. Since that race the Kentucky Oaks has been held each year.

Despite the increasing number of out-of-state visitors who came to the race every year, the "Oaks" (as local residents simply refer to it) has always been considered to be a local event by the people of Kentuckiana (the Ohio Valley, centered around Louisville, and consisting of much of northern Kentucky and southern Indiana). Large crowds of Louisvillians and others from the Kentuckiana attend the Oaks annually and the infield of the race track hosts numerous musical attractions, boardwalk games, and food and alcoholic beverage vendors. Bringing in one's own alcohol is forbidden at Churchill Downs and many locals revel in finding ingenious ways to smuggle in their own libations, rather than pay the inflated prices inside Churchill Downs. Most every school and quite a few businesses in the Kentuckiana region treat the Oaks as a holiday. Perhaps out of self-consciousness for the gambling aspect of the race, none of the region's schools declare that the holiday is explicitly because of the Oaks and most simply say it is an "administrative holiday." 

Wonder Woman: "I'd like to have seen more women."

Green Lantern: "I'll second that!"

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/

a home in your manes

Derby Day. Be careful out there, you stunning, magical, powerful beasts, with your fragile legs and flying manes. May you all cross the finish line unharmed.

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In Memory of Eight Belles

Ah, steeds, steeds, what steeds!
Has the whirlwind a home in your manes?
Is there a sensitive ear, alert as a flame, in your every fiber?
Hearing the familiar song from above,

 all in one accord you strain your bronze chests and, 

hooves barely touching the ground, 

turn into straight lines cleaving the air, 

and all inspired by God it rushes on!~ Nikolai V. Gogol, translated from Russian

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/

peoples' dreams about themselves

Day after tomorrow is "Oaks Day" - the day the fillies run, the day before Derby. Schools are closed. People are taking off work to go to the track. It's just what you do if you're a Louisvillian. 

Here's my pick of winners, all from etsy:

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A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves 

- strong, powerful, beautiful - 

and it has the capability of giving us escape

 from our mundane existence.

  ~Pam Brown

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/

the night sky as the canvas

I live in (well, now just north of) Louisville, Kentucky. This is the home of The Kentucky Derby, aka:


The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports
The Run for The Roses
The Longest Continuously Running Sporting Event In America

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Today begins the official Countdown to Derby. Over the course of the next two weeks our fair city will host the largest annual pyrotechnics show in North America, a week of hot air balloon events culminating in a balloon race, parades, a steamboat race, parties, concerts, a marathon, and more...


Then comes the actual Derby, with all the hats and booze and celebrity-watching, and finally those two minutes when up to 20 glorious three-year-old Thoroughbreds tear around the track and the whole city (and millions of people around the world) stands still and watches or listens to see who wins. If you happen to live or work anywhere near the waterfront or Churchill Downs (the racetrack), you may grumble about the inconvenience of numerous streets - or hell, the whole city - shutting down to party for two full weeks, but even so, Louisville loves the Derby.

You don't have to know anything about - or even like - horse racing to catch Derby Fever. If you live in Louisville, you will, to one degree or another, participate.
First up: Thunder Over Louisville! From the official website:


Rated as one of the top 100 events in North America, the Derby Festival's Opening Ceremonies is truly a sight to behold. And each year, more than 500,000 eager thrill-seekers do just that.

The day-long event kicks off the two exciting weeks of events that are part of the annual Kentucky Derby Festival. The Thunder Air Show dazzles the crowd with more than 100 planes, aerobatics teams, daring sky diving teams and breathtaking stunts.

When it gets dark, the Thunder rolls. The fireworks will feature the latest in pyrotechnic power from Zambelli Internationale, America's "first family of fireworks". Eight 400-foot barges assemble on both sides of the 2nd Street Bridge to form the stage from which the fireworks spectacular ignites.

The breathtaking and mind-numbing 28-minute show includes Thunder's signature one-mile "waterfall" effect off the bridge, making the fireworks seem to rain down forever. And in the crowd's memory of the show, it does!

After more than a decade, the show remains the largest annual pyrotechnic display in North America. Seen by approximately 1-million U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense civilian employees and their families stationed in 176 countries and aboard 140 U.S. Navy ships at sea via a July 4th rebroadcast on the American Forces Network, it is the state's pride. A Discovery Channel documentary on fireworks shows says it best, "Thunder is the Grand-daddy of them all!"

How am I participating in Thunder? By staying far, far away! (I may watch a bit on tv, though.) It really is gorgeous, don't you think?

"Fireworks are an art form 

that uses the night sky as the canvas."
    - Larry Crump

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/