Spending a Gorgeous Saturday at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby

With a few of my close friends, I did a quick, 48-hour trip to the Kentucky Derby. It was a blast, and an experience I’d recommend to anybody thinking about it. Here are a few quick thoughts and observations about the weekend:

– We stayed with my buddy in Louisville, who was gracious enough to host us as well as cooking jambalaya on Friday night, and slow-smoking briskets and ribs for 13 hours on Saturday. So, we were able to save big on hotel costs, which were predictably outrageous, and the total cost of the weekend was only about $200, which accounted for gas, meals, drinks, and infield tickets.

– Even if costs were equal, I’d prefer to attend the Derby as opposed to having gone to Las Vegas for the Mayweather-Pacquaio fight, which would’ve cost several thousand dollars after airfare, tickets, hotel accommodations, food, drink, and gambling losses. While the Derby was of course not without its pomp and circumstance, it all felt so much more sincere and organic than any Vegas weekend does to me, let alone one attended almost exclusively by celebrities and the über-wealthy.

– An anecdote which illustrates the laxness of security: The block outside of the entrance gate was cordoned off from cars, and unlicensed vendors toted in coolers full of beer, which they were selling for $2. These entrepreneurs were operating with such impunity that they weren’t looking over their shoulders. It was fantastic.

– While I regret not taking pictures, I’m really not sure that photographs could aptly capture the scene inside the infield. Southern belles and their bro counterparts. Shirtless Dadbods galore. Drunkenness, sure, but not to the point of excess, at least from the pockets we observed. There would have undoubtedly been much more pretense in the far-more-pricey grandstands, but our day was a great snapshot of earnest Americana.

– If you ever go to the Kentucky Derby, it is imperative to bring enough cash to last you the whole day. None of the food and drink booths accept credit cards, and the ATM lines were upwards of an hour long. Drinks weren’t cheap, but we weren’t gouged either. Woodford Reserve on the rocks was $9 for a single, and $16 for a double, which isn’t terribly more expensive than it would be at most bars. Mint juleps, which were $11 and came with a souvenir glass, were probably a better value from an alcohol-volume-to-dollar ratio. However, in my opinion, they’re kind of gross.

– This is probably a bad thing to admit on the Internet, where everybody loves to gamble, but we didn’t actually put any money on the race. Our mindset was that we weren’t willing to wager enough such that it would have been worth it to wait in a long line afterwards to collect our winnings if our horse(s) had come in. Instead, we beelined it out of there, caught an Uber within two minutes, and made it back to my friend’s place fast enough that he was astonished to see us. This left more than enough time for us to catch Spurs-Clippers, and, later, the inevitably craptacular Pacquaio-Mayweather fight.

– While Ty was happy to skip out on watching the Derby altogether, I was thrilled to have attended, and the race will always be appointment viewing for me. My grandparents hosted an annual party, filled with great food and people, for the event that was always a highlight of my family’s year. My grandmother, who I promise you possessed a proven-statistically-significant ability to impact the weather, ensured that it would always be 75 and sunny that day — whether the weatherman concurred or not. Though she passed a little over a year ago, she blessed us with a similarly gorgeous day at Churchill Downs on Saturday, and it was impossible not to think about her, and smile, all day.

[Photo via Getty Images]