Derby Day

I’ve been attending the Kentucky Derby for more than a decade now, and while I never found it to be as crazy as Hunter S. Thompson described it in his article about the 1970 Derby, “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved,” it has always been interesting. For me, and perhaps for many others, the Derby in a sense marks the beginning of the summer. There’s much anticipation, and earlier in the day, joy abounds. Friends greet friends with hugs and smiles, and laughter is everywhere. By the time of the Derby itself, late in the afternoon, the mood is often a little darker (as you might expect from a crowd of thousands who are drinking). Instead of laughter and joy, it’s someone angry about something someone said, or a woman storming off because she thinks her boyfriend is paying too much attention to another woman, or just someone who’s had too much to drink. That slow and subtle transition is interesting, but there’s a lot more about the Derby that makes it worth a trip to Louisville on the first Saturday in May. After all, I’ve often said, it’s the Sport of Kings.