Thoroughbreds, mint juleps, big hats-the Kentucky Derby.

The Kentucky Oaks is the filly version of the triple crown. 
Date: May 2, 2008

Triple Crown History
TRIPLE CROWN: The Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont stakes.

Only eleven horses have ever won the U.S. Triple Crown:

1919 Sir Barton
1930 Gallant Fox
1935 Omaha
1937 War Admiral
1941 Whirlaway
1943 Count Fleet
1946 Assault
1948 Citation
1973 Secretariat
1977 Seattle Slew
1978 Affirmed

No horse has swept the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont since Affirmed in 1978.
Six in the last eleven years have failed even after winning the first two.

It has been 30 years.............................................................

Past Winners of the Triple Crown Races

MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME
By Stephen Foster

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
Tis summer, the people are gay;
The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day.

The young folks roll on the little cabin floor
All merry, all happy and bright;
By'n by hard times comes a knocking at the door
Then my old Kentucky home, Good-night!

Weep no more my lady. Oh! Weep no more today!
We will sing one song for my old Kentucky home
For the old Kentucky home, far away.

TRIPLE CROWN DRINKS:
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Kentucky Derby Mint Julep

Traditional drink of Kentucky and the Kentucky Derby. It has been served for hundreds of years to help cool down the hot Kentucky summers and is now served by the thousands on Kentucky Derby day at Churchill Downs.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• fresh mint
• Crushed ice
• Kentucky Bourbon

PREPARATION:

Prepare mint syrup by boiling sugar and water together for 5 minutes. After it cools, pour it over 6-8 sprigs of mint (bruised slightly to release the taste) and refrigerate overnight in a covered container.
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Black-Eyed Susan

Traditional drink of the Preakness. This is how it is served at the Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico and also to the fans at the Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness Stakes. Be careful as it is deceptively strong!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 part Cointreau
• 1 part Mount Gay rum
• 1 part Vodka
• Pineapple Juice
• Orange Juice

PREPARATION:

Fill a highball glass with shaved ice, add the liquors first, then top off with equal parts of orange and pineapple juice. Stir and garnish with a lime wedge.
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Belmont Breeze

The traditional drink of the Belmont Stakes since 1998. The previous drink was the White Carnation. This is the most expensive of the Triple Crown drinks at $10 a glass so you might want to try this one at home.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 oz. Seagrams 7
• 3/4 oz. Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry
• 1/2 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1 oz. Simple Syrup
• (you may substitute 1 oz. of Sweet & Sour mix for the lemon juice and simple syrup)
• 1 1/2 oz. Fresh Orange juice
• 1 1/2 oz. Cranberry juice
• 1 oz. 7-Up
• 1 oz. of soda
• fresh strawberry
• lemon wedge

PREPARATION:

Shake first 6 ingredients with ice and top with half 7up and half soda, approximately one ounce of each. Garnish with fresh strawberry and a mint sprig and a lemon wedge.
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White Carnation

The traditional drink of the Belmont, as served until 1997. It was replaced in 1998 by the Belmont Breeze.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 oz. Vodka
• 1/2 oz. Peach Schnapps
• 2 oz. Orange Juice
• Soda
• Splash of Cream
• Crushed ice

PREPARATION:

Stir liquors and soda together and pour over ice in a highball glass. Splash cream over top then garnish with an orange slice.
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     Got Beer?   .............

 PREPARATION: None

Official Field and Post positions.
The Post positions will be picked on
April 30, 2008.

Race Horse Pie*
Crust:
1 Cup all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ Cup oil
¼ Cup cold milk
Blend salt with flour.  Pour milk into oil and stir the
mixture. Add quickly to dry ingredients.  Blend and divide dough in two.
Roll between two sheets of waxed paper. If not easy
to roll sometimes I add a tiny bit of oil.  This recipe
is easy to mend if tears when placing in the pie pan.

Filling:
1 Cup of granulated sugar
½ Cup of all purpose flour
1 stick unsalted, melted butter
2 eggs slightly beaten
2 Tbs. good bourbon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate bits
1 Cup Chopped walnuts
Mix dry ingredients & add rest
Pour into pie crust/ Bake at 350
50 minutes/ Serve warm topped
with whipped cream / homemade
 

Kentucky Derby Facts

For three-year-olds. Held the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Inaugurated in 1875.

Originally run at 1¹/2 miles (1875-95), shortened to present 1¹/4 miles in 1896.

Trainers with most wins: Ben Jones (6); D. Wayne Lukas and Dick Thompson (4); Bob Baffert, Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons and Max Hirsch (3).

Jockeys with most wins:: Eddie Arcaro and Bill Hartack (5); Bill Shoemaker (4); Angel Cordero Jr., Issac Murphy, Earl Sande and Gary Stevens (3).

Winning fillies: Regret (1915), Genuine Risk (1980) and Winning Colors (1988).

For generations, crowds have herded to Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville on the first Saturday in May, with millions more tuning in to live television coverage. The Kentucky Derby, a 1-¼ mile race for 3-year-old Thoroughbred horses, is the longest continually held sporting event in the United States—the horses have run without interruption since 1875, even during both World Wars.

But for its first few decades, says Jay Ferguson, a curator at Louisville's Kentucky Derby Museum, "the Derby wasn't the horserace. Back around the turn of the century there were three horses in the race, and Churchill Downs had been losing money for every year it had been in existence." It took savvy marketing, movie stars, southern tradition and luck to turn what could have been just another horse race into what many have called "the most exciting two minutes in sports."

Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark (grandson of explorer William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame) founded the track that would later become known as Churchill Downs in 1874, on 80 acres of land owned by his uncles, John and Henry Churchill. The first Kentucky Derby, named for England's Epsom Derby race, was one of four races held on May 17, 1875, before 10,000 spectators. A chestnut colt named Aristides won the top prize of $2,850.

Though Churchill Downs continued to draw crowds, it was plagued by financial troubles for its first three decades. In 1902, as the track was in danger of closing, the Kentucky State Fair used Churchill Downs to stage a collision of two locomotives. Col. Lewis, who committed suicide in 1899—in part because Churchill Downs had proven a disappointment—had had high hopes for Kentucky racing, but for its first few decades the Derby remained a minor event.

Things began to change, however, in October of 1902, when a group of investors led by Louisville businessman Matt Winn took over the failing operation. "Winn was a natural born salesperson," says Ferguson. "It's pretty much Matt Winn who made the Derby what it is." In 1903, thanks to Winn's marketing efforts, the track finally turned a profit. Over the next several years, Churchill Downs underwent renovations, and Winn modernized and expanded the betting system.

The Derby began to attract wider attention in 1913, when a horse named Donerail, given odds of 91.45 to 1, became the longest shot ever to win the race. The next year, Old Rosebud set a Derby record of two minutes and three seconds, and in 1915 a celebrated filly named Regret became the first of only three females to win the Derby. Her owner, wealthy businessman Harry Payne Whitney, came from the East Coast racing establishment, and his horse's victory popularized the Derby to fans outside Kentucky.

These landmark wins helped boost the Derby to national prominence, but the rise of mass media is what gave the race the hype it has today. By 1925, fans could follow the contest live on the radio, and movie audiences could watch news reel replays. In 1949, a local television station first broadcast the Derby in Louisville, and three years later it was televised nationally. To glamorize the Derby during the 1930s and 40s, Matt Winn invited celebrities like Lana Turner and Babe Ruth to watch from the grandstand. The presence of the rich and famous grew to be a Derby tradition, and the box seats they occupied became known as "Millionaire's Row."

Winn led Churchill Downs until his death in 1949, and by then the Derby had become not just a Kentucky institution but a national event. In 1937, Winn, along with four of the Derby favorites for that year, appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

It's the race's signature traditions, however, that make the Kentucky Derby interesting even to people who don't have anything riding on the winning horse. Mint juleps, big hats and red roses have become almost as essential as the horses themselves. A concoction of sugar, water, mint and Kentucky bourbon, the famed julep dates back to the beginning of the race—founder William Clark, says Ferguson, "was fond of drink." Matt Winn formalized the julep's status in 1938, when Churchill Downs began selling commemorative julep glasses. Today, Derby-goers consume some 120,000 juleps.

Big hats also date back to the race's early years. Ladies attend the races decked out in their finery, with hats that can be fancy or fanciful. Along with the standard wide-brimmed chapeaux decorated with ribbons and flowers, the Derby Museum has on exhibit a hat made out of coffee cans arranged to look like a horse's head.

Gentlemen prefer the simpler straw boater hat, but that too can also include accessories like tiny horses and roses, the Derby's official flower. The race earned the nickname "Run for the Roses" (coined by sportswriter Bill Corum in 1925) because of the roses that have been draped over the winning horse since 1896. Today the official garland of 554 blooms is hand-made at a local Kroger grocery store the afternoon before the race.

This year on May 5, Churchill Downs will be "jam-packed," says Ferguson. "Unless you have a seat, there's no guarantee you will see a horse or a race." But for the 150,000 people expected to attend, the crowds, the dust (or mud, if it rains), the expense (general admission tickets are $40, with hard-to-get season boxes going for up to $2,250) and the unpredictability are all worth it.

The Kentucky Derby is the 10th of 12 races on Derby Day, held after several hours of wagering and julep-drinking. The crowd begins to buzz as the horses walk from their barns into the paddock, where they're saddled and mounted. The horses step onto the track to the cheers of a crowd the size of Dayton, Ohio, and as they parade around the first turn and back to their gates, the band strikes up "My Old Kentucky Home."

As the horses get stationed behind the starting gates, the crowd quiets down, but cheers erupt again as the bell rings, the gates open and the horses gallop out. "The whole place just screams—it's an explosion of noise," says Ferguson. "When the horses are on the back side the anticipation builds, and as they come around home it's a wall of sound." Just thinking about it, he says, "I'm getting goose bumps. And I'm not kidding."

GRADED EARNINGS FOR KENTUCKY DERBY CONTENDERS
http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/editorial/news/article.cgi?id=10920

Barbaro's trainer has another Derby possibility
http://www.latimes.com/sports/horseracing/la-spw-horse12apr12,1,5546734.story

War Pass is injured and out of the Derby.

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2008/news/2008/04/19/champion-war-pass-injured-out-kentucky-derby-134

1.       Pyro ... $1,020,000

2.       Proud Spell (filly) ... $880,000

3.       Tale of Ekati ... $738,000

4.       Colonel John ... $720,000 $720,000

5.       Gayego ... $640,000

6.       Big Brown ... $600,000

7.       Z Humor ... $579,000

8.       Monba ... $515,000

9.       Court Vision ... $331,872

10.    Z Fortune ... $329,000

11.    Adriano ... $310,000

12.    Recapturetheglory ... $300,000

13.    Smooth Air ... $290,000

14.    Salute the Sarge ... $258,940

15.    Cool Coal Man ... $212,767

16.    Anak Nakal ... $212,216

17.    Eight Belles (filly) ... $210,000

18.    Cowboy Cal ... $207,660

19.    Massive Drama ... $205,200

20.    Behindatthebar ... $204,500

21.    Visionaire ... $202,500

22.    Big Truck ... $194,500

23.    Bob Black Jack ... $180,000

24.    Denis of Cork ... $165,000

25.    Halo Najib ... $157,996

26.    Indian Sun ... $154,000

27.    Tomcito ... $151,292

28.    My Pal Charlie ... $150,000

29.    El Gato Malo ... $145,000

30.    Hey Byrn ... $140,000

31.    Atoned ... $130,000

32.    Riley Tucker ... $121,900

33.    Tres Borrachos ... $118,000

34.    Golden Yank ... $115,000

35.    Yankee Bravo ... $105,000

36.    Racecar Rhapsody ... $107,121

37.    Kentucky Bear ... $75,000

Kentucky Derby Contenders:
http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2008/contenders/picks#jill

The Official Field and Post positions.
The Post positions will be picked on
April 30, 2008.

 
Kentucky Derby 2008:
http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2008/videos/2520

The final top 3 running order of the Kentucky Derby:

Gate    Horse    Min    Win    Place    Show

20    BIG BROWN    $2 $6.80 $5.00 $4.80

5    EIGHT BELLES    $2       $10.60  $6.40

16    DENIS OF CORK    $2              $11.60