Weather was wet on Friday, and clouds, rain, and a thunderstorm expected on Saturday. Wet weather will be a factor at Churchill Downs on Saturday as more than 150,000 people gather to watch the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby.
“When there are some showers moving through on Saturday afternoon, there will be the threat for a heavy downpour and perhaps even a brief thunderstorm,” according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Thompson.
“With some showers and a threat of downpours, it still looks more likely than not that the track will be sloppy for the Kentucky Derby,” he added. “If an approaching downpour threatens to turn the track sloppy, the main track will likely be sealed (or packed down some) to help the water drain better and have less soak into the track.”
Post time is 6:52 pm EDT. Here are the latest odds (as of 2 pm):
1. War of Will : 17-1
2. Tax: 35-1
3. By My Standards: 16-1
4. Gray Magician: 29-1
5. Improbable: 5-1
6. Vekoma: 21-1
7. Maximum Security: 9-2
8. Tacitus: 5-1
9. Plus Que Parfait: 55-1
10. Cutting Humor: 23-1
11-12 SCRATCHED
13. Code of Honor: 13-1
14. Win Win Win: 14-1
15. Master Fencer: 55-1
16. Game Winner: 6-1
17. Roadster: 10-1
18. Long Range Toddy: 50-1
19. Spinoff: 50-1
20. Country House: 61-1
21. Bodexpress: 87-1
TV coverage starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT and goes until about 7:15 p.m. on NBC. Here are the main events. Times are EDT:
5:06 p.m.: Presentation of colors.
5:08 p.m.: National anthem, sung by Jennifer Nettles.
6:06 p.m.: Horses and connections walk from the barns.
6:19 p.m: All the horses should be in the paddock.
6:26 p.m.: Jockeys leave the jock’s room and head to the paddock.
6:33 p.m.: Call of “Riders up” by Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield.
6:34 p.m.: The call to post.
6:35 p.m.: Playing of “My Old Kentucky Home.”
6:37 p.m.: The post parade.
6:50 p.m.: The horses start to load.
6:52 p.m.: The race starts.
6:58 p.m.: On to the winner’s circle!
Since most of us will be watching from our living or family rooms, the rain will only affect our bets. While we watch, we might want to have a snack or two – and a drink or two – available. It will be cocktail time, after all. So here are some traditional Derby treats (I’m sure my friends from the South will correct any errors on my part):
MINT JULEP (recipe courtesy of the NYT)
Ingredients (for one)
- 12 to 15 fresh mint leaves, plus one sprig for garnish
- 1 ounce peach syrup, like Monin
- 2 ½ ounces bourbon
- Superfine sugar
Preparation
- Place mint and 1/4 ounce peach syrup in julep cup or 8- to 10-ounce old-fashioned glass and gently crush leaves with a wooden muddler, working them up sides of glass.
- Loosely pack glass with finely crushed ice, then add bourbon. Drizzle remaining peach syrup on top and garnish with mint sprig lightly dusted with sugar.
Suggestion
If you make a simple syrup make it a day ahead of time and soak your mint leaves in it while it is still warm and keep them there until ready for use. Skip the peach.
SOUTHERN CHEESE STRAWS
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ pound sharp orange Cheddar, room temperature
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
Preparation
- Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grate cheese.
- In a food processor, pulse dry ingredients until combined, then add cheese and butter. Process until dough becomes smooth and has the texture of Play-Doh. Alternately, make the dough in a stand mixer by creaming cheese and butter until smooth. Then combine dry ingredients in a bowl and combine with butter mixture at low speed until smooth.
- Shape the dough into a cylinder, wrap with plastic wrap or parchment and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Or store in the refrigerator until ready to bake.
- Bring dough to room temperature and pack it into a cookie press fitted with a star disk. Pipe long ribbons of dough across the baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat, about an inch apart. Then cut into six-inch lengths. Repeat with remaining dough. Dough may also be hand-rolled into long ropes and cut to size, or shaped into a cylinder and sliced into rounds and baked.
- Bake for about 13 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown. Store between sheets of parchment or waxed paper in an airtight container. Will keep for up to three weeks.
HOOTENHOLLER WHISKEY QUICK BREAD
Ingredients
- ¼ cup bourbon, plus more for you
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1 cup flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Preparation
- First, take the bourbon out of the cupboard and have a small snort for medicinal purposes. Now, preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Butter and flour an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the beaten eggs, a little at a time.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg, and add to the batter. Then beat in the milk. Combine the molasses and baking soda and mix into the batter. To help prevent the raisins and pecans from sinking, dust them with flour, shaking off excess. Mix them, along with the bourbon, into the batter until combined. Transfer to the loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes up clean, 1 3/4 to 2 hours.
Tip
Whiskey cake keeps practically forever, wrapped in aluminum foil, in your refrigerator. It gets better and better too, if you buck it up once in a while by using an eyedropper to add a little more whiskey.
BLOODY MARY
Ingredients (for one)
- Lemon wedge
- Lime wedge
- 4 oz. tomato juice
- 2 dashes Tabasco
- 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
- Pinch of sea salt
- Pinch of celery salt
- Pinch of coarsely ground pepper (pepper too finely ground will bring more heat and less flavor)
- ¼ teaspoon peeled and freshly shredded horseradish (avoid using prepared horseradish from a jar)
- 2 oz. vodka (not flavored)
Preparation
- Squeeze lemon and lime wedges into a shaker. Add all other ingredients except vodka, and stir. Taste the mix, and adjust the seasoning if needed. Make as much as you think you will need, put the mix in the fridge, and let it sit overnight.
- Pour vodka into the shaker. Add ice cubes, and shake.
- Fill an 8-ounce glass about halfway with ice, and strain the shaker contents over it.
- For garnish, use slice of seedless cucumber, also known as a hothouse or English cucumber, rather than celery. Spear the pitted green olive with a toothpick, and stick it through the rind of the lemon wedge. Place the wedge on the rim of the glass. Crack a little freshly ground pepper on top. Or, if you are me, just use celery.
Since Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow, this would be a good choice too:
GUACAMOLE WITH TORTILLA CHIPS
Ingredients (makes enough for two)
- 3 tablespoons chopped onion
- ½ teaspoon minced Serrano chili, or more, to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoons finely chopped cilantro leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt, or more, to taste
- 1 small vine-ripened tomato
- 1 ripe Hass avocado
- Tortilla chips for serving
I would also add the juice of half a lime.
Preparation
- In a medium-size bowl, mortar or a Mexican molcajete (lava stone mortar), thoroughly mash 1 tablespoon of the onion with the chili, 1/2 teaspoon cilantro and the salt to make a paste.
- Cut the tomato in half horizontally, squeeze out the juice and seeds and discard. Chop pulp, and add it to the bowl.
- Cut the avocado in half lengthwise, cutting around the pit. Gently twist the top half of the avocado off to separate the halves. Carefully rap the pit with the edge of a sharp knife and twist it out. Using a paring knife slice the avocado flesh of both halves lengthwise, then crosswise, cutting down to the skin, to form a grid. Scoop the avocado into the bowl with a spoon.
- Add the remaining onion and cilantro, and gently fold all the ingredients together. Season with more chili and salt if desired. Serve at once with tortilla chips.
Stella's Place 
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Never having been a fan of Derby cuisine I’ll bring a thermos with my own bloody mariners (a bloody mary made with Clamato). Sweet whisky…ugh…if you can’t drink whisky-whisky get a Dr Pepper. What’s with this surge of sweetened and flavored whiskys?
In hindsight one might have had a subthread titled: ‘What NOT to expect from the Derby’.
BGTW, wasn’t the NYT’s drink recipe originally titled ‘Perfidious Mint Jewlip’?
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Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter Dannielynn Birkhead, 12, is the spitting image of her mother as she wears late model’s hat to the Kentucky Derby
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6992887/Anna-Nicole-Smiths-daughter-Dannielynn-Birkhead-12-wears-late-moms-hat-Kentucky-Derby.html
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Let’s hope her story has a better arc than her mother’s.
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Well that was a bullish*t call.
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Yep, I’m sure I was heard screaming in the next county. I placed no bets, honestly did not care which horse won, but they ruined the race.
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Agreed. The horse that ran the race second best was gifted the Roses.
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All because someone whined and protested. Crybabies ruin every sport and just about everything they touch.
I doubt this is over, there are a lot of pissed off people right now who lost a lot of money.
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I agree. Giant cry baby.
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PS As soon as the disqualification I came through I turned it off. I wonder how many others did the same.
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We did as well.
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Not interested in what the stewards have to say just reading the comments.
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I was reading comments on Kentucky Derby FB page and it was in the thousands, with 99% against the call.
I’ve watched a lot of horse racing in my lifetime and I’ve never witnessed a call like this and have seen horses/jockies do a lot worse on the track.
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I personally believe the stewards want the attention. I’m sure there will be a formal appeal. Hopefully less self important heads will do the review.
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I always had respect for Bill Mott, lost a little of that now. He told his jockey to protest, his horse was not touched and never should have been declared the winner.
However, if he was the trainer of MS, I can guarantee you MS would not have been disqualified. Lots of politics involved in horse racing and he was given his first derby win.
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Ahh… I am not in the know at all. Is Bill Mott of Mott Applesauce?
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I don’t think so, but he got his first Derby win given to him. If it had not been his horse I would bet a small fortune this call would not have been made.
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The owners and trainer are not going to allow it to stand without a fight.
I can’t blame them, for one their horse was robbed, the stewards blew them off the same as they are blowing off the fans. Also 10s of millions of dollars in stud fees at stake.
Many people lost money who bet on MS. Vegas isn’t going to be happy paying out 65-1 odds on a decision like this one.
https://sports.yahoo.com/maximum-security-owner-derby-disqualification-egregious-025834956–rah.html
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Can you imagine the losses in Vegas all because of a lame call? The horse flowed slightly on a sloppy field, mitigating circumstances, that didn’t affect the outcome of the race, there was no way even if Maximum didn’t drift that Country House was ever going to catch him.
Common Core Stewards.
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It looked to me like he turned away from all the noise, but the jockey immediately turned him back. It also slowed him down when it happened, but he recovered and still won by a length and half.
My personal opinion has always been that horses shouldn’t be raced in mud. This race could have been really bad, especially with the number of horses they started. It’s too much to expect that many horses running in slop to not touch another horse. Heck horse racing is not much different than dirt car racing, there is going to be bumping. Where the heck do these ignorant stewards think the term, ‘jockeying for position’ came from?
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Agree with all you said Michelle. And that is exactly what the jockey said happened.
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Owner says he’s not putting the horse in Preakness and is appealing and will go from there. I agree with him about the state racing commission and have talked to some in the racing world and they’re all up in arms about this. If they stick to their guns about it’s final they’re going to hurt their state and the track.
He didn’t have much nice to say about Churchill Downs and I also agree with much of that. It was all about the money starting that many horses on a track like that.
That is one of my biggest pet peeves with racing, don’t blow smoke up my butt about caring about safety of horses and jockeys and then do crap like this.
These big tracks should take a lesson from small local tracks, sometimes you got to bite the bullet and ignore the bottom line and do what’s right.
Of course small tracks learned the lesson, you need the horses worse than they need you. These big tracks think they’re too big too fall, but they’re wrong.
It truly makes me sad because I can see the end coming for horse racing. It’s been on the verge many times over the years and they just keep shooting themselves in the foot.
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I listened to Mark Belling this afternoon. *Spit* He is big into horse racing and had a horse finish second in the (I think) 1997 Derby.
His opinion is that it was a bad call because it lacked common sense. I agree.
I wasn’t in the car long enough to find out if he addressed Mott in particular.
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That’s the thing if you abide by the rule as the state racing commission wrote it, then every horse in that race by “rule” would be disqualified.
You’re going to have those who defend the call, most who don’t know jack s..t about horse racing, but some that are involved in racing will also defend it. Most of those involved who defend it though is because they don’t want the controversy and want to pretend like this happens all the time, so it should happen in big races as well.
Behind the scenes though from the little guy who owns a couple of brood mares who has a few horses a year racing small time to the big operations who want and expect the truth. I will be surprised if these 3 stewards along with some others in the state racing commission aren’t replaced real soon.
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That’s basically what Belling said. There is a good reason that in a 145 year history that this has never happened before. It is pure baloney.
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They’re going to deny the appeal, but quietly behind the scenes, a changing of the guard will take place. They’re really hoping this will just go away.
I hope the owner goes ahead and takes it to court. That smug head steward should have to answer tough questions.
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Busy day yesterday and today, I believe the owner of Maximum Security said that he is going to withdraw him from the Preakness ? Do you know if that is true and what he is trying to accomplish by doing so?
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He says he’s not running him in the Preakness, he said he wasn’t rushing him to race that quick when the Triple Crown is off the table.
My opinion is that they’re still very hot under the collar and assume that they’re going to be stonewalled by the racing commission. After that their only option is the courts and that could take years.
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I’m wondering how many people who had tickets on Country House to win tore them up or threw them away when Maximum Security was called as winner? How many bets in states where it’s legal to vote off-track were paid on Maximum Security before the results were reversed?
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They won’t pay out until the race is official.
I remember the first time I ever placed a bet on a horse, I was so excited when my horse won. I immediately ran to collect my money and was told the race wasn’t official yet. I thought they were trying to cheat me out of my money. lol
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I never was a horse race fan, I love horses but I’m not in agreement with the racehorse breeding. Beautiful animals though.
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I love horse racing. I don’t always agree with how it’s always done.
The drugs that once were rampant, some trainers have no business being anywhere near a horse, some jockeys need a good ol’ fashioned a$$ whippin’. Track conditions like that one Saturday have always infuriated me. Many local tracks will postpone or cancel racing when the conditions are like that.
Those horses love the racing though, when you’re up close to them you can see it in their eyes. They know when they’ve won and they know when they’ve lost.
I’m just not one that does a lot of betting. I place $2 bets when I bet at all and usually am too much of a weenie and will only bet to show, rarely to win and never trifectas.
Most of the time I just go to watch and the grandkids like to watch. We have a local track about 20 miles from us and I steal the grandkids a couple of times a month and we go and watch the ponies for the afternoon. My grandson is actually pretty darn good at picking the winning horses. Gracie just picks the pink horse and if there isn’t a horse in pink, she doesn’t like any of them. lol
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I just don’t like how thin their cannons and their pasterns are. To me their not natural and too many get hurt. That’s just me though, I’m a work horse and not a race horse person.
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They’ve always been that way. One of the reasons many get hurt is due to trainers over working them. Many really bad trainers in the sport. It always has been a dangerous sport for the horses as well as the jockeys. The horses though love to race, even these horses that will never be fast enough to compete in the big races, have a heart as big as Dallas.
I’ve seen some thoroughbreds that were good horses for riding and even ranch work, but they’re a high strung horse by nature.
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It’s like the greyhounds to me. Thousands are farmed in places like Colorado where they’re trained as the high altitudes increase their lung capacities. Many of the hounds don’t work out and are euthanized, either right off the ranch or when they don’t work out at the tracks. People are out trying to get them placed but there just aren’t that many folks out there to take them.
The horses are bred for speed and not so much for bodily integrity. I can still see the scenes of the horses injured on tracks that have to be euthanized in place and then carted off. That doesn’t seem to matter all that much to the track-going public so I’d like to see the same process applied to NFL/NBA players injured on the field/court…maybe then the process will be rethought.
We are a bit too old and we’re not set up for stock but I love horses and really hate to see them abused. We have ads in the local papers from folks who’ve bought them and found out that as much as they wanted one the reality of owning one didn’t quite surface until they had it in-hand. They’re either free or at a minimal price but in most cases you’ve got a horse you have to rebreak. If these folks have problems dumping free horses what must it be like for racing farms.
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I know people don’t like to hear it and honestly I was one of those people until I witnessed first hand the consequences of closing down all the horse slaughter facilities.
I love horses and have had them my entire life and some I had up until they died of old age. So I hated horse slaughter, but the truth is when the bottom fell out of horses after they were banned horses were being dumped. Horses are expensive to care for properly and when they get ill or injured it’s not something many can afford. Even when one dies it costs a fortune, it’s not like you can just grab a shovel and dig a hole.
Seeing horses starve to death and people getting badly injured or killed from hitting these dumped horses on the roads, made me realize as horrible as slaughter sounds, it’s way more humane than what happens to the horses otherwise.
In the racing world, the problem is and has always been bad trainers, bad breeders and bad tracks. Sometimes bad things just happen no matter what you do, but often bad things happen because trainers push the horses too hard, breeders breed horses with bad genes and tracks put too many horses on the track or run on track conditions they shouldn’t be ran on.
Locals actually do a better job policing each other than the big guys do, partly because money is a bigger issue for them. Of course you have the bad seeds. Even the big guys though are better than they were in years past.
These horses though love to race and one that doesn’t love it won’t run no matter what you do.
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My long-time boss owned and drove trotters/pacers, and was a broker, mostly selling Italian horses in the USA and vice versa. It was a long-time business in his family.
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We had a Tennessee Walker farm out behind our base in Tennessee, now there was a gait. I also watched the Lipizzaners in Austria, there’s a horse I’d take instead of a draft horse.
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There is a place inland from Sarasota FL (Myakka City) that has Lipizzaners, and they put on exhibitions in the Winter. Not nearly as classy as the one in Austria, but outdoors, and you can go to see the horses in the stables. They also tour in the US. I took my mom and aunt there once when I was visiting.
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Yeah, there’s even a place in CT that sells them. You can generally get one of the off-whites for less, especially gelded stallions, if you just want a rider.
Sad, now that we could get horses we’re too old and none of my kids are interested in living any place more that 3 miles removed from a Starbucks.
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I also actually prefer the quarter horses to the thoroughbreds. Races are more exciting and the horses aren’t as high strung.
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I’m a draft horse fan and, strangely enuff, a gaited mule fan. I prefer draft horses as I’m no lightweight and there’s something soothing about riding on top of a ton of horse meat.
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I like all horses. Gaited horses are easier on the old bones these days. Quarter horses though will always be my first love, because they are the best all around horse.
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I was into quarters when I lived in Utah where THE factor that determined a quarter’s pedigree was its relationship to one named 3-Bars.
I fell in love with draft (draught for those in Canada) horses when I lived in Europe. They had folks who rode them using oversized saddles – weren’t fast but they were smooth and steady – like putting a saddle on a tank.
I ran into riding gaited mules in Alabama but there can be times when it reverts to pure muleness and that’s not a selling point for me.
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I can’t do mules. My uncle always had mules and I always hated those stubborn creatures.
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They’re sure-footed, strong, untiring and stubborn. If I were back out West I’d have them for trail riding but down here the stubborn outweighs all else. We have neighbors with them and we can hear them when they sound off.
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When I was young there wasn’t any horse I wouldn’t climb on. So of course the first time I was given the opportunity to hop on one of his mules, I did so. The darn thing dug his hooves in and refused to move, then he sat down on his butt like a dog and wouldn’t get up until I got off.
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Mules can be fun if you don’t have anything else to do.
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