Ah, May is here. A celebratory time where parties and events are filling up your social calendar, making you feel it’s winter holiday season all over again. As you make arrangements this weekend for tacos and margaritas, free comic books, and Star Wars events, I hope you will consider reserving two minutes to watch “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” on May 4th.
I’m talking about the Derby. The Kentucky Derby.
The Big Race takes place on the first Saturday in May every year, typically drawing a crowd of 155,000 people to the race track at Churchill Downs, which is located in Louisville, Kentucky. The first Kentucky Derby was held in 1875, making this horse race the longest held sporting event in America, and one of the most prestigious horse races in the world.
Before Race Day Louisville natives and out of town visitors celebrate with the Kentucky Derby Festival, a two-week affair with chow wagons, fireworks, parades, and races for steamboats and hot air balloons (yes, it’s a thing). The festivities leading up to Derby are so popular that public schools and local businesses close the day prior, to get ready for the Big Race—or if you’re lucky enough—a trip to Churchill Downs.
Growing up in Louisville, Derby season was the highlight of my year. As a child I grew up attending neighborhood block parties with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (cliché but true), making $2 bets with neighbors based on which horse had the oddest name. Funny Cide? Charismatic? Smarty Jones? If only I had picked the right name I might be sitting on Millionaire’s Row this Saturday.
As nostalgic as I am about these memories, the concern I have for the recent deaths of thoroughbreds in Santa Anita is powerful. Thoroughbreds are known for their speed, but it is their beauty and grace that will leave you awestruck. To see a thoroughbred on the bluegrass was like seeing a unicorn. My parents weren’t raised in the South and we weren’t “horse people” in the traditional sense, but we all came to be because we honored and loved their superpower, their majesty, their beauty.
Reflecting back to past Derbys, I realize that it’s not the horse racing itself I miss. What I miss is the tradition of a community getting together on a gorgeous spring day, whether it's with neighbors, friends, and family, coworkers and community leaders, your favorite barista or grocer. It was a time to strengthen the personal relationships that you had in your life. It was a time to celebrate the city and make the community stronger. And it was also a time to show off your ridiculously big floral hat! When else can you appropriately do so?
Whatever plans you make this weekend I hope it is something you will fondly remember.
Do your own Derby in Los Angeles!
