Neither John nor Kimberly knew anything about horse racing, so it was a real experience.  Loren did all the arranging.  There were 7 couples on the trip,  They stayed in an AirBnB and attended two days of racing at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.  Kimberly says that the experience would have been great but with the group, "It was epic!"

 

The Derby has been run for 147 straight years-always on the first Saturday in May.  It is the longest running horse race in the country. Even during WWII, when many events were canceled, it was run so as to keep up morale at home in the USA.  It is preceded on Friday with the Kentucky Oaks.  Because of the epidemic, both the 2021 Oaks and the Derby were limited to 50% capacity.  The Menos did most of the tourist things when they attended the Oaks on Friday.

 

 

Everyone in the main grandstand area dresses to the hilt.  The Oaks is pink day, and of course, the race for the roses, the color is red.  Men and women both wear hats.  Women go all out and you can see most everything.  Kimberly's Derby hat, lower center, she found used. She made the hat on the lower right, with basics done before leaving.  However, the ladies visited a hat shop where they found hats going for as much as $1,000.  The shop at materials to embellish their hats at the shop.  Kimberly took a hot air gun with her and so much of her pink hat was embellished in Louisville. 

 

Thrifty Kimberly indicated her entire outfit was about $35.  Not so for John, who ordered a custom coat with Derby lining from a tailor.  The total for his outfit was not revealed!

 

The group had a connection with someone local who had lived in Louisville.  He helped Loren get the tickets and the place to stay. Their tickets were in section 226 where they could see the horses round the final turn as it came into the straight away and the finish line.  Because of pandemic protocol, the group of 21 had over 20 vacant seats around them.  Another change because of the pandemic, is that the ticket was "all inclusive".  Drinks and food were all included.  Although John used an app to place some of his bets, he also went to the window some of the time where they were pleased to tell him the process for placing his bets.

 

Before the featured race, the Kentucky Derby, there were 11 other races. John and Kimberly did venture over to the infield to see how the general admission people enjoyed the day. John said it was like a tail gate party in Pullman!  The race is sponsored by Woodford Reserve bourbon. The Monos did serve all of us at the meeting with the Woodford Spire drink.  Kimberly claimed that the many Derby glasses in which the drinks were served to us, were John's empties from Churchill Downs.

 

John and Kimberly showed us slides from their day at the Derby.  As with most all of our hybrid meetings, the program was recorded and be viewed on our club's YouTube channel.  Click HERE for a link.