By Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the NTRA
If you read my blogs, you know that I spent more than 12
years as part of the management team at Churchill Downs. During those years,
I held several titles including President of the racetrack that shares its name
with Churchill Downs Incorporated. It was my privilege to view the
Kentucky Derby from almost every angle imaginable – both literal and
figurative. I watched the race from the roof top and from the
infield. I kept an eye on the mutuel and concession lines. I
closely examined the financial statements for ever-more creative ways to secure
new forms of revenue from the event. I especially loved the sight of the
Twin Spires from the backstretch (even after the renovations).
But the part of the Kentucky Derby that I observed most
intently was the emotional bond that the event created with almost everyone in
attendance or watching on national television. Ask anyone who has
just attended his or her first Derby and you are likely to get an earful of
superlatives. And native Louisvillians, who tend to act as though they
are annoyed by much of the Derby hype, will always find a way to partake in the
festivities somehow, someway. Why else would 700,000 people show up for a
fireworks display on the River City’s riverfront at the start of the Kentucky
Derby Festival every year. Even curmudgeonly old race trackers will
shed a tear while drinking sugary Mint Juleps and singing the sentimental “My
Old Kentucky Home” (Not me, of course).
It’s hard to explain the hold that the Kentucky Derby has on
people, regardless of their age or station in life. From the
college kid in the infield, to the well-to-do captain of industry watching from
the finest finish line suite; each is captivated and enthralled in some
mysterious way. Perhaps it’s because so many of those on Millionaire’s
Row can tell you a story about their first Derby experience – usually as a
college kid in the infield. Perhaps it’s because many of those first
timers in the infield secretly vow to themselves that someday they will
actually be able to see the race from one of those fancy clubhouse suites on
Millionaire’s Row. Or perhaps it’s the way those 20-horse fields can
humble even the most studied handicappers while briefly making geniuses of
novices betting nothing but names and colors. No doubt, that’s why Col.
Matt Winn, the father of the Kentucky Derby, referred to the gathered throng on
the First Saturday in May in his memoir entitled “Down the Stretch” as “the
fun-loving, ever democratic Derby Day crowd.”
Winn understood long ago that to become America’s race, the
Derby had to appeal broadly to men and women, young and old, rich and
poor. And so it is that Winn, with a promotional fervor the likes of
which we may never see again, willed the Kentucky Derby into its status as the
world’s greatest horse race. In large part because of Winn, no
other American sporting event has the history or the appeal of the Derby.
The Super Bowl draws a bigger television audience for sure. The Final
Four captivates hoops fans who love the drama of the Big Dance. But
the Derby – with its magnificent equine athletes and a big, multifarious crowd
like no other sporting crowd in America - goes deeper and touches more
profoundly. And it just seems to grow with each passing year.
Why does it connect to its audience so magically? Once
again, Col. Winn has one of the best explanations I have ever read.
In his memoir quoting Kentuckian Ervin S. Cobb on the subject of the allure of
the Derby, here is what Winn had to say:
“It is not horses alone that are
running at Churchill Downs on that spring day every year. Tradition, by-gone
romance, dimmed, echoing poetry, the ghosts of ancient glories, and ancient
ideals and ancient horses – they’re all there, speeding down the homestretch
and past the grandstand, and on into the sunset’s gilded afterglow of vanished
yesterdays.”
I tip my hat to Col. Winn and to his era – an era that
reemerges for a few fleeting moments each year in Kentucky on the first
Saturday in May. May it always be so.
What about you? Why is it about the Kentucky Derby
that captivates you?
