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Sports

Derby Day, Derby Traditions

The137th running of the Kentucky Derby carries with it all of the pageantry of "The Sport of Kings," whether one finds himself in Louisville, KY or Gwinnett County, GA.

Updated 8:20 p.m., May 7, 2011

Mucho Macho Man, owned by Dean and Patti Reeves of Suwanee, finished third, paying $7 to show. Animal Kingdom won, and Nehro finished second.

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It is Derby Day!  Saturday, the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby will have the world focused on “the fastest two minutes in sports.”

Chances are if you’re not in Louisville and you’re a horse lover, sports enthusiast or just a gambler, then you're going to be gathered around the TV with some of your like minded friends – after all, we need very few reasons for a good party.

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As a horse lover, breeder and Lifetime Member of the American Quarter Horse Association, I have followed the Derby for years; the genteel, Southern pageantry of the event as well as the intricate nuisances of the race and its noble competitors - the horses; majestic animals who truly do “fly without wings and conquer without swords.”

Horse racing, “The Sport of Kings,” originated with King Charles II and, to me, the Kentucky Derby is, indeed, the center jewel of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing that includes The Preakness in Maryland and The Belmont Stakes in New York.

But for most, it’s just a fun time – whether experiencing, first hand, the two-week long Kentucky Derby Festival in Louisville or just getting together with friends for a great Saturday afternoon backyard cookout at home leading up to the race.

If you’d like to impress your friends, win a bet or just annoy the heck out of them, let me give you a few historical and little known facts concerning the Derby.

Since 1904, when the red rose became the official flower of the Derby, the triumphant horse and jockey have been greeted in the Winner’s Circle and the steed cloaked at the withers in a radiant garland of 554 deep red roses on a green satin backing.  This ultimately prompted New York sports writer Bill Corum to coin the phrase “run for the roses” in 1925.  Corum would later become president of Churchill Downs.

Since 1987, the famous garland of handpicked roses presented to the winner has been provided by the floral services of The Kroger Company.  Makes buying those flowers at Kroger a little more appealing now, doesn’t it?

One more piece of wager winning trivia; in 1968, the Kentucky Derby’s first-to-finish, Dancer’s Image, was disqualified for receiving illegal medication.   Oddly enough, sitting in the crowd was presidential candidate Richard Nixon.  Forward Pass was named the winner of the Derby.

Of course, there are many, many traditions associated with the Derby; the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home” by Stephen Foster just prior to the race, the festive hats the ladies wear, the colorful silks worn by the jockeys. 

But one tradition many consider the most important of the Derby – outside of the race itself – is the incredibly refreshing and delightfully Southern beverage known as “The Mint Julep.”  Even those who don’t drink will often “sample” a well mixed julep on Derby Day.

Technically it consists of two cups of sugar, two cups of water, fresh mint, crushed ice and Kentucky whiskey– preferably Early Times Kentucky Whiskey, originally distilled as far back as 1860 by Jack Beam, Jim Beam’s uncle.

However, mixing a good and proper mint julep is less of a technical process than it is a true art form, as once explained by Virginia Lt. General S.B. Buckner, Jr. in a letter to his colleague, Major General William D. Connor of West Point, NY, when Buckner said…

”A mint julep is not the product of a formula. It is a ceremony and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients and a proper appreciation of the occasion. It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician nor a Yankee. It is a heritage of the old South, an emblem of hospitality…”

Lt. General Buckner went on to explain…

“Go to a spring where cool, crystal-clear water bubbles from under a bank of dew-washed ferns. In a consecrated vessel, dip up a little water at the source. Follow the stream through its banks of green moss and wildflowers until it broadens and trickles through beds of a mint growing in aromatic profusion and waving softly in the summer breeze.

Gather the sweetest and tenderest shoots and gently carry them home.

Go to the sideboard and select a decanter of Kentucky Bourbon, distilled by a master hand, mellowed with age yet still vigorous and inspiring. An ancestral sugar bowl, a row of silver goblets, some spoons and some ice and you are ready to start. In a canvas bag, pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow, keep it dry and do not allow to degenerate into slush.

In each goblet, put a slightly heaping teaspoonful of granulated sugar, barely cover this with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Then pour elixir from decanter until the goblets are about one-fourth full. Fill the goblets with snowy ice, sprinkling in a small amount of sugar as you fill. Wipe the outside of the goblets dry and embellish copiously with mint.

Then comes the important and delicate operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until Nature, wishing to take a further hand and add another of its beautiful phenomena, encrusts the whole in a glistening coat of white frost. Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.

When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden where the aroma of the juleps will rise Heavenward and make the birds sing. Propose a worthy toast, raise the goblet to your lips, bury your nose in the mint, inhale a deep breath of its fragrance and sip the nectar of 
the gods.

Being overcome by thirst, I can write no further.”

Yes, I believe that explains it fairly well…and with that, I bid you a Good Derby Day.  May your horse be swift, your mint juleps sweet and your winnings large!

Randy Wyles is an equestian enthusiast and breeder as well as a Lifetime Member of the American Quarter Horse Association.  In addition to his award winning work for such media outlets as CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, CNN, The Dallas Morning News, the Dallas Business Journal and Atlanta magazine, Wyles has written for the American Quater Horse Journal.  He is also Senior Investigator for the private Investigations firm of Hunter Investigations, LLC, based in Alpharetta.

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