JOE McGINNISS

The 137th Kentucky Derby will be run tomorrow at Churchill Downs in Louisville.   Up to twenty (depending on late scratches, such as UNCLE MO this morning) three-year olds will be racing a mile-and-a-quarter, the first time these young adults have been asked to go that far.

My money will be on DIALED IN (shown above winning the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on April 3), trained by the incomparable Nick Zito (upper right) and ridden by the brilliant Frenchman Julien Leparoux.

To celebrate Derby Weekend, I’m taking time off from my Sarah Palin watch.

I leave you instead with this story I wrote for Sports Illustrated in 1969 about my first Kentucky Derby, forty-eight years ago.

Enjoy the weekend! NBC will have live Derby coverage starting at 5 p.m. EDT tomorrow.

By the way, Nick Zito says Bin Laden deserved his fate. DIALED IN was not available for comment.

UPDATE:

Henry Watterson, founder of the Louisville Courier-Journal, and a man described almost a hundred years ago as “the last of the great personal journalists,” settled once and for all the debate about the recipe for the perfect mint julep.  He wrote:

“Pluck the mint gently from its bed, just as the dew of the evening is about to form upon it. Select the choicer sprigs only, but do not rinse them. Prepare the simple syrup and measure out a half-tumbler of whiskey. Pour the whiskey into a well-frosted silver cup, throw the other ingredients away and drink the whiskey.”

UPDATE 1.1

That’s how it goes in racing.  They are horses, not machines.  DIALED IN never got into the race.

Who knows why?   You’d have to ask him, and he ain’t talking.

But the Derby, won this year by ANIMAL KINGDOM, always produces good stories:

a)  Graham Motion, the British trainer, learning early last week that his bigger horse, TOBY’S CORNER, hurt himself in training and could not run in the Derby–then saddling lesser light ANIMAL KINGDOM, who won at odds of 21-1.

b)  John Velasquez, one of America’s top jockeys for the past decade, learning last week that his horse, probable favorite UNCLE MO, had diarrhea so bad that he had to be scratched from the race.

c)  Robby Albarado, the regular rider for ANIMAL KINGDOM, getting thrown from a horse he was riding last week and being injured badly enough so that Motion had to find a new rider.

d)  Motion, the day after UNCLE MO was scratched, signing the suddenly unhorsed  Velasquez to take Albarado’s seat aboard ANIMAL KINGDOM.

Result: ANIMAL KINGDOM, Motion and Velasquez win.  Albarado, nursing a broken nose, loses.

I hope Velasquez, a classy guy, will give Albarado a share of the $125,000 he’ll receive for his two minutes and two second display of expertise.

Why do I love horse racing?  It’s like opera.

Why do I love opera?  It’s like horse racing.  Except in opera you know the winners and losers ahead of time.

And how is the Kentucky Derby like bad sex?  Prolonged buildup, mounting anticipation, excitement cresting to fever pitch–and then in two minutes it’s all over.