DFWCards

U of L DFW Alumni Club Derby 2009 Celebration

Saturday, May 2, 2009 from 3:30 PM - 6:00 PM CDT.
(Post time for the 135th Run for the Roses is 5:00 PM CDT)

As a current, former, or adopted Kentuckian, you do know what it means when April rolls around again, don't you?

It's once again time to turn our attention to the Fastest Two Minutes in Sports, which occurs annually on the first Saturday in May (not coincidentally the biggest day of the year in Louisville) - the Kentucky Derby!

Do you miss Louisville at Derby time? If so, come celebrate Kentucky's favorite sport (on one Saturday per year, at least) with other University of Louisville alumni and fans!

You and a guest are invited to celebrate Derby 135 at the home of

Keith and Deborah Masten
6912 Grand Falls Circle
Plano, TX 75024
(Kings Ridge subdivision, map via Google Maps)

Join us for an afternoon of traditional mint juleps and some friendly wagering!

Please let us know that you are coming either by (1) sending an e-mail message to Keith Masten (keith.masten@tx.rr.com) or (2) calling Keith at 972-672-9796. So that we can enter you in the database, we need the first and last names of all who will be wagering.

Questions? Call Keith Masten at 972-672-9796 or Deborah Masten at 972-370-0611.

We're looking forward to seeing you there!

You'll Probably As Well Prepared As Most of the Derby Attendees

If you're trying to decide at the last minute which of the twenty thoroughbreds running in today's Kentucky Derby you're going to bet on at that Derby Party, here are some resources that you can use:

• Churchill Downs' Official Kentucky Derby site
• Kentucky Derby 132 - Daily Racing Form
• Kentucky Derby 2006 - MSNBC.com (NBC is the broadcast network for the Kentucky Derby)
• The Triple Crown - ESPN.com
• Road to the Derby - CBS Sportsline.com

Good luck, and have fun today!

It's Derby Day And We've Been Invaded

The most important day of the year in Louisville has arrived - Derby Day 132.

It also means that in less than 24 hours, all of the attention-seeking celebrities (redundant terms, those) that exploit the city's intense desire to be appreciated will have left our fair burg in their collective rear view mirrors.

Derby Week is the only time of the year that most of the country's beautiful people deem Louisville worthy of their time, and the locals eat up the attention.

If this interests you, you can read reports on the hoi polloi who attended the Barnstable-Brown (Louisville) and Derby Eve Gala (Lexington) parties.

Forever Making Lemonade From Lemons

From ESPN.com:

Trainer Dallas Stewart shook his right fist triumphantly as his 3-year-old filly was led from the winner's circle. Few bettors in the Oaks Day crowd of 108,065 shared his sentiments. Not many had the No. 14 filly at odds of 47-1.

Her name is Lemons Forever, and her last-to-first victory Friday in the Kentucky Oaks was the biggest shocker in the history of the race. Like the Kentucky Derby, the Oaks has been run continuously at Churchill Downs since 1875, so that's a major upset. Lemons Forever's previous career highlight was taking a $75,000 optional claimer in February at Oaklawn Park, not exactly the profile you'd expect from a Grade I winner.

The win price on the chestnut daughter of Lemon Drop Kid was $96.20. Not since Lemco in 1903 had an Oaks winner paid more than 40-1, and the exacta ($985.60), Pick 4 ($7,125) trifecta ($12,186) and superfecta ($89,103) also reached the stratosphere. Lemons Forever ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.07 on a fast track and earned $300,000 for Leon Willis, Terry Horton and Stewart.

Derby 2006 Celebration

U of L DFW Alumni Club Derby 2006 Celebration
Saturday, May 6, 2006 from 2:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. CDT.
(Post time for the Run for the Roses is 5:00 p.m. CDT)

Join us at the home of Keith and Deborah Masten - 6912 Grand Falls Circle, Plano, TX 75024, 972-672-9796 (map via Google Local) - to experience Derby Day 2006.

The cost for this event is $20 for members and $25 for nonmembers. All proceeds support the UofL DFW Alumni Club Scholarship Fund.

Send payment to: Keith Masten, 6912 Grand Falls Circle, Plano, TX 75024

For more information on this and other Alumni Club events, visit our club web site at www.dfwcards.org or call 214-348-5325.

We look forward to having you join us to celebrate our Kentucky heritage!

Thunder Over Louisville Kicks Off the Derby Festival Today

From the Thunder Over Louisville web site:

Rated as one of the top 100 events in North America, the Derby Festival’s Opening Ceremonies is truly a sight to behold. And each year, more than 500,000 eager thrill-seekers do just that.

The day-long event kicks off the two exciting weeks of events that are part of the annual Kentucky Derby Festival. The Thunder Air Show dazzles the crowd with more than 100 planes, aerobatics teams, daring sky diving teams and breathtaking stunts.

When it gets dark, the Thunder rolls. The fireworks will feature the latest in pyrotechnic power from Zambelli Internationale, America's "first family of fireworks". Eight 400-foot barges assemble on both sides of the 2nd Street Bridge to form the stage from which the fireworks spectacular ignites.

The breathtaking and mind-numbing 28-minute show includes Thunder’s signature one-mile “waterfall” effect off the bridge, making the fireworks seem to rain down forever. And in the crowd’s memory of the show, it does!

After more than a decade, the show remains the largest annual pyrotechnic display in North America. Seen by millions worldwide via a July 4th rebroadcast on the Armed Forces Network to more than 150 countries, it is the state’s pride. A Discovery Channel documentary on fireworks shows says it best, “Thunder is the Grand-daddy of them all!”.

But That Derby Marketing Machine Does Work Well

Given that it is now that point in the year when the world's attention does point toward Louisville, newspapers around the United States are doing their part to share all the fun that you can have while you're there for the Kentucky Derby.

The Associated Press' Elizabeth Dunbar does the honors this year, in a widely distributed article that regurgitates well-established Derby cliches and serves as a very nice commercial for the Kentucky Derby Museum, Churchill Downs, and the upcoming Kentucky Derby Festival.

 

Kentucky Derby Sponsorship Not a Sign of the Apocalypse

I've been meaning to address the recent announcement by Churchill Downs that for the first time ever, the Kentucky Derby will have a "presenting sponsor."

In case you missed the news, the racetrack disclosed on February 1 that

Yum! Brands Inc., the world’s largest restaurant company and parent of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants will become the historic first-ever presenting sponsor of the Kentucky Derby.

This year's 132nd renewal of America's greatest horse race on Saturday, May 6, will be referred to as "the Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands."

The Yum logo will appear under Churchill Downs' twin spires on Derby Day (only), and will also be shown on a sign above the starting gate, on the jackets of the pony riders who escort the horses during the post parade, on television billboards and elsewhere around the track.

My initial reaction to all of this was one of disappointment. Not that the Kentucky Derby had sold out - after all, if the Rose Bowl can do it, what other sporting event is sacrosant? - but that it had done so to a company not worthy of the stature that comes with the Derby.

Now, two weeks later, I find myself rethinking my position. As a native Louisvillian, I can appreciate that Yum! is a Louisville-based company, and since the sponsorship is not part of the official name of the event, we are under no obligation to use it when referencing the Derby.

And given that the Derby - like all of the major sporting events in the US - has become a more elitist event over the years, there is something deliciously egalitarian about a fast-food company being associated with it.

Thunder Over Louisville In Good Shape for 2006

Thunder Over Louisville, the annual fireworks show which officially kicks off Kentucky Derby Festival activities, has secured four sponsors for 2006, and negotiations continue with a fifth.

The celebration, which has struggled to find financial backing in recent years, is scheduled this year for 10 p.m. ET Saturday, April 22.

A Derby "Tradition" Goes By The Wayside

Louisville's mayor-for-life, Jerry Abramson, said Monday that the annual cruises during Kentucky Derby weekend won't be allowed anymore because of growing violence.

Four people were shot, one fatally, and there were 65 arrests during the weekend of cruising last year.