Anticipating the Derby

The Kentucky Derby again is nigh. Paducah humorist Irwin Cobb said it best: “Until you go to Louisville and behold the Derby, you ain’t been nowhere and you ain’t seen nothing.”

The Kentucky Derby is so much more than a horse race; it is spiritual, mythical, cyclical, raw emotion. Each Derby writes its own novella. The great ones race down this last grueling quarter-mile stretch, but only one will have its name etched into immortality.

In an eye’s blink, the Derby is run in two minutes and change. Some of us have waited a year for this; it is Christmas, New Year’s, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July rolled into one.

I have been privileged while serving in the Navy to have visited many exotic ports and, upon my discharge, have seen the four corners of our great country and thousands of spectacular places. But all pale in comparison to this, the most exciting race, the greatest two minutes in all of sports.

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Anticipating the Derby."