Thursday, May 02, 2019
KENTUCKY DERBY 2019
145th KENTUCKY DERBY
CHURCHILL DOWNS
SATURDAY MAY 4, 2019
NBC 2:30 - 7:15
Post time: about 6:45
Here are the
post-position, horse - jockey & *(special note)
for the horses running in the Kentucky Derby, on NBC, this Saturday, May 4 (the first Saturday in May!)
Notable items to keep in mind, and the most likely horses to run well, are indicated with a asterisk(*).
I've been watching the Kentucky Derby just about every year for decades, and almost always with a Mint Julep!
I visited Belmont Park a few years ago.
Perhaps the most striking thing about watching actual races live, rather than on TV, in movies, or in photos, was how hard the horses work while running the race. On TV they look graceful. Live, they are straining, immensely powerful, muscular, determined (beautiful , graceful) animals.
Finale of the 2014 Belmont Stakes
Photo by Eric Roffman - QPORIT
In the NYT today (race day!) Joe Drape comments on recent tragedies in horse racing, especially at Santa Anita, which has had to suspend all racing. He recommends we all wish, most of all, for all the horses running today, and always, "Let's just get'em all around there safely."
RESULTS!
Maximum Security finishes first. But earlier, spooked by the crowd, it shifted lanes, and was DISQUALIFIED by the stewards. Longshot (65-1!) COUNTRY HOUSE wins the Kentucky Derby! >>
(While the disqualification result was controversial, it did look from the video footage as if a disaster -- with multiple horses tripping over other when Maximum Security shifted into a lane that was not clear -- was avoided mostly by sheer luck, plus quick action by all the jockeys. Let's be glad they all did get around there safely!)
1- Country House 65-1 $132.40
2- Code of Honor 14-1
3- Tacitus 5-1
4- Improbable
5- Game Winner
6- Master Fencer
7- War of Will
8- Plus Que Parfait
9- Win Win Win
10- Cutting Humor
11- By My Standards
12- Vekoma
13- Bodexpress
14- Tax
15- Roadster
16- Long Range Toddy
17- Spinoff
18- Gray Magician
19- Haikal - scratched
20- Omaha Beach - scratched
21- Maximum Security - 1st by 1 3/4 lengths, disqualified
Here's today's cast:
1. War of Will - Tyler Gaffalione
2. Tax - Junior Alvarado
3. By My Standards - Gabriel Saez
4. Gray Magician - Drayden Van Dyke (extreme longshot)
5. Improbable - Irad Ortiz Jr. *(Bob Baffert)
6. Vekoma - Javier Castellano
7. Maximum Security - Luis Saez *(undefeated in 4 races)
8. Tacitus - José Ortiz
9. Plus Que Parfait - Ricardo Santana Jr.
10. Cutting Humor - Corey Lanerie Mike Smith *(star jockey)
13. Code of Honor - John Velazquez
14. Win Win Win - Julian Pimental
15. Master Fencer (JPN) - Julien Leparoux (extreme longshot)
16. Game Winner - Joel Rosario *(Bob Baffert) *(new early favorite)
17. Roadster - Florent Geroux *(Bob Baffert)
18. Long Range Toddy - Jon Court
19. Spinoff - Manny Franco
20. Country House - Flavien Prat
21. Bodexpress – Chris Landeros *(late entry)
I've always tried to have a mint julep (MJ) on KD day. That's how I discovered Ruth Reichl (for a while the NYT food critic). In the early 90's she was a food critic in LA. On a business trip I knew I would be somewhere south of LA on derby day. I needed my MJ. I noticed an article she had written in the LA Times Magazine about new fine restaurants in California, and I found one that was near where I'd be. When I went there on KD day, they didn't know how to make a mint julep, but they were nice enough to try to follow my instructions, and when the first one didn't quite work, tried again and came up with something memorable, together with a really good meal. I've followed R Reichl ever since.
Here's how you make a wicked MJ. Boil a little bit of water and then put it in a cup with some washed and dried, torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves, to create a strong mint tea. (Note: Mint leaves are not always that easy to get, and when you get a bunch, many leaves are often wilted, or blackened. It's important to select the best leaves even if that is only a fraction of the bunch of mint in the package.)
(Experimental Note: This year I am going to try to make the crushed ice from frozen mint tea!)
Add quite a bit of sugar. (Optionally -- ideally, in fact -- some sugar could be substituted with a half jigger of a sweet liqueur like Cointreau, Drambuie, or Grand Marnier.) Add about a half jigger of a good Kentucky Bourbon. (After trying quite I few, I found that my favorite is definitely Maker's Mark.) Add this mixture with some additional torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves to ice in a crusher.
Crush the mixture of sweetened mint tea, and bourbon to make a tall glass worth of flavored crushed ice. Take a tall, chilled glass, add a long straw, fill the glass with the crushed ice, and then pour in a jigger more bourbon to fill up the cracks. Turn on the pre-race show, and enjoy it!
(Note: Don't drive or ride a horse or car or operate heavy machinery after this (it's strong); don't ingest with anything that will exceed your tolerance for total number of chemicals in the body! If you drink, substitute the driver!)
It's matter of taste what you eat with the drink, if anything. My own preference is Greek or similar appetizers. In the New York area, Molyvos probably has the best selection of appetizers I know of. Near Carnegie Hall, they do provide food to go if that's how you want to enjoy the Derby.
I enjoy the race, by the way, but to make the race better (since it only lasts two minutes, after all), enhancing it with slow motion replays and particular horses isolated in the picture (the more the better) is a way of greatly extending the experience. I hope the TV broadcast does a lot of that.
A RECIPE FOR MINT JULEP
I've always tried to have a mint julep (MJ) on KD day. That's how I discovered Ruth Reichl (for a while the NYT food critic). In the early 90's she was a food critic in LA. On a business trip I knew I would be somewhere south of LA on derby day. I needed my MJ. I noticed an article she had written in the LA Times Magazine about new fine restaurants in California, and I found one that was near where I'd be. When I went there on KD day, they didn't know how to make a mint julep, but they were nice enough to try to follow my instructions, and when the first one didn't quite work, tried again and came up with something memorable, together with a really good meal. I've followed R Reichl ever since.
Here's how you make a wicked MJ. Boil a little bit of water and then put it in a cup with some washed and dried, torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves, to create a strong mint tea. (Note: Mint leaves are not always that easy to get, and when you get a bunch, many leaves are often wilted, or blackened. It's important to select the best leaves even if that is only a fraction of the bunch of mint in the package.)
(Experimental Note: This year I am going to try to make the crushed ice from frozen mint tea!)
Add quite a bit of sugar. (Optionally -- ideally, in fact -- some sugar could be substituted with a half jigger of a sweet liqueur like Cointreau, Drambuie, or Grand Marnier.) Add about a half jigger of a good Kentucky Bourbon. (After trying quite I few, I found that my favorite is definitely Maker's Mark.) Add this mixture with some additional torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves to ice in a crusher.
Crush the mixture of sweetened mint tea, and bourbon to make a tall glass worth of flavored crushed ice. Take a tall, chilled glass, add a long straw, fill the glass with the crushed ice, and then pour in a jigger more bourbon to fill up the cracks. Turn on the pre-race show, and enjoy it!
(Note: Don't drive or ride a horse or car or operate heavy machinery after this (it's strong); don't ingest with anything that will exceed your tolerance for total number of chemicals in the body! If you drink, substitute the driver!)
It's matter of taste what you eat with the drink, if anything. My own preference is Greek or similar appetizers. In the New York area, Molyvos probably has the best selection of appetizers I know of. Near Carnegie Hall, they do provide food to go if that's how you want to enjoy the Derby.
I enjoy the race, by the way, but to make the race better (since it only lasts two minutes, after all), enhancing it with slow motion replays and particular horses isolated in the picture (the more the better) is a way of greatly extending the experience. I hope the TV broadcast does a lot of that.
Labels: Churchill Downs, horse races, horses, Kentucky Derby, Mint Julep, racing, Triple Crown
