At 7:00 pm on Friday night Todd received a phone call inviting him to Millionaires Row at the Derby!   It was so surreal!  I just can’t even tell you! I had ZERO time to find a hat.  I know… its all about the hat.  😀  I was just glad to go in the first place!

We went down to the Galt house where were were going to board a coach at 11 for Churchill Downs.    This is also where we got our tickets!

When we got to the racetrack we were off to Millionaires Row!  We even had our own entrance!

 

That is where we each got one of these…

Everything was paid for, food drink, and atmosphere!  All Todd and I paid for was parking at the hotel.

The purple band with the red writing got us pretty much anywhere we wanted to go except the owners boxes and the Suites.  The Suites are where the celebrities hang out.   We saw politicians, sports players, and coaches.

Todd and I saw the Speaker of the House: John Boeher, Rand Paul, U of L past football coach Snellenberger, Current Coach Strong, Mayor of Louisville, and many many Corporate stars.   We even sat with the president of Louisville Slugger.   His sweet wife took this picture of us.

 

We ventured out after a few races to visit some friends in other areas of Churchill.  We met a coworker of Todds out in the paddock.  Good gravy that was CROWED!

Then we were off to find box #318 to visit another friend.  And boy oh boy was that a LONG walk!  And though a whole different type of crowd than what we had experienced upstairs.  It was fun though.  We finally make our way over to her and She introduces us around and to the box next to hers.

“These are the Animal Kingdom people” She says.   We said hi and they replied.  (We had no idea at the time  that Animal Kingdom was a Derby horse!!! NO CLUE!)   Then the owner says, “This isn’t your box is it?” pointing to his own box.  Then he laughs and yells, “Cause we aren’t moving!”.  We had a good laugh and said goodbye to our friend and headed back upstairs.

When we get upstairs Todd realizes we just met a Derby Horse owner!  He says…”I should bet on Animal Kingdom just to say I met the owners.”  We talked about it with our table mates a bit and laughed cause no one had even heard of Animal Kingdom all day.  in the end noone places a bet on Animal Kingdom at our table… I KNOW!!!!!!!

But its a great story anyway!

I saw hats of all size shapes and color.  My favorite of which was made to look like a horse tail.   And I counted 40 Seersucker suits!  We even had a picture of Todd and my hands on the railing taken by a Churchhill Downs Photographer.  I can’t wait to see if that pic makes it onto their photo gallery!

Here are some pictures of our Derby view:

That white post beside me is the finish post.

Our View of The 137 running of the Kentucky Derby

My horse came in second.  Todds… I don’t even know if his horse finished!  hahaha

 

We brought home derby glasses and roses for the girls.  And came away with a better understanding of what the derby is.  to most the Kentucky Derby is decadence at its finest with all the 7 deadly sins on display for the world to see.  To us, it was not a dream come true, but a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the majesty of the Run for the Roses.   It was unbelievable!