The grounds are almost ready, the flowers are being planted, the ponies are arriving, the odds are settling in, the big day is only 11 days away, but do you have your hat yet? The 140th Kentucky Derby is set to begin on May 3-4 and the excitement is building in Louisville Kentucky.
We took a behind the scenes look at the grounds and got to see some of the work that goes on year round to prepare the horses to be ready for race season.
The Kentucky will have more than 150,000 people attend and it only seats a little more than 50,000. That means 100,000 people have no seat and most will be in the infield where you can’t even see the track. This year they have installed a 9 story TV so that even those people can see the race. The Derby only lasts about 2 minutes, so 1 horse out of the 30,000 Thoroughbreds born during 2011 will sit in the winners circle and then probably retire!
The Derby is a very short event but the excitement created by the tradition is contagious. I almost bought a fancy hat!