Two weeks from Tuesday on April 29th we will leave for our annual Kentucky Derby adventure.  We will fly from Phoenix to Indianapolis on Southwest Airlines.  “Why Indianapolis?”, you ask.  Well, 1) Louisville Airport is a madhouse during Derby week; 2) Southwest’s non-stops to Louisville are at inconvenient times (e.g., leaving Louisville at 7 AM Sunday morning is tough after a long Derby Saturday); 3) It costs way less to fly to either Nashville or Indianapolis.  We have used Nashville in the past, but the non-stops to Indianapolis are at very convenient times and Indianapolis is even closer (an hour and forty-five minute drive) to Louisville than Nashville (three hour drive).

We will once again be staying at the Marriott Springhill Suites on Hurstbourne Parkway.  It’s very nice.  We’ll drive in Tuesday late afternoon after landing at Indianapolis.  Tuesday night is free (Carrabba’s?).  Wednesday night we are having dinner with our friends Eddie and Dee (who own Shenanigan’s Irish Grille), Brooke (originally from Winthrop, MA, now a drug rep for Glaxo Smith Klein, and formerly a reporter at WHAS-TV who interviewed me four or five years running on live TV at the Derby), and Judy (an old friend who I worked with at New England Life in Boston in the early 1970’s before she moved to Louisville).  By tradition dinner will be at Limestone, conveniently located just a few steps from the hotel – no drinking and driving!

Thursday night we will have dinner with John and Lee, dear friends met many many years ago at Churchill Downs.  Last year we had dinner with them at Ruth Chris at a table between Wayne Lukas and his party on one side and Todd Pletcher and his party on the other.  (Racing fans will know who they are.)  This year we will be meeting them at Del Frisco’s Steak House, a Louisville institution to which I have never been.  (It’s NOT part of the well known Del Frisco’s Grille and Double Eagle Steak House chain.)  I doubt that Wayne and Todd will be bracketing us this year.

Friday is Kentucky Oaks day, in Louisville as big an event (almost) as the Derby.  Schools are closed in the county on Oaks Day.  And Saturday is Derby Day.  Both days we will be at the track at 9 AM – first post at 10 AM.  We will not get out of the track until after 6 PM, well worn out.  Dinner will be just the two of us somewhere quiet.

Handicapping the Derby is the most daunting task in horse racing.  Picking the winner from twenty horses running a mile and a quarter for the first time in their young lives is incredibly difficult.  Overall I’ve done very well at it.  Last year, not so much.  I didn’t have the Derby winner.  In fact I didn’t have a single winner in three days of racing at Churchill Downs.  0 for 34.  This year can’t help but be better.  Over the years I have done remarkably well on the Derby although it seems I was better before the new millennium started in 2000..  My winners include:

• 1979: Spectacular Bids beats nine others and pays $3.20
• 1981: Pleasant Colony wins after capturing Wood Memorial, pays $9.00.  21 horses ran (before the field was limited to 20)
• 1984: Swale prevails over 19 others, pays $8.80.  He won the Belmont too and then passed away while still a three year old
• 1986: Ferdinand beats 15 others, coming from last to first, and pays a nifty $37.40.  Had the exacta too ($385).  Best win ever (for awhile)
• 1989: Sunday Silence beats 15 others, pays $8.20.  Freezing cold weather!
• 1996: Grindstone wins it for Wayne Lukas and Jerry Bailey, pays $13.80 – he was coupled with Editor’s Note who ended up winning the Belmont
• 1997: Silver Charm wins for Bob Baffert, beating just 12 others, and pays $10.00
• 1998:  Three in a row for me as Baffert’s Real Quiet wins paying $18.80.  Had the exacta ($291.80) and trifecta ($1,221).  New best day ever!
• 2000: Fusaichi Pegasus beats 16 others and pays $6.60.  First favorite to win since Spectacular Bid did it in 1979.  Start of a long slump for me.
• 2011: Break ten year slump with Animal Kingdom who paid a nice $43.80.  Had the exacta as well ($329.80)

So who will win in 2014?  I’m strongly leaning toward a repeat of 1981 when Wood Memorial winner Pleasant Colony won for me.  This year Wicked Strong won the Wood.  He’s a good story for Boston fans.  Read about it here.  He’s a solid closer in a field that will be loaded with speed.  And he should be a decent price.  He’s my early pick.

After the big day we may meet Judy again for brunch on Sunday before driving back to Indianapolis for a late afternoon flight back to PHX.