I was going to put the whole trip in one post, but I realized that would make for a really long post. Instead I’m going to spread it over three days, talking about each of the main cities we visited, starting with Louisville today. Then on Friday I’ll review and discuss the barbecue we ate, you know, since starting out that was the main focus of our trip.
When I first started planning this trip, I thought we’d make Knoxville, TN our pit stop on the way to Nashville. But in the back of my mind, I had this strong desire to go through horse country and see Churchill Downs. So we did.
On Friday, we made our way out of Virginia, through West Virginia, and into Kentucky, making it to Louisville at about 4:30pm. We checked in, got ready for our night out, and headed to the track.
We were attending Downs After Dark, a fairly new event at Churchill Downs. They have it four times during the Spring Meet, and this was the last time for the season. The theme was Boots, Brews, and BBQ, which was so fitting for our trip!
When we got there, we wandered around to get our bearings, grabbed a few drinks (happy hour beers for Casey and a Woodford Lemonade for me, which is Woodford Reserve Bourbon and lemonade), and headed for the stands, where we found seats to watch the first few races.
For the first four races, we chose horses to just cheer for. Yes, we were cliche and chose horses based on their names. After Race 4, we decided to go place bets for Race 5.
We had never gambled before in our lives, so we had bought one of the programs that explains how to wager. It helped us as we made our way up to the self-wagering machines, too embarrassed by our inexperience to go to the counter, and placed $2 bets on the following three horses to show (meaning they had to place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) - #1 Tiger Mike, #6 Thunder Lovin’, and #9 Finding Paradise.
Then we made our way out to watch the race. At it’s completion, Tiger Mike and Thunder Lovin’ were at the back, but Finding Paradise had finished in 2nd place! We had a winning wager and we headed to collect our winnings, which came out to be $4.44 earnings. Needless to say, we didn’t try our luck further but kept it at that!
After we collected our winnings, we went out to the paddock area to get dinner. I got a so-so hot dog and Casey got what’s called the Home Stretch, which I’ll discuss in detail on Friday, but which can be seen below. We also picked up a cigar to enjoy later in the evening.
We found some seats in the stands for dinner, but they were towards the back against the wall and were kind of stuffy, so once we’d eaten, we moved forward out into the fresh air, which was glorious.
During the final races, Casey went out and bought me a mint julep, which only seemed right considering where we were. Unfortunately, we didn’t really like it that much, though we were glad to have the Kentucky Derby glass it came in as a souvenir.
We also enjoyed the cigar, especially the entertaining fact that I’m not very good at smoking one.
After the last race, we made our way to the paddock area for some dancing. It was a completely different place later in the night, when there was DJ’d hip hop and a huge crowd, compared to earlier in the night when the crowd was much smaller and the music was live country.
When the dancing was over, we made our way safely back to the hotel for a good night’s rest. We’d had a great first day and so much to look forward to the next day, which I’ll tell you all about tomorrow!
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