If you believe Seth Hancock quit the Churchill Downs board of directors simply to “move on and embrace new challenges,” as his official statement said, then you don’t know much about Hancock’s values, his family’s history, or the bottom-line mentality of the track’s current administration.
Hancock, president of the world-famous Claiborne Farm and a Churchill director […]

[Read more →]

Whenever Jim McKay walked through a pressbox, he wanted to be treated as just one of the guys. His ego was the flip side of Howard Cosell, his longtime colleague on ABC Sports. Where Cosell was bombastic and vain, McKay was quiet, dignified, and totally unimpressed with himself.
Among the ink-stained wretches – or dashing knights […]

[Read more →]

A few days before the Kentucky Derby, former Governor Brereton Jones was standing on the backstretch at Churchill Downs, talking about trainer Larry Jones’ decision to run the filly Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby instead of the Kentucky Oaks. Brereton applauded the decision, and not just because it meant that his filly, Proud Spell, […]

[Read more →]

On the morning of the 40th Kentucky Derby that the grandfather would see in person, he picked up his daughter and son-in-law so that they could go to Churchill Downs together. It was a splendid first Saturday in May, the warming sun promising relief from the previous day’s rain, and the grandfather felt the old […]

[Read more →]

The “scattered showers” predicted for Friday afternoon turned into a steady downpour that soaked a lot of Derby hats and took the starch out of just about everything except the Kentucky Oaks, where Proud Spell lit up the day with a stunning performance that defied the slop and the gloom.
I had been on her bandwagon […]

[Read more →]

“It’s still so real to me, although I’m sure I’ve forgotten some of the angles and the details. Hey, how many guys can say they won the Derby and then they didn’t win it? Only one. Me.”
 – Peter Fuller, owner of Dancer’s Image

Next to my desk, at a place where I can see it every […]

[Read more →]

Today we are proud to bring you the first installment of our public-service series, “Ask Colonel Billy.” The purpose is to give you a way to find out everything you ever wanted to know about the Kentucky Derby but were too scared – or stoned, as the case may be – to ask. Today’s topic, […]

[Read more →]

Don’t get the wrong idea about Larry Jones. He did not catch an incurable case of Kentucky Derby Fever when he finished second last year with Hard Spun. He has plenty of common sense under his trademark cowboy hat. He’s so respectful of convention and history that he gets a sort of crooked grin when […]

[Read more →]

Given our city’s longtime fascination with all things brown, it was inevitable the day would come when we would have a Kentucky Derby horse named Big Brown. This animal is named for UPS, our city’s leading employer, and will take an unbeaten record – three wins in three starts – into the 133rd Derby on […]

[Read more →]

As jockeys go, Borel is what college hoops fans would recognize as a “mid-major.” There was a reason he had never won a Triple Crown race before the Derby: He had simply never demonstrated the talent to move into the upper echelon of the jockey ranks.

[Read more →]