LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Dozens of passenger buses ferried thousands of colorfully dressed spectators to Churchill Downs for Thurby. "Top of the morning," a driver greeted each person as his bus packed out.
Spirits were high the Thursday before Derby. The stakes, even higher. One kid held up 10 fingers for the $10 he'll bet ahead of his eighth birthday. Hope Thompson, a Georgetown, Kentucky native attending her first Derby, bet $20.
But Bobby Radcliffe, his son, BJ, and the father of one of Sierra Leone's owners spent the preview race day slamming $21,200 dollars down on the Derby favorite.
"Twenty grand!? No, sorry, that's a down payment on a house or a car," Thompson said when she heard the news.
"Oh hell no, I could not do that," Zachary Bruner, another in the crowd protested.
"I've been poor all my life," Bobby joked on his way down the escalator from the bet. He just lost $100 dollars on a Thurby race, betting against a horse BJ liked.
For decades, Bobby made a career out of training horses.
"You need a little luck from the Derby gods on Derby day, so we're just hoping we have that," BJ said of the major bet.
A little luck could lead to a big payout. But so far, it's been an unlucky hunk of cash.
"We tried to claim a horse at Keeneland for $21,200," Bobby explained, "we made four claims and we did not get a horse so our money goes back into an account here at Churchill Downs."
Claiming races let people buy horses the moment a race begins. When the gate opens, the sale is final. If several people want the same horse, their names are put in envelopes. Then, a claim official numbers the envelopes. The official shakes a leather case of numbered pills that look like one-sided dice and draws one. Whoever wins the draw gets the horse.
But even if you lose the shake, you still keep the cash. It's a four loss low the Radcliffes pray becomes a one-race win.
"With that much money, if I take 20,000 and try to make 100 it'll take me a year," Bobby said. "I could do it in two minutes."
With the greatest two minutes in sports on the way and over $20,000 on their second-post pick, they hope two really is the magic number.
If they win, the Radcliffes said they'll spend the money the way it was originally meant: on a horse of their own.
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