LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There are moments during this quarantine that demand our attention to exactly how difficult it is to separate our pre-pandemic world from our current pandemic world. To sort through the feelings and the news that assault us daily. To imagine what exactly the future looks like. To understand that the world that we inhabited will not be the world that our children will inherit. To comprehend that the first Saturday in May, will be in our new reality, just another Saturday.
A day so intrinsically linked to the history and identity of our state, our city, and ourselves. A day that inspires, that brings a flood of nostalgia, magic and memory. A day that is truly historical. Of course things have changed over the course of the event in its storied 146 year history, and even in my lifetime.
The family friendly infield no longer exists, towering luxury sky boxes now stand alongside the familiar shadow of the twin spires, and the size of the crowds on Derby Day have swelled.
However, it is the things that stay the same, the things that are eponymous with Derby, that truly encompass what the day means. The hats, the mint juleps, the pomp and pageantry, the bets. The history of the track, where the legend of Secretariat was born.
The sounds: where the sound of the call to the post sends a shiver, where the unmistakable clang of the starting gates springing open with the momentum of the years of hope, hard work and dreams demands the attention of your eyes, your ears and your heart. Where, even over the immense roar of the crowd, you can hear each hoof as it pounds. Where for two minutes each smack of the flying hooves, the blur of the silks as they speed by, the subtle movements of the jockeys as they make their moves, all mingle together in our collective heartbeats with a thundering whisper ...go baby, go baby, go. Where glory and heartache are mere breaths from each other.
Where, by all weather accounts, this Saturday, the sun will be shining brightly on my old Kentucky home.
About the author: Julie Hazelip Antrim is the great granddaughter of Matt Winn. Colonel Matt Winn was the trailblazing President of Churchill Downs from 1902-1949. He was the first to market the Derby outside of Louisville, urging people to come and enjoy true southern hospitality. The rest is history!