Sepia Saturday----1978 and waiting...... for 34 years.

 Sepia Saturday

May I invite you to enjoy 

Kentucky Derby Day 

in

Kentucky.

Churchill Downs is about 30 miles from our house as the crow flies but I will be enjoying it at a big field party held every year for our entire community just down the road.

Betting and Mint Juleps too

I love horse racing.
Many friends, our granddaughter and hubby, race horses all over the country.

 Kentucky is horse country.

The Kentucky Derby and all the races that make up the 
Triple Crown of Racing
are my favorite time of year.

Well right up there with NCAA Basketball.

We have not had a Triple Crown Winner since
1978


Today starts off that exciting time again.

Waiting and hoping there will be a Triple Crown Winner this year.


The Kentucky Derby
the first leg of the
Triple Crown of Racing

Enjoy this amazing last Triple Crown of Racing slide show  with me this
Sepia Saturday

Affirmed

Affirmed was the latest TC winner but my favorite of all time is
Secretariat
who was the 
Triple Crown Winner 
in 1973


Just a little 
Kentucky Derby
and
Churchill Downs
History

.

Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., grandson of Gen William Clark of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition, first caught the horse-racing bug after visiting Epsom Derby in England. He went on to found the Louisville Jockey Club and build Churchill Downs, named after relatives on his mother's side who provided the land for the racetrack.

While the distance for the Kentucky Derby originally was set at 1.5 miles (or 2.4 kilometers), the same distance as the Epsom Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris, it was changed to its current length of 1.25 miles (or 2 km,) in 1896, primarily as the result of the belief that the original distance was too long for the colts to run in the spring.

Calumet Farm in Kentucky has had 9 winners, Whirlaway (1941), Pensive (1944), Citation (1948), Ponder (1949), Hill Gail (1952), Iron Leige (1957), Tim Tam (1958), Forward Pass (1968) and Strike the Gold (1991) and all of which the stable bred. Forward Pass won on a disqualification of Dancers Image.

 Calumet Farms was just sold this week for $36 million dollars with the owners vowing to continue the tradition of the most beautiful of horse farms in Kentucky. The white fences and the barns all trimmed in Devil's Red is the quintessential symbol of Kentucky racing.

England has produced two winners------Tomy Lee (1959) and Omar Khayyam (1917)------and Canada has produced two----Northern Dancer (1964) and Sunny's Halo (1983). Two other winners, Cavalcade (1934), Pensive (1944) are sons of mares who were bred to stallions in England but foaled in the USA.

A furlong is a unit of distance equal to one-eighth of a mile. Originally, a furlong referred to the length of the furrow running across and open plowed field, but now it's used mostly to measure distances for horse racing.


The Kentucky Derby is the first race in the Triple Crown. The Preakness Stakes, held in May in Baltimore, followed by the Belmont Stakes, in June in Elmont, N.Y. round out this historic trio of races. Winning all three is rare and considered the ultimate achievement in Thoroughbred horse racing. Eleven horses have done it. The longer the time between those winners add to the suspense of the Kentucky Derby.


The Kroger Co. has been the official florist of the Kentucky Derby since 1987. After taking over the duties from Kingsley Walker Florist, Kroger began constructing the prestigious garland in one of its local store for the public to view on Derby Eve. It is now a tradition to watch the garlands being made for the Oaks, of lilies, and the one of roses for the Derby, at the store in Louisville with all day festivities at the store.
 
The mint julep is an iced drink made with bourbon, mint and a simple syrup. It usually is served in a commemorative Derby glass printed with the names of the previous winners. A mint julep in a sterling silver cup sells for $1,ooo.oo. This goes for for charity.

Thirteen of the 15 jockeys in the first Derby were black. In addition, black jockeys rode 15 of the first 28 winners and one was the youngest rider ever to win the Derby. That accolade belongs to Alonzo "Lonnie" Clayton, who was 15 when he win in 1892 aboard Azra.
 
There have been 8 gray or roan winners. Bay horses have won 51 time, chestnuts, 43, browns, 17, dark bay/brown, 10, dark bay, 3 and black horses, 4.

  In 1973, Secretariat knocked previous record-holder Norther Dancer out of the top slot. He went on to log progressively faster times in the other Triple Crown races that year.
  

   Elwood, in 1904 was the first horse owned by a woman (Laska Durnell) to win this prestigious race.

Courtesy of Wiekipedia

Go here to see more Sepia Saturday.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/05/01/2171171/show-off-your-horse-sense-take.html#storylink=cpy

NCAA Championship #8

Kentucky Wildcats!!!!!!!!

2012

NCAA National Championship

#8

Big Blue Day in Kentucky

My next big favorite sport is golf.

Sunday is 

The Masters in Georgia.

Go Phil Mickelson

Sepia Saturday is Blue in Kentucky

Sepia Saturday

is 

Big Blue Saturday in Kentucky

There is an amazing situation going on in Ky or rather New Orleans this weekend.

 Alan's theme is work.
Well these are just basketball games but believe me there is a lot of work going on here.
From the players to the coaches.

Sorry this is all I can think about as we wait for this history making Final Four game tonight.
Just a little history

Rupp coached the University of Kentucky men's basketball team from 1930 to 1972. There, he gained the nicknames, "Baron of the Bluegrass, and "The Man in the Brown Suit". Rupp's Wildcat teams won four NCAA championships (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958), one National Invitation Tournament title in 1946, appeared in 20 NCAA tournaments, had six NCAA Final Four appearances, won five Sugar Bowl tournament championships, captured 27 Southeastern Conference regular season titles, and won 13 Southeastern Conference tournaments. Rupp's Kentucky teams also finished ranked #1 on six occasions in the final Associated Press college basketball poll and four times in the United Press International (Coaches) poll. In addition, Rupp's 1966 Kentucky squad (nicknamed "Rupp's Runts") finished runner-up in the NCAA tournament and Rupp's 1947 Wildcats finished runner-up in the National Invitation Tournament. Further, Rupp's 1933 and 1954 Kentucky squads were also awarded the Helms National Championship.
In his 41 seasons as UK coach, Rupp coached 32 All-Americans, chosen 50 times, 52 All-SEC players, chosen 91 times, 44 NBA Draft Picks, 2 National Players-of-the-Year, 7 Olympic Gold Medalists, and 4 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame members. He was a 4-time National Coach-of-the-Year award winner, and a 7-time Conference Coach-of-the-Year award winner. Rupp was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, College Basketball Hall of Fame, Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, Kansas Athletic Hall of Fame, University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, and Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. Further, since 1972, the Adolph Rupp Trophy, considered one of the nation's premier basketball awards, has been given by the Commonwealth Athletic Club to the top men's college basketball player. In addition, the University of Kentucky retired a jersey in his honor in the rafters of Rupp Arena, a 23,500-seat arena named after him, dedicated in 1976.^[5]
Rupp was forced into retirement in March of 1972, at the age of 70. At the time, this was the mandatory retirement age for all University of Kentucky employees.

John Calipari (born February 10, 1959) is an American basketball coach. Since April 2009, he has been the men's head coach at the University of Kentucky.
Calipari is the former head coach of the University of Memphis Tigers, the University of Massachusetts Minutemen, and the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets. He is the only coach to direct three different colleges to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, although two of those appearances (1996 at UMass and 2008 at Memphis) have been officially vacated by the NCAA. Calipari is also one of only two coaches to direct three different schools to a Final Four (1996- UMass, 2008- Memphis, 2011, 2012- Kentucky), with the UMass and Memphis appearances later being vacated by the NCAA. As a result, he is the only head coach to have a Final Four appearance vacated at more than one school, although Calipari himself was not personally implicated by the NCAA in either case.^[1] As a college coach, Calipari has 18 20-win seasons (17 official), 8 30-win seasons (7 official), and has been named National Coach of the Year 3 times.

Rick Pitino (born September 18, 1952)^[1] is an American basketball coach. Since 2001, he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville. He has also served as head coach at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996. He has coached on the professional level for the NBA's New York Knicks and Boston Celtics with mixed results.
Pitino holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to a Final Four. (John Calipari did the same, but two of his Final Four appearances were later vacated by the NCAA.) Pitino is also only one of three coaches ever to take his school to the Final Four in four separate decades. In addition, Pitino has achieved a measure of success as an author and a motivational speaker.

All info courtesy of Wikipedia.


For more Sepia Saturday to
here

Will be off the radar for the next two days.
Will be back to visit others later.
WooHoo
Go Cats Go
We are all blue crazy and we know it.
Whom ever wins tonight it is still
the state of Kentucky in the finals.
Can't beat that.