By Mark La Monica
Mint juleps, outlandish hats, good-looking Southern Belles and the chance to gamble legally.
It’s a sultry combination, a recipe just powerful enough to earn the Kentucky Derby the No. 10 spot on our Best Sports Days of the Year List.
Think about it: 99.3 percent of America knows less than nothing about the world of horse racing, but everyone wants a piece of the action on the first Saturday each May.
The actual Kentucky Derby, better known in American mainstream vernacular as “The Derby,” lasts all of two minutes, or 0.138 percent of the week. But once that last horse is entered into the starting gate, the great majority of America can’t tell you about anything that happened the first six days of the week. Just fire off that starter’s pistol, let the doors fly open and give me that announcer boasting into his microphone, “And they’re off!”
From there, it’s a mad dash to the finish, with plenty of money to be had. Such is the great spectacle of American life brought upon by the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs: people from different classes and backgrounds merging together in the name of a horse.
Will the speed horses win out? Will the closers make a move late? Can the favorite live up to its esteemed position? Does the longshot have a shot? What about that horse with the great name and no real pedigree? These are questions that get answered quicker than a lightning round on a game show.
For some, the Derby is about finding the best value and playing for a big payday.
For some, the Derby is about just being able to say, “Yeah, I picked the Derby winner.”
For some, the Derby is about thousand-dollar mint juleps and “being seen.”
For some (OK, a small few), the Derby is about a huge purse for owning the winning horse.
The horse and jockey who win the race will be showered with adulation and a glorious fortune. It will then kick off two weeks of unparalleled publicity leading into the Preakness at Pimlico Downs in Maryland. If sports had an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, the Derby champion would win it every year. (The Super Bowl MVP is almost always sports’ Best Actor, except for maybe Tampa Bay’s Dexter Jackson and Dallas’ Larry Brown.)
And to think it all goes down in two minutes and we’ll never hear a word out of the true star.
[Note: * Upon further review as of 12/28/06, the Kentucky Derby moved from first runner-up to No. 10 on the list, replacing the first televised baseball game of your favorite team. That game, almost always a spring training game, is still a good day, but perhaps we were caught up in the emotion of it a little too much to think rationally. The above piece was edited to fit the new ranking,] The Best Sports Days of the Year1. Opening Day for baseball
2. The start of March Madness
3. Pitchers and catchers report
4. NFL Sunday Week 1
5. Selection Sunday
6. NFL Conference Championship Sunday
7. NFL Draft
8. Super Bowl Sunday
9. Sunday at The Masters
10. Kentucky Derby*
Honorable Mention
• FIrst televised baseball game for your team
• Bowl games on New Year's Day