Kentucky Derby Notes

I've never really been 'all in' on horse racing. I understand what is great about it, but I find myself much more passionate about other sports. I wonder if it's because I grew up in the city and have limited experience surrounding horses?

My Aunt and Uncle have worked with horses for so long and I've always admired how much care and effort it takes to tend to a horse, let alone racing horses. I remember hearing stories as a kid about how my Aunt and Uncle would wake up at 3:30 - 4 in the morning to feed the horses, go back to sleep around 5, wake up again at 6 or 7 and feed themselves. To a nine year old, the thought of waking up at 4 in the morning is about as pleasant as getting bucked off a horse.

I also remember wandering around Emerald Downs and seeing the barns where the race horses stayed and the trainers quarters where food, water, hay, and other relating items were. It was cool because my Aunt was somewhat of a horse Yoda. She seemed to know literally everything, about every horse.

Also worth mentioning was the horse trainers restaurant that we went to as a kid. I don't recall for sure, but I'm almost positive that it wasn't open to the public. I remember getting the best burger and fries a kid could ever dream of.

All in all, with the exception of a few visits to my Aunt's farm, a couple of horse riding excursions, and another trip to Emerald Downs as a fan in high school that is the extent of my knowledge and experience with horses and horse racing.

When challenged to handicap the Kentucky Derby I find myself reliant only on what I can find from google. Seeing as how the event is tomorrow, it's fairly unlikely that I would be able to cram in enough horse racing knowledge to understand even a fraction of what the experts know. According to this website the odds for who will win tomorrow are as followed:

When I asked my Aunt through a Facebook message for some thoughts this is what she said:

Hi Thomas, I will make my final decision early in the morning after I watch the horses train via HRTV and TVG.and do more study on the race. I like to do a wager called the super hi 5 picking the top 5 horses in order. There are a lot of horses in the race and the payoff could be huge. I saw superfecta, top 4 pay 500,000.00+ one year. "Califorrnia Chrome" is the favorite has a great chance to win although I will include him for sure in my wager I like some better price horses.Wild Cat Red" is fast and will try to take the lead early not sure he can hang on for the long distance of 1mile and 1/4 of the race. "General A Rod" will be closing on him in the stretch. "We Miss Artie" and "Metal Count" have excellent connections and love their breeding. My all time favorite jockey Gary Stevens rides "Candy Boy" cant leave him out. "Tapiure" and "Vincermos" also contenders in my pics so far for top 5 listed in order of preference. Some people like to pic cool sounding names or favorite colors not recommending that. If the track condition gets muddy not sure if the favorite can handle it. Watching the weather

- My Aunt Carrol

With the stated information and other various articles on google I am finally ready to make my picks! (Just for fun of course)

1. Candy Boy
2. California Chrome
3. Danza

Those are the horses I'm rooting for to finish 1st through 3rd! At the end of the day, it will just be nice to sit back and watch horse racing's biggest event knowing at least a little more then I did in years before.