Almost Impressed, ridden by Jesse Campbell, takes the win in the third race.
Greetings, sports fans.
As a reward for voting early, GF took me out to the Fair Grounds today to watch the Risen Star Stakes, the first real look at some of the three-year-olds you're likely to see in this year's Kentucky Derby. As rewards go, this one doesn't suck. Delicious oysters on the half-shell, the city's best bloody marys, free hats and eleven first-class races.
For the uninitiated, the New Orleans Fair Grounds is the third-oldest race track in the U.S., founded in 1852 as the Union Race Course, a favorite for such racing afficienados as George Armstrong Custer. Long a place of innovation in the sport, the Fair Grounds is the birthplace of the automated starting gate and the high/low stirrup (stirrups positioned for turning).
Now owned by Churchill Downs, the track is the home of the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival, where thousands come each spring to sample the music, culture and food of our great city and state.
But the real action begins here each year on Thanksgiving Day, the opening day of a truly first-rate racing calendar. And today was one of the best days of the season.
I'm talking about great thoroughbred racing--not a speck of dog food the whole day--with purses running up to $300,000 for the main event, named after Fair Grounds legend Risen Star and 100K in the fourth race, the Pan Zareta Stakes, named not for our beloved kossack, but for another legendary horse, whose body is buried in the infield.
(A slightly ghoulish detail: When the Fair Grounds added its turf track in 1981, the graves of Pan Zareta and Black Gold were in the way, so the markers were moved; sadly, the horses' remains are still in the same spot and ponies pound the turf over them daily.)
Railbirds gather outside the Fair Grounds Clubhouse for the first race. This clubhouse, built in 1994, replaced the large wood-framed grandstand and clubhouse destroyed by fire the night of Dec.17, 1993. The dome of Our Lady of the Rosary Church can be seen in the background
Today's weather was perfect, sunny with temps in the 70s, the dirt track fast and the turf firm, and the races lacked nothing in excitement. From the first race, won by Much Obliged, ridden by leading jockey Randy Albarado, to the signature race, taken by Pyro (mark the name, Derby fans), this was a perfect day for fans of the sport of kings.
While GF and I didn't fare too well--mostly bad luck and falling sucker to sentiment bets like Runs With Scissors in the second race--it was still a lovely day and a perfect way to get our minds off of the other horse race.
Until the polls close and the results start coming in, of course.
Kossack sentimental favorite Runs With Scissors, who ran seventh in the second race. Sorry, WFD fans.