At 52-years-old I made my first trip to the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, KY. It was a working gig with Wess Moore for our sports department at KTHV. We were there to cover a local horse named Archarcharch from Jacksonville, AR who won the Arkansas Derby in April. Owners Bob and Val Yegos bought the colt at an auction in Kentucky last fall and moved him to his new barn at JB's Auto Salvage. We would spend the next few days driving to KY and setting up our schedule for coverage.
Archarcharch had surgery to repair the fracture, we were told he would recover. He was sold and permanently retired to provide stud services for his new owner on a farm in Kentucky. The Yegos' will retain some breeding rights and hopefully will salvage some of the fiery eyed grit and heart the little horse from the auto yard brought to the race track.
The day of the race was an exciting day. Churchill downs fed us well and I tried my first mint julep, which tasted nasty; sorry Churchill traditionalist. It was a cool and cloudy day and I thought we might get rained on, but it held off. We walked around looking at all the ladies in their big hats. Lots of men were wearing seersucker suits and smoking cigars. NBC owned the rights to the race, so I was limited on what I could shoot until after the race.
Just before the race Wess and I took our place at the rail for a birds eye view. For those of you that don't know, which I was one, standing at the rail to watch the race is apparently a big deal. The only thing in front of me were the horses racing by. It began with the crack of a pistol and they were off and running. Archarcharch stumbled right out of the gate and suffered a stress fracture. He finished the 1.25 mile race, even beating four horses with his broken leg. It was a tough ending for the Yegos' and their junk yard dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment