Brittany McKewn, from Asheville, NC, wears a rose -shaped hat before the 148th horse race race at Kentucky Derby in Churchill Downs on May 7, 2022, in Louisville, Ky.
Charlie Riedel / AP
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Charlie Riedel / AP
While thousands of visitors enter Churchill Downs on Saturday for the 151st Kentucky Derby, they will be welcomed with well-maintained lawns, a rainbow of dresses, costumes and hats and thoroughbreds ready to run.
You don’t have a ticket? Well, here is a look inside the glitter and the glamor of the big day.
Fashion
At the derby, you will see a smorgasbord of hats and ornaments. Feathers. Lace. Flowers. Cowboy. Fedoras. Width on board.
“The more, the better. We want you to block everyone’s point of view,” said Rachel Carroll, co -owner of The Hat Girls, the featman in the derby for the third consecutive year.
At around 8:00 am, HE Thursday, Carroll had zoomed after the hats girls wrapped the store the previous night and unlocked it for a two-day pop-up store in a hotel a few kilometers from the field.
From January to May, the hats girls receive around 2,000 orders of derby hats. About half of their customers are residents and half are outside the newspapers, said Carroll.
She said that the creation of hats requires “creativity, originality and ensuring that the customer feels confident when he leaves the hat shop – but we can bring them to it”.
The spectators wearing festive hats are looking in the paddock before the Kentucky Derby Downs 149th race in Churchill Downs on May 5, 2023.
Michael Reaves / Getty Images
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Michael Reaves / Getty Images
The derby hat trends do not change much, but this year, hats in the shades of green or yellow are particularly popular, said Carroll. And over the past decade, visitors have climbed the fascinators, who are headbands with a kind of embellishment, she added.
Amy Lawyer, president of the Administration of equine at the business school of the University of Louisville, said that some will try to wear the greatest possible hat, but that many guests prefer something more functional.
“The fascinators are always popular because they tend not to catch as much in the wind,” said the lawyer. “They don’t come across people, and they can ride the car a little more easily.”
Customers also return to the roots of the derby by choosing a style of vintage hat, which is characterized by a larger and more flopping silhouette, and a lot of flowers and feathers, said Carroll.
The first Kentucky Derby took place in 1875, and the hats became a relatively early pillar, around 1900. They were used to signify the status, and over the decades, the corsages, the corsets, the valve skirts, the gloves and the combinations, according to The website derby.
Bet
There are Paris windows everywhere. The lawyer said that the derby makes bets as accessible as possible, from a Paris application, to the signs indicating to you how to place a bet using appropriate terminology, to the behavior of the employees of Churchill Downs.
“People from the Paris window will be very patient with you, because they want to make sure you feel comfortable and get back and bet again,” she said.
But easy access has a little chaos.
The fans line up at the Paris window before the 145th Kentucky Derby race in Churchill Downs on May 4, 2019.
Images Jamie Squire / Getty
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Images Jamie Squire / Getty
“People online behind you may be the people who become a little impatient, so it is somehow recommended to study the program before arriving at the Paris window, and you know which horses you are going to choose when you go up there,” said the lawyer.
There are, however, some restrictions.
In Kentucky, you must be at least 18 to play, and Downs, you need to bet a minimum of $ 2.
There is no ceiling – but there are special windows for the high rolls.
Horses
About 20,000 thoroughbred foals are born each year in North America, the lawyer said. Breeders in the hope of bringing their horse to the derby have a blow – only 3 -year -old children can compete. Their chances decrease even more because only 20 horses will take off from the starting line at Churchill Downs.
Before that, horses must take tests all year round. This year’s qualification races have taken place around the world, including in the United States, Japan, Ireland, France, England and the United Arab Emirates.
“There are many people who have links and memories with each of these horses, and I think it is always important to remind people that it is not only a horse for these people,” said the lawyer. “It is their passion, it is their livelihood. They are their hopes and their dreams somehow wrapped in this area.”
Javier Castellano, at the top of Mage (fourth on the left), is seen behind with others behind the peloton when they make the first turn while competing the 149th Kentucky Derby race on May 6, 2023.
Julio Cortez / AP
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Julio Cortez / AP
Once the cream of the cream of horses arrived at the derby, they are flanked by a new crew, worshiper fans, players and photographers eager.
For many colts, the derby is the most horses against which they have run, the most people in which they have known and the longest distance they ran – 1 1/4 miles – said the lawyer.
“It is not necessarily a natural thing for a horse to manage,” she said. “So it’s a lot of new experiences that the horse is going through, and it makes it really exciting and really unpredictable.”
A statue of the Jockey Pat Day of the renowned temple is seen in the Paddock region in Churchill Downs on April 30, 2019.
Gregory Payan / AP
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Gregory Payan / AP
Installations
On the horizon of the churchill downs are two white bell towers – the twin arrows.
They did not appear until 1895, 20 years after Churchill Downs opened its doors. They were built by Joseph Dominic Baldez, 24, who was responsible for giving the establishment more pizazz.
Once visitors reach the stockings, there is a statue of the Jockey Pat Day of the renowned temple, which won the derby once, Preakness five times and Belmont twice. (A horse and a jockey must win the three races the same year to be considered as a winner of the triple crown.)
There are also Aristides statues, the first horse to win the derby, mounted by Oliver Lewis, and the Jockey Edgar Prado and Barbaro, who won the derby in 2006.
“The Derby Museum is also a really special place, and if someone has not been in Louisville before and does not know much about the derby, or even if they do it, it’s just a very large museum,” said the lawyer. “They do a fabulous job.”
In addition, seats were recently built in the first round of the track. This is where the photographers get their “silver filming”-the horses and the jockeys arriving in the turn, with the roaring crowd in the background and the twin arrows above their heads.
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