Kentucky Derby Fever comes once a year.  You can only experience it by going to the Kentucky Derby.  The build up to the Kentucky Derby starts weeks ahead with many Kentucky Derby Festival activities including the Great BalloonFest and ‘Thunder over Louisville’ with 28 breathtaking minutes of fireworks.   All of Louisville is electric during Kentucky Derby week.  The first Saturday of May, Kentucky Derby Day is different – you can feel the excitement intensify as you get closer to Churchill Downs.  Once there, the day just keeps building up to the moment that you see the Kentucky Derby horses walking from the backside to the paddock behind the Clubhouse.  When everyone begins to sing ‘My Old Kentucky Home” and the horses come on to the track for the Kentucky Derby, you are sure it doesn’t get any better.   Anyone who doesn’t have chills isn’t alive.  I have had people on the tour say “Oh, you are exaggerating about the Kentucky Derby !”  I remember looking over at a couple who continued to ask me about going to the Kentucky Derby for many years.  When they finally went to the4 Kentucky Derby they kept saying all Kentucky Derby Day that “it couldn’t be that emotional”.  I knew they felt the full effect of Kentucky Derby Fever when I noticed tears in her eyes during the Kentucky Derby post parade.  

There is a quiet that comes over Churchill Downs as the horses load in the gate for the Ke4ntucky Derby.  The roar of the crowd when the gates open at the Kentucky Derby is unmatched in any event I have ever attended.  One of my tour members summed it up this way “I just returned from an amazing five days at the Kentucky Derby. I enjoyed every aspect of the tour but the three minutes (one before and two of) the actual race were the most exciting and thrilling athletic contest I’ve ever watched. I can never imagine being more in the moment!” 

Catch Kentucky Derby Fever!  It is the experience of a Lifetime!  This year, Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby, Nehru was second, and Mucho Macho Man was third.  The attendance was record breaking and the weather was wonderful.  Each year people marvel at the majic of theKentucky Derby. 

For the first time, the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund held a fundraiser during Kentucky Derby week called ‘Night of Silk’.  It was held Kentucky Derby night.  It was a very exciting event held at the Galt House Grand Ballroom with over 400 Kentucky Derby fans in attendance.  All the Kentucky Derby jockeys attended and presented Mary Moseley, President of A.J. SAchneider Company with a boot signed by each jockey in the 2011 Kentucky Derby.  The Kentucky Derby riders wanted to thank her for her suupport of the PDJF.