The 151st Kentucky Derby

Yesterday the 151st Kentucky Derby took place. It was won by Sovereignty, with 7-1 odds, beating the 3 to 1 favorite Journalism in an exciting finish at a very muddy Churchill Downs. I have always enjoyed watching the Kentucky Derby each year, probably because I fondly remember my parents having other family members over each year to watch the race, with everyone betting a few dollars on the event. My father would cut the names of the horses out of the newspaper, put them in a hat, and then let each person draw, without looking, a couple of horses. It made for a fun experience. Also, I always think of Hunter Thompson on Derby Day, too. A native of Louisville, he was sent to cover the horse race in 1970 by Scanlan's Monthly. He and illustrator Ralph Steadman focused on the revelry surrounding the event and weren't even able to see the race from where they were standing. Faced with a deadline, Thompson torn pages from his notebook, numbered them, and sent them to the magazine, along with Steadman's drawings. Then he waited for the resulting shitstorm and the end of his career. Instead, with his manic first-person narrative of the event, he was hailed as a genius and the inventor of gonzo journalism. His career as a writer was launched. Unfortunately, he wound up having to live up to the character he created. Journalist Bob Greene, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, once wrote on how he was there for many of the events that Thompson described in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. Greene said Thompson acted very professional back then and made up all the crazy things he described in that book. But by then he was typecast and had to play the character he created for the rest of his life. A high price to pay for fame and fortune.