LOUISVILLE, Ky. When Lori Hennesy imagined her outfit for the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby, she wanted to create something befitting that monumental anniversary, a celebration of Kentucky’s greatness and history.
So she took a red and white striped chicken bucket with Colonel Sanders’ famous face on the front, filled it with roses and attached a plastic horse. She wore it on top of her head.
“I wanted to have fun,” she said. Hennesy reckons this place has always been like this and how it hosted America’s oldest sporting event.
She imagines what Churchill Downs must have been like at that first race on May 17, 1875, when Ulysses Grant was president, the country was still reeling after the Civil War, and patrons arrived to watch the horses riding there themselves. Women needed a male companion to attend, the Courier-Journal reported, and admission was just $1.
The 150th Run for the Roses would be unrecognizable to the 10,000 people who attended the first race at an unfamiliar track on the rural outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky. Now, more than 157,000 people from around the world descend on Churchill Downs for a daylong spectacle of huge hats and mint juleps, where most grandstand tickets cost more than $500 and celebrities celebrate in luxury suites high above of the track.
But Hennesy suspects the vibe back then would have been the same as it is today: People are there to see and be seen, to distract themselves from ordinary problems and have fun.
“I can imagine that even back then it was a lot of fun,” she said. “This day is magical.”
The sun was shining on Saturday and Derby participants didn’t have to deal with the bad news that marred the race last year, when seven horses died in the week before the race. They posed for photos in front of a sign commemorating the anniversary and whispered about the celebrities who showed up.
Kentucky native Wynonna Judd was on the floor to sing the National Anthem. Martha Stewart was the grand marshal of the day, tasked with saying “Riders’ Up!” to start the race. Travis Kelce, three-time Super Bowl champion and boyfriend of Taylor Swift, comedian Jimmy Fallon and musician Kid Rock were also on the track.
Customers competed to see the horses being saddled in the track’s new renovated paddock, now a huge horseshoe-shaped space at the foot of the famous Twin Spiers.
Mary and Skip Keopnick weren’t sure they would like the changes, but they said they were pleasantly surprised. They have a room in their Michigan home dedicated to the Derby, which features vintage hats and memorabilia from decades of participation.
Skip Keopnick entered his first Derby in 1977 and hasn’t lost one since. In the following years, he saw many changes. Women always wore big hats, he said, but men eventually caught up, often wearing bright, patterned suit jackets.
He created a helmet years ago – with a motor and gear system – that turns two horses on top of his head. For the 150th Derby, he said, he made the engine bigger and the gearing louder so the plastic horses in his head could run faster. His wife had a floor-length dress printed with the words “Kentucky Derby 150th”.
“It’s a milestone,” he said. “We had to make it bigger than normal.”
Some in the stands came to celebrate their own milestones.
Charlotte Amsden turned 70 this year. She grew up with horses and always dreamed of seeing them run in the most famous race in the world. She read that Derby had his special birthday this year and called her daughters: “We have to celebrate my birth and Derby’s birth,” she said.
She came with three generations: her three daughters, her granddaughter, a grandson, her great-granddaughter, just 4 months old, who needed her own ticket to enter the race track.
Amsden was thrilled by the idea that maybe, 50 years from now, that little one will return to watch the 200th Derby.
“That would be so special,” she said.
And she wondered: what would this place be like then?
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
