Cinco de Mayo, also travel day for the Derby. Got on the road around 5 with Victoria and Doug. Picked up Mert in Cincinnati around 9ish, and got to see his new house. Guess that short sale worked out for him too. After that we took part in the final segment of the drive, arriving in Louisville around 11pm. We checked into the hotel, and conveniently we had 3 rooms all next to one another. After checking in to the hotel (Super 8 on Preston Hwy in Louisville) and getting settled, we made the annual trip to Trixies / Knockouts. This place has gone downhill every year we’ve been going, and this year was no exception, though I believe it has totally bottomed out. There was one other table occupied, and there was no music (or TV audio) playing. We began the festivities, drinking beer and shooting pool (of which I won 3 of 4 games, therefore I declare myself 2011 Derby Billiards Champion). I also recall a round of Jager shots being ordered. Paul’s contingent arrived around 1am, and the fun continued. At some point in the night Sonny and I went over to the “other” side of the bar, where the girls get naked and the drinking stops. After denying my free pass since it didn’t have the e-mail header on it, Sonny went back to grab another pass from someone in our group. During the time I waited for Sonny, I gave the manager behind the counter a little lip (an incredibly small amount relative to what I am capable of) and the dickhead came around the corner and got in my face. I just stared at him and then looked at other things on the wall, as he continued staring me down. At this point I saw something to the effect of “Save Our Strip Clubs” on the wall, but thought little of it.
Finally Sonny came back with a “valid” free pass, and they let us in. We found it odd that none of the girls were getting naked, and since there were like 5 people in there, we decided to go back with the group. Shortly after that, we headed over to Godfather, where there have been many fun incidents, including Doug being onstage as the biggest fucking loser at the Derby, and most of my bachelor party festivities (note no hyperlink). Again, the girls were wearing clothes, and the vibe seemed totally off. At that point a simple google search noted that the laws in Kentucky changed sometime in 2010, essentially eliminating any fun that can be had in a strip club. After a handful more beers, we left for the hotel, in preparation for Oaks Day.
Friday, May 6th
Woke up in time for first post on Oaks day, getting down to our normal parking spot around 10am. As we were pulling up to the house, and saw our usual hosts, Charlie and Phil, we yelled “Booyah!”, which has become our standard means of saying hello. At that point both Charlie and Phil broke into what is apparently a standard booyah pose, with both arms outstretched in some weird manner (see picture below). Note how everyone has their own little take on the booyah pose. After pounding a quick beer (for the hangovers), we left for the track.
Oaks day started off good, with me nailing a superfecta in the 2nd race (with Doug as a partial investor), but as the day got longer, our bet sizes increased, while our amount of returns decreased. By the end of the day, I was stuck about a nickel, and everyone else was stuck as well. The day as a whole was great though, the forecast had this being our best day, and it didn’t disappoint….partly to mostly sunny, high around 70, basically perfect.
After the track, we headed out to dinner, with the plan being to visit Roosters, which is the restaurant we went to last year with the bachelor party group. We ordered a lot of wings (maybe 100), and didn’t come near finishing them all. An awful lot of beer was consumed, and when it came time for credit card roulette, my good run was ended, as the waitress drew my card to pay the bill, which came out to around $175 (cheaper than I expected). As dinner had progressed, the table got louder and louder, and soon after paying our bill, we were asked to leave. Apparently they had complaints from some of their other patrons. In the end, Paul and I went to the bar area to finish our drinks and the manager and waitress invited us to sit back down, essentially saying Sonny was the reason for us getting the boot (as a side note, I have seen Sonny, and even myself on far worse behavior).
Following Roosters we headed back to the hotel, with undetermined plans. While handicapping the Derby a bit further, I passed out on the bed. Similar things appeared to happen in all rooms, as Doug ended up going downtown (allegedly) with a guy who was staying on our floor, apparently getting a ride in their limo. He ended up coming back by himself around 2am, nearly fighting with the cabbie over the return fare, while nearly getting into a race fight with him.
Saturday, May 7th
Derby day…we got to the track a bit later than planned, and grabbed basically the last 2 parking spots at Charlies. Paul’s contingent had arrived several hours earlier as they were sitting on the infield. On the way to the track, we had to unload 2 Derby tickets, with a $129 face value. We were hoping to get at least $65 each out of them, fully preparing to take a 50% loss. When we hit our first scalper, he was also asking for tickets, we showed him what we had, and he asked how much we wanted for them. I responded, “We’ll take $100 each for them.”, and he immediately peeled $200 from his roll and gave it to me. A guy who was himself looking for tickets said he would have paid a lot more of them. So while it felt good to rid ourselves of the tickets at a small loss, it still felt like we left some money on the table.
Derby day started out a bit like Oaks day finished, with me flushing money down the toilet. Around noon it started raining, so we decided to make the trip down to the infield to check out Paul’s setup, which was phenomenal compared to past infield setups of ours. Along with a tarp, they had a small canopy that allowed us all to stay dry during the brief rainy period. During this time it was a bit cold, as the temperature was around 60. Eventually as the weather improved we decided to head back to the grandstand, partially in order to stake our claim on our spot for the Derby itself. In the 8th race, Sonny opened up a 50 cent pick 4 ticket that would close out on the Derby, netting him over 6K (incidentally the ticket originally was for a $1 base bet, but due to the ticket costing $500 he refunded the ticket and did it for 50 cents. The 9th race came through for him and the pick 4 with Aikenite winning at something like 13-1. I continued to slowly bleed money. In the 10th race, the Woodford Reserve turf race, I concluded that I loved the #7 horse, Get Stormy, who was around 6-1 or 7-1, as I felt he would make an easy uncontested lead. The race played out just as I had imagined, as Get Stormy had enough left to hold on, and I caught the trifecta, which wasn’t a large windfall, but it did give me some more money to play with for the Derby.
Now, on to the Derby. In this post, I predicted Nehro 1st and Animal Kingdom 2nd, so I had Dave put in bets on my Twin Spires account, wheeling Animal Kingdom in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, around a bunch of horses. Since he was 20-1, there was no fear of the payout being poor. We finished constructing our super tickets throughout the early afternoon, and in the end we wheeled Nehro (Sonny and I both loved him) and Midnight Interlude (Sonny’s love, I liked him but not as much) in all 4 spots, surrounded by a bunch of horses, with the final investment being slightly North of $2400. Here is the workout for the Derby ticket.
I also placed a small win bet on Animal Kingdom for Victoria, and then threw in some other trifecta bets. The Derby started out as expected, with Shackleford making the lead in very easy fractions (I expected slow, but not as slow as they went). On the far turn, from our vantage point, we could tell the #19 (Nehro) was making a big move. As the horses passed us, I couldn’t tell who was on the extreme outside. After the finish, all I knew was that Nehro was in there, and that Shackleford finished 4th (all good things). We frantically started asking people who won, and many people said they thought it was the #19. Somebody else said the #16 (Animal Kingdom), which was thrilling to me since I loved him. Then somebody else said they thought it was both of them. The jumbotron was focused on the winner, but due to the odd saddlecloth color, and the fact that the saddlecloth was partially folded over, we still couldn’t tell who it was. Finally they put the winner on the board, the #16 horse. They still didn’t say who was 2nd-4th, though I knew about 4th. Finally after an agonizing minute or two, they put the final order of finish on the board, 16-19 (Nehro)-13 (Mucho Macho Man) – 14 (Shackleford). Once I figured out who the horses were, I knew we had it, and I knew I had the trifecta as well. Here is the winning ticket:
Sonny had run to a TV after the finish to see if he could see the order of finish, and when he returned, we began celebrating, believing this race would pay WAY more than the $29K we got back in 2008, on the Big Brown super. Needless to say, we were “disappointed” when it came back $24K on the $1 bet. My trifecta also got almost $1K on a 50 cent bet. In addition to that, Victoria had $5 to win on Animal Kingdom, as did Jen. Fortunately everyone in our group got a piece of the ticket (from as low as 2% shares), and everybody left the track at worst dead nuts even.
On the way back to the car, I ran ahead and threw Charlie $20 to buy 10 beers. We then proceeded with the traditional “Jimmie Johnson” beer showers. After that, we went to Outback Steakhouse for a celebratory dinner, which we “forced” Sonny to pay for, by virtue of his 40+% stake in our Superfecta ticket, along with his $1.50 cent trifecta, 50 cent pick 4, and $1 pick 3, all closing out on the Derby. Amazingly, we didn’t get kicked out, and had a very good meal. Following dinner we stopped at a party store and bought 30 tall Miller Lites, and proceeded to tailgate in the parking lot. We were eventually joined by the guys from Wisconsin, one of which Doug hung out with the night before.
Sunday, May 9th
Me, Doug, Sonny and Victoria went to Waffle House for the traditional Sunday breakfast, in which we had the slowest and worst server ever. Then we began the drive back, with me allowing Victoria and Sonny to do the driving as I wrestled with a hangover and alcohol induced upset stomach. The hills of Kentucky were rough, as I had to fight the urge to vomit multiple times.
Epilogue:
Overall though, a great trip, one of the best yet. We had a very large contingent. Hopefully I capture it all here, from Michigan it was Me (14th year), Sonny (14th or 15th year), Paul (16th year), Victoria (3rd year), Laura (3rd or 4th??), Doug (who knows, 7 years?), Austin and Beverly (1st timers), Dan and Jen (Dan 2nd time, Jen 1st), Sarah (1st timer), Brett and his 4 brothers (1st timers mostly, maybe 1 of them had been there before). We were also joined in spirit by Erik (had a last minute work conflict), and Dave (wife wouldn’t let him have his balls), and Doug had a few investors of his own in Steve and his Dad.
Nobody lost money, at least none in the immediate group involved in Superfecta. It was the first year in a long time that we didn’t visit the casino.
Other items of note that didn’t make the main blog:
The “Bad TV” didn’t get enough of a mention above, so I need to mention it again.
Charlie and Phil always arguing, and Sonny’s imitation during the post derby fun.
The “Gotcha Bitch” Osama t-shirts that were being aggressively sold outside the track.
The back stairwell carnage, that progressively got worse by late Saturday night, culminating in Paul hearing someone complain about it at the main hotel counter Sunday morning.
Brett mentioned seeing “Barenaked Ladies” performing a free concert on 4th street on Friday night, unfortunately we were all too wrecked to make it.
Another Brett: "While waiting at the limo, drinking beer with chuck and phil, they needed me to move the limo because they boxed in a dude from abc/Lexington for 3 hours...I didn't have the keys- or so I thought! After another 40 minutes, I realized I had the keys!"
More Brett: “The IRS girl looking at me funny when I vouched for my brother and he proceeded to bet $2 to show! Hilarious!”
Last Brett: “Hitting the Tri in 2010 and being part of a Super in 2011....super high 5 next year!”
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