One Big Bar Tab: Kentucky Derby to Serve 120,000 Mint Juleps

Grey Goose sponsors a major race at Keeneland in Lexington. Premium vodka has a much more universal appeal than a bourbon specialty drink that requires a certain amount of preparation. Then there's venue. The Kentucky Derby's track & grounds accomodates a sea of people, turned loose not only in the stands but in the infield. Egads. But for the fact that many of the patrons are fatigued from exposure to the sun & impaired by ingestion of the alcohol there might be hooliganism in Louisville...lol. Not like the chaos unleased in Europe's soccer riots, since teams aren't competing, merely horses (and then only for a few minutes). In Louisville, the event overwhelms any sence of intimacy with breeding & racing horses. Not so in Lexington, where ordinary people stand just a few feet away from horses and horse people in the paddock area. Lexington's boutique undersized facility assures me that the world will always be safe for democracy...and respect for tradition, civility, fashion statements, and a sense of history. Wish I could play the piano, a few nostalgic Steven Foster songs would sound evers so good right now.

Cinco de Mayo...mmmmm.....tamales, tacos, enchiladas...lots of guacamole and salsa fresca, homemade tortillas. Bourbon again...not into a Mint Julep...but maybe a Mojito
...kinda the same, but different.

Can you imagine a knight (yesterday's topic) even considering a mint julep?

Make mine a margarita.

Texas-size.

I have heard it said that on Derby Day, at the track, there may be more horse's a**'s than horses.....some one quipped "you can tell by the hats"

I'm not completely on board with drinking booze through a straw on several different levels: looks dorky, does not feel or taste quite right.
Obviously, little umbrellas are completely out of the question.
Here are three things from which I am happy to sip: L-R, a cheap five ounce cut glass sherry, a crystal eight ounce single malt and a cut crystal eight ounce bourbon.
I do like a thin wall and a clean edge.

http://www.petermanseye.com/photos/597151

Know very little about the Kentucky Derby but let's get to the Village's favorite topic -- food -- by noting that I just read that a favorite food there is burgoo, a thick stew. Sounds like my kind of eating.

Also read that the garland of roses presented to the winner has 554 roses.

Does anyone in the Village know why there are 554 roses and not, say, 555?

Always curious about things like that.

Also like to file it away in what I call my repository of useless information.

You never know, a fact like that just might come in handy someday.

Speaking of horse racing, just happened to catch the show on Seabiscuit just now on PBS.

Glad I did.

Inspiring.

In fact, bought a greeting card for a college graduate today and intend to write these words on it:

"Go. Go like Seabiscuit."

Does anybody vary the mint? You can get various which grow in damp places, peppermint and gingermint and applemint. It's such a delight to 'put your foot in it' and be assaulted by such special aromas. Applemint is a very pretty, delicate flavoured thing, with slightly furry variageted leaves. Great in Pimms.
 
 
 
 
 

Early Times gets it done. A neat man myself or with a cube or two or ice, I will bite off on a mixed drink if the goal is to enhance the flavor and not disguise it. The secret to a great Mint Julep is to serve it icy cold and of course, pick a winner, a must in horses and women.

Oooooooh la la..................................

Bert....yes, Grey Goose vodkaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

Hazel ~
Until now, it never occurred to me that there was anything remotely entertaing or at all unkind about the Hot Bed Lady mainly because the emphasis was on the hot and she had a lot of those raised, early start beds with hinged window tops in her yard.
Her thick mint beds were numbered through six and I was sometimes sent there to get bunches of particular numbers for our mom's friend, Mrs B., who catered meetings and parties and was one of very few person at that time who just tossed liquor bottles into the recycle bucket without bothering to bury them.
Both ladies could be counted on for a home-baked treat and a glass of milk.

I just read of the second early teenaged middle school girl to have committed suicide in two months… same school.
I just don't know what to say.

The oddities of language, Stoney~ what you are calling a hot bed, we would call a cold frame. If there is that much demand for mint, which I think of as a convenient weed, it would do well in a cold frame. The mint in my garden is small and sparse - we need warmer weather.

bebe......off to Gilroy today...garlic capital of the world .... all I know is during harvest, you can smell garlic in the air from miles around. When I return, I'll be stopping to listen to my husband playing a gig at a Mexican restaurant downtown on the Pacific Garden Mall. So I plan to eat lots of all I mentioned above. Time to celebrate. Have a fantastic day .... you and everyone else.

At home we begin to sip, and not through a straw, our mint juleps from a sterling silver julep cup with mint just picked out of the garden as soon as they begin to bring out the horses for the derby.  That way as the roses are placed on the winner the cup is empty. 
 
 

Hazel, here in Virginia we call the glass covered planting boxes a cold frame as well. 
 
Also, only regular mint is used for the julep.  The other varieties are delightful in there place, but it just wouldn't be a julep with out that simple weed of ordinary mint.

I've always wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby! My great uncle owned a horse (Bold Forbes) that won the race when I was in high school. I've always wanted to share in that experience!!!

I still miss going to the Virginia Gold Cup where we would tailgate spectacularly and listen to the Derby over the P.A.

Cheers y'all!

Hello, stonejeannie~ There's a very grand house in a nearby town which was bought with the proceeds of a big win on the horses. The lady who lives there is known as Afcank. Take care what you wish for!

Have been to two Kentucky Derbies and enjoyed them both. Still have the Julep glasses as reminders of a great time.Just snipped mint from our herb garden and will have Juleps  with the run for the roses. With Mint Juleps I try to remember that three are too many and that four aren,t half enough. While I agree with Bert about Kneeland. Derby weekend in Louisville is a fun time. Friday night before the BIG race you can drag a hugh net through the heart of town and not catch any inhibitions.

While waiting for my doctor to come in, I watched a Derby party video on his laptop to see if it were possible to determine whom, among the big tent celebrants was dead before the next morning.
Strangely enough, it was not the huge Sidney Greenstreet looking man in a white suit heard to say: "My cup runneth under," four times. Although, it was probably unlikely that he was taking any early calls after at least five MJs.
A man of fifty whose hand had repeatedly gone to the left side of his jaw was the goner.

Hot Bed Lady is more appealing than cold frame dame.
 

 I watch the Derby for the hats. altho know it's not as fun because of allthe "Celebrities" who show up in the designer hats.

I miss when they would do the crowd shots of the "regular" people and you could see all the Wonderfully HUGE hats & the gloves on all the Ladies.

Now that the Derby has become a "To Be Seen At" event It's not fun to watch anymore. I miss seeing the actual Southern Ladies & Gentry enjoying a favorite passtime & sharing that bit of that lifestyle with us outsiders as it were.

I am prety sure the Mint in the drinks lately is some designer mint from some un-pronouncable celebrities business venture.

Stoney - Just saw the same news report. Makes you kind of wonder what the overall mood of that whole school is. Very Sad & Senseless.

 STONEY said it for me, as often he does.  And RINGS agreed.
 
  Horse-races (Triple Crown, by name) are BIG in AIken, SC, 40 minutes away across the river (sounds like a poem title, but I didn't win Mr. P's contest with mine, so pay no attention).  As is Thomson, GA, 45 minutes away, where they ride to the hounds, pinks and all, and Waynesboro, GA, "the Bird Dog Capital of  the World." 
 
  Festivities in AIken include The Lobster Race (seriously). People come from everywhere to these events. Hats dominate, and it's so hot already (upper 80s), you shouldn't go out without one.  Not  just any hats; these are worth the price of admission -- not that I've ever gone.  Not my cup of tea, but for thousands of others it is/they are.
 
  Back to the sobering comments by STONEY and Rings, it saddens me, too --- and such things are increasingly common.

Off subject, but does anyone know who won The First Ever Talent Show?

12:56, hats say it all

RoadYacht~ Eve?
Crazy hats horse race day is Ladies Day at Ascot.

That or a Royal Wedding. I'm not a great Royalist, but must concede that all the Queen's horses and fancy carriages are a delight to see.

Ooops! That was Andy asking 'Who won the first talent show contest?' Still sayin' it was Eve.

Where is it announced?

The physician (Hansen) who owns Hansen (the horse) says he paid much of his medical school tuition by gambling on horses. God help the poor patient in his care, unless of course he desires to cast his fate to the wind, and seek a miracle.....

I sure miss the older generation of my family on Derby Day. oh Drat, I guess I am the older generation now.

Georgia~  Do you know if they still  run the pacers at Hawkinsville?

I'll Have Another...Not quite 15:1 but a 6 pack:1 adds for a Dos Equis from my Mancave icebox on this warm Cinco de Mayo evening also known in these parts as Cinco de Typical for 28 years ago today Senora (formerly and always Senorita in my eyes) Typical said Si. She's a tall blonde and we like to double down and are a bit like Woody Allen's Zelig, the Human Chamelon becoming whatever if there's a celebration to be had. I fancied myself a jazzman but unlike the movie she never believed I was Duke Ellington's brother.

Happy Anniversary, Tommy Typical.
 

Duvet time .... Nos da. x

I think my horse has been renamed burgoo

The last Derby I attended was a while back with my old friend Wild Bill from a little town near Binghamton, NY where he was the city judge and we got smashed on Mint Juleps in our String Ties and made long shot bets. He was an old navy man that drove for an admiral and we laughed and he always called me Tomcat. I loved him and those long bushy sideburns and a round face like Jonathan Winters. I didn't care about winning. I liked the company. He and his brother had a bluegrass band and we both loved Salty Dog.

It has been said...In 1883 New York socialite E. Berry Wall presented a rose to each lady attending a post-Derby party that was attended by Churchill Downs president, Col. M. Lewis Clark. It was this gesture that gave Clark the idea of making the rose the race's official flower. B ut it wasn't until 1896 that it became an official gesture to drape the winner of the Kentucky Derby with the blanket of roses. The governor of Kentucky awards the garland and the trophy to the winning connections.

The reason for the 554 roses is because that was the number of ladies that were presented a rose. And that is why there is still the tradition.

ring90 & Georgia ~
I don't know what could be any sadder.

http://www.care2.com/causes/gmos-in-your-mint-julep.html
 

JANE..............................I hope you had a splediforous day & evening. You had a wonderful time planned. I love garlic so much. I try to be moderate about it during the week so that my kids don't recoil. Listening to your husband play music has to be a treat! Your post made me ravenous!
 
STONEY.............................that kind of things leaves you w/out words..................

"I'll Have Another" mint julep.