Babymoon- Sat. (Derby day)

On Saturday morning it was our last day in Kentucky so we got up super early, ate breakfast and headed to the Kentucky Derby Museum for our early tour at 8:15. We arrived at 7:50 and sneaked into the parking lot before the worker arrived to make us pay. There was a big biking event going on as well, so we blended right in. ;-)

At 8:00 when the museum opened we headed up the front doors and paid our way inside. We took our first tour to the Barn and Backside with Molly. She is originally from MN, a Canterbury girl. :-) She drove us to the backside via the infield tunnel and then chit chatted with us while we watched the morning workouts at Churchill Downs. We got to see a jockey get bucked off, good for us, not for him. (JR quote). The horse took off down the track and then to the barns all on his own. It was quite the sight. Molly took us by D. Wayne Lukas's barn, Hall of Fame Trainer, and we got to see the barn where Rachel Alexandria (Preakness winner) and the barn where Mine that Bird (Derby winner) stays when he is at Churchill. (He was in NY though). Molly said that both Rachel and Bird have 24/7 security guards with them when they are on the premises. Nuts!

After our Backside tour we went back to the museum for a bit and looked over some great exhibits before we went on a Walking Tour of the grounds (grandstand/paddock/etc). It was cool for me to hear about and see the changes from the last time I was there, but even more fun to see Josh enjoy the whole thing for the first time. I've posted one picture of Josh sitting in a $500 Derby Day seat. They come in 6's and in order to sit in one you have to purchase all 6. Making this little area worth $3000 on Derby Day. We got to sit in them for FREE later in the day during the regular racing day.
There is one picture of Joshua "racing" on the "Race Day- be a jockey" simulator and one of him
We had our final 'lunch in the car' this day and then ventured back into the grounds to watch live racing at Churchill Downs. It was HOT and PACKED! Granted there were a lot of people there to watch the Belmont later on and for some pretty high stakes races (50,000).