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Jim Nabors, where are you?

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Posted: Saturday May 01, 1999 08:13 PM

For some, the Kentucky Derby is just another excuse to wear funny hats and toss a few back. AP

CNN/SI's Jon Scher is on the scene at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. He'll be filing updates every 15 minutes until the 5:27 post time.

IN THE PRESS BOX -- They are playing My Old Kentucky Home. I'm a bit disappointed in the University of Louisville band. It doesn't compare to Jim Nabors singing Back Home Again in Indiana before the Indy 500. But hey, what does?

I'm heading for the betting window. Bets to win: on Prime Timber, because the guy on the plane told me too; on General Challenge, because SI racing guru William Nack says he's going to win; on Vicar, because I saw Ashley Judd feed him staw yesterday. And Menifee, because my friend Rick likes the names. Also, I'm making a four-horse trifecta box with these horses.

Checking out the horses

5:11 P.M.

THE PADDOCK -- This place is a total madhouse. People have been waiting by the rail all day for a chance to watch 19 horses get saddled and ready to go for the Derby.

Dressed in all colors of the rainbow, they press against the fence, taking pictures of the horses and even heckling the grooms as they parade the horses around.

A giant toteboard looms above the paddock area. Right now the favorite at 9-2 is Stephen Got Even. Bob Baffert's filly Excellent Meeting is 5-1. There are 21 minutes to post, and as the horses get ready, I'm going to try to place a bet.

The Donald and the bettors

4:59 P.M.

UNDER THE MAIN GRANDSTAND -- Celebrity sightings: Donald Trump and a slinky brunette half his age, if that, on the outdoor steps leading up to millionaire's row. Can I go back to the infield now?

OK, under the main grandstand, you can tell we are only 45 minutes from post time for the 125 Kentucky Derby. The atmosphere was electric here this morning, and then there was a lull in mid-afternoon, but now the energy level seems to be rising again. Lines at the betting windows are 20 to 30 people deep.

It's a wide-open race, and every one seems to want to bet on it. I'm going to try to get a look at the horses in the paddock, and I'll try to get some up-to-the-minute odds, in time to pace a bet myself.

Welcome to the party crowd

SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INFIELD -- Just spent a half hour wandering around in the unofficial "college crowd" section of the infield, over by the third turn. The excitement is building, but it has very little to do with the race.

This is the party crowd, people who will be content to glimpse the heads of the horses as they race by in about an hour. "I can't drink any more, I can't eat any more. All these people are giving me motion sickness," said one reveler, who had been on the scene for hours.

Literally within five minutes of walking through the tunnel that leads from the grandstand to the infield, this reporter witnessed four acts of public lewdness and a knockdown, drag-out mud wrestling match by the beer stand. Wish I had a digital camera to capture the scene, I promise I'll bring one next year.

The seventh race is about to begin -- the last one before the Derby. But it's pretty safe to say that most of these people won't see much of it and won't care.

 

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