Oaks 2010

We live in Louisville. The Derby/Oaks are BIG in Louisville. So every year, Spencer and I celebrate by dressing up and going to eat breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe on the morning of the Oaks. (The Oaks is the race before Derby day for 3 year old Fillies. The Derby is "Run for the Roses" and the Oaks is "Lilies for the Fillies" as the winning horse is presented with either roses or lilies - anyway...) For 6 years now we've gotten all gussied up and pretended like we were cool enough to go to the races. But this year I got a phone call from my friend Candy asking if we'd like to actually GO to the Oaks this year. Ummm....YES! Her mom had purchased 4 tickets and would not be using them for Oaks and was willing to give them out to her daughter's friends just because she is nice and wonderful like that.

So after a wonderful breakfast at Lynn's we got to see this:

This was also my very first visit to Churchill Downs in general so that made everyting extra special to see it on Oaks day.

Here we are!

We are accompanied by our friends Mark and Kim:

Really, is he handsome or what?
Kim and I enjoying the fantastic sunny weather (this was before our legs started to burn)

It was very strange walking through the Downs. I told Kim it felt like I was in a 1940's movie. The women were all dressed with hats and the men all had suits, bowties and cigars. I forget there was a time and place before sweat pants were acceptable in public.

The hats! Hats were everywhere! A hat can cost anywhere from $25 at Marshall's or someplace similar or as much as $900 in specialty boutiques. The hat business here is crazy. Here are a few examples:

This was one of my favorites...

This woman had on a fancy hat AND fancy gloves:

Notice the large Lily on this woman's hat. She didn't buy this off the rack somewhere - this was special made.

And many women had hats that exactly matched their outfits. (Unlike my basic black or pink version that could go with a variety of dresses to switch out every year)

Pretty sign I found:

So I had Papa's fancy new camera and was trying to figure out what it would do. I discovered the "burst" setting where it would take 3 shots in a row. In order to practice before the horses went by, here is Spencer waving: (Or...Mark turning his head)

And this is me trying to take a picture of my reflection in Spencer's lens. I don't know why...I just did. And of course it's blurry because I did not use the macro setting. Ameture.

So now that I've played with the camera and discovered I don't know what I'm doing - I gave it to Mark and Spencer to take pictures of the horses. Here is some of their handiwork:

Calvin Borel (winning jockey from 2010 derby!) with Rachel Alexandra (the horse that won the 2009 Oaks). I love that the white horse, I think they are like the escort horses, has pretty pink flowers in her mane.

More of Rachel and Calvin...

I'm not sure what this red guy does, but he's important for something or another.

More horses...

And a close up of the starting gates...

So when the races started, we wondered, "What is the ediquette for watching the action? Do we all just rush to the fence and try to see?" After the first race, we learned what to do...everyone stands on their seat!

Mark and Spencer trying to figure out the jibberish on the racing program...

And I DO mean jibberish...

I guess they learned something because WE WON! Spencer and I picked horses for the Oaks race and put them together for an "exacta" bet. I picked #11 because his silks were the prettiest and he picked #5 because he was the favorite. In order for us to win, #5 and #11 would have to finish first and second in the race. And sure enough that's what happened!

Here we all are at the end of the day:

It was a fantastic day - now I can say we're true "Louisvillians".