Everybody Should Experience The Infield At The Kentucky Derby At Least Once In Their Life
Jamie Squire. Getty Images.There are few things I love more than Kentucky Derby day. I say this as someone who is very much into horse racing and has been around horse racing for a few years now. At the same time, the beauty of the Kentucky Derby is it's for everyone. You don't have to be into horse racing to watch the Derby, go to the Derby, enjoy it, pick a name, whatever. But this is a blog about a rite of passage.
This is about how you should experience the infield of the Kentucky Derby at least once in your life.
I know when you think Kentucky Derby, you think big hats and rich people dressed up in the nice seats. That's all true. But my first 3 years experiencing the Kentucky Derby was the infield. It's not the same as the Preakness, which is just pure mayhem. I believe the last time I was at the Preakness was the last year you were allowed to bring in your own cooler of beer to the infield. How that was possible is beyond me, but it led to carnage anywhere and everywhere you looked there.
It's been 16 years since my last trip to the Kentucky Derby infield, but I miss it as we get close. It's one of those experiences that sounds miserable as a 38-year old, but it was awesome as a 21-year old idiot. The key is finding a friend or someone who has an RV. You need the RV to get to the lot, have somewhere to tailgate before you go inside. Tickets were cheap, $50 back in the day, you showed up wearing whatever you wanted and anything went. It's the ultimate common man horse experience, made for those under the age of like 25 or so.
Tomorrow should be a lot of the same. It's going to be muddy, the race is likely going to be sloppy with the weather coming in and there's going to mayhem all over Churchill. I can't stress how awesome that is for those people hammering drinks in the infield. Yeah, you're not able to watch the horses live outside of a split second, but it's about working your way up to the nice seats eventually.
