The first weekend of May often puts us at the intersection oftwo great races, the Giro d'Italia and the ole Kentucky Derby. In Europe, every other soccer match seems to be a "derby," but in the US, there is only ONE derby. When an American says "Derby," he means "The Kentucky Derby." On Saturday, 20 horses will step into the gates at ChurchillDowns, Louisville, Kentucky to the strains of "My Old Kentucky Home."One will win the annual "Run forthe Roses" and take the first step at an attempt at horse racings' TripleCrown. As in most years, there isincredible talent, and this year, unlike others, the field of three year olds includes a horse who never ran a race as a twoyear old. Such a horse has not won theDerby since the 1880s. At present, only five horses have odds in the single digits,two of whom are undefeated. Justify has the top odds at 3-1, and is undefeatedin the three races he has run so far. His trainer, Bob Baffert, hastrained four Derby winners, most recently with the Triple Crown winner AmericanPharoah. Justify is that horse who neverraced as a two year old, and the last such winner of the Derby was Apollo in1882. Still, the favourite has won thepast five Derbies. Mendelssohn is a anotherpowerful horse. In March he won the UAEDerby, where he beat the field by more than 17 lengths. On the downside, winners of the UAE Derby havefinished in fifth place, at best, in the Kentucky Derby #jetlag. Another horse, with a great name, is Magnum Moon, alsoundefeated in his young career. Someexperts think he is the strongest in the field. Audible has won four straightraces coming into this one, and he's racing out of the No. 5 post, which hasproduced a remarkable five Derby winners in the past 21 years. Finally, Bolt d'Oro gave chase to Justify at the SantaAnita Derby earlier this year before just falling off the pace. If you like to party, Derby Day is a great time to have agood time, whether at Churchill Downs, or viewing from home. NBC is hosting five hours of coverage in theUSA, and the Derby can certainly be found online or on other foreignnetworks. Make a mint julip, or enjoy aKentucky Food. Local specialties include the Kentucky Hot Brown sandwich, whichis known as a Horseshoe in Illinois (the Kentucky version does not includeFrench Fries as in Illinois) and poutine in Acadian lands. Your Derby party might also include other Kentucky favouritessuch as Benedictine Spread, Beer Cheese, Country Ham Biscuits, Bourbon Balls,Kentucky Burgoo and Chocolate-Bourbon Nut Pie, sometimes known as DerbyPie. It is said if your Easter duds arestill fresh, you can wear them on Derby Day along with that festive hat. Enjoy the horse racing, enjoy the partying.Send us a picture. The leading rider in the Giro d'Italia is also festivelydressed, in a shocking pink jersey and tights. The Giro is the annual Italian Grand Tour, and started yesterday with anindividual time trial, won by Dutchman Tom Dumoulin. The race continues over the next three weeks,crossing Italy from up hill and down dale. Curiously, Italy's grand tour began this year in Israel, and willcontinue there through Monday. Neverbefore has one of the grand tours begun outside of Europe, although it wasrumoured, several years ago, that Giro organizers wanted to start a futureGiro, with the first several stages in Washington, D.C.. Dumoulin, last year's winner, may very wellrepeat this year. The favourite, former African and current GB rider ChrisFroome, may put forth great efforts this year, but is unlikely to finish in thetop ten, or even to finish. His team,Sky, has been on an anti drug kick in recent years, holding themselves up as heroesof the anti doping set. Now Froome isunder examination as a doper, he crashed hard in training, and dropped hard inthe opening standings from the first stage. “I am glad I was not more seriouslyinjured,” he said. “I just lost the front wheel on a corner. A crash is alwaysgoing to hurt, and it’s not an ideal way to start a race with a crash.” Even without the crash, Froome has been downplaying the importance of timetrials in this Giro, saying that the pink will be won on the mountainstages. Then again there are the doping allegations, against theheretofore pristine and well moneyed gods of cycling, unsullied by the use ofdrugs, at least in their publicity. Theyhave had a great boost through their multiple television networks, and thedrumbeat of virtue and sweet goodness has been unstoppable, until now. Froome challenged for doping? Incroyable. The Giro, like all of cycling, provides nonstop entertainment. -- Posted By Blogger to SR at 5/05/2018 01:18:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
