16 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.15

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2012 photo by Ted Tarquinio

Scott Jordan, 44, Churchill

Downs starting-gate operator.

“My group of 12 guys and

I learn everything we need to

know about the horses before

the actual race. We do our

homework. The trainers and

myself try to keep open com-

munication so we know when

a horse is comin’ in, so we can

‘stand’ him, which just means

that we get the horse to enter

the starting gate to fgure out if

he has any quirks. Does he want

to turn to the side? Does he calm

down if we hold up his tail? Do

we need two men to lock arms

and push him in? Some trainers

will have their horses practice

breaking from the gate. All those

things are written down and

recorded in our computer sys-

tem, so we — and all the other

starting-gate openers around

the country — know what works

best when it comes time for the

race. Some trainers choose to

stand their horses earlier in the

week, some the morning of the

Derby. But we need to know

all of this, because at Derby we

only have two minutes to load

20 horses.

“Before we start loading

them, ‘My Old Kentucky Home’

starts playing over the radio.

That’s when I give my crew

the lead-ins and the rundown

of their horses’ histories — so

any quirks and strategies that

worked when we stood ’em.

Then the horses go by for their

warm-up, and we watch for hal-

ters or anything they’re wearing

that we have to take off. Once

they’ve all gone by, I cross the

rail and get in my starter stand,

60 feet from the starting gate;

the starting gate is at the top of

the front stretch. I have a mic

up there if I need to talk to my

guys, and I can hear all of them.

On that day, we have a crew of

26, and they start loading the

horses two at a time — Nos. 1

and 11 load, Nos. 2 and 12, and

so on. No. 10 is the last to load

on the inside, and No. 20 is the

last horse in the gate. The back

doors manually latch once the

horses are in.

“My guy on 20 looks over all

the horses, down the line, and

makes sure no one is having

any trouble with a horse before

he takes 20 into the gate. So

he’s my eyes behind the gate.

No noise is good — if none of

the guys are hollerin’, if all is

quiet, then 20 comes in, and

it’s a go. My guys are standing

in this three-foot-wide gate on

four-inch-wide pontoons — steel

platforms about four feet off the

ground — and holding the reins

to keep the horse’s head from

turning until he breaks with the

bell. My guys — there are a lot of

broken fngers and bruises. You

don’t want to fght the horses in

the gate, and my guys know that.

It’s a 1,200-pound horse, and

even if you’re 200 pounds, you

aren’t gonna win. There are pads

on the gates, but they are just

over steel. Being on the starting

gate crew is one of the most

dangerous jobs on the track.

“From my stand, I look ’em

over one more time, and press a

button that sets the bell off and

cuts the juice on the magnets

that are holding those front

gates shut. And then they’re off

to the races.”

— Mariah Douglas

Bar loreV.F.W. Iroquois Hill

Post 6182

992 Longfeld Ave.

(directly across from Gate 10 at

Churchill Downs)

Bardenter Jerry Seidl,

aka “Rico Suave”

“Thing we sell the most? Bud

Light. See, most of our clientele

are beer-drinkers. We raise the

prices about 50 cents come

Derby. We don’t want to gouge

these people.

“What’s really interesting

is when the horse people start

rollin’ in at the end of March.

Then we open at 8 a.m. and

people wait in the lot at 7:30.

At frst I thought it was strange,

drinking beer that early. Then

I remembered these guys

have been up since 2 or 3 a.m.

working with the horses. This is

their afternoon.”

Nowhere Louisville

1133 Bardstown Road

Owner Dave Mattingly

“Oaks Day is our Derby Day.

Last year, the line was down the

block past Akiko’s, on down to

Speedway. This year, DJ Mikus

will spin inside, and there will

be a DJ on the patio too. Red

Bull is bringing their MXT truck

— like an army truck with a DJ

booth in it. And the VIP area

— a whole other section of the

building currently undergoing

renovations — will be open. It’s

called Somewhere.” What it

takes to get in there? [Thumb

and fngers do the money

motion.]

Seidenfaden’s

1134 E. Breckenridge St.

Bartender Stephen Vessell

“Last Derby, a girl started crowd

surfng, and there was no way

she was going down. That many

people, it wouldn’t have been

possible.”

Outlook Inn

916 Baxter Ave.

Bartender David Theilen

“Vince Vaughn was here one

Derby. He had a bourbon-and-

Coke. No fancy bourbon, no

fancy Coke. I’ve served a bunch

of crazy people. What’s the

girl’s name that’s from here?

She’s in X-Men? I’m not good

with celeb names. She comes in

once or twice a year. She loves

our Bloody Marys. Even when

she’s out of town shooting for

months, she’ll blog, ‘Can’t wait

to get home and have a Bloody

Mary from the Outlook.’”

The Silver Dollar

1761 Frankfort Ave.

Bartender Rebecca Votel

(who now works at 8UP, the new

downtown rooftop bar in the

Hilton Garden Inn)

“It was Derby 2013. Tons of

people in the restaurant. This

group of handsome, tall, ft men

with their dates and a police

escort get seated in front of

the garage door. One of the

gentlemen was wearing the

most ridiculous yet awesome

suit — baby-blue with matching

shorts and shoes with knee-high

argyle socks. Flashy, but still

classy; he just pulled it off. Their

table was loud; not arguing,

but clearly a rise out of many

people in their party. Blue Suit

Guy proceeded to our fre pole

(which is still standing inside

the front of restaurant, an old

fre station) and tried to climb it.

Normally, we would’ve told him

to stop — insurance reasons, for

one! — but in the spirit of Derby,

no one said anything. The place

went nuts. Cameras out, people

standing on top of their booths.

Everyone was cheering this

dude on. When he realized

that his sweet blue dress shoes

were preventing him from good

footing, he took them off, argyle

socks and all. Finally, he made it

to the top, which honestly can’t

be more than 15 or 20 feet. The

whole place just erupted, like Ali

just won the fght or something.

We found out the whole table

were Houston Texans football

players, including quarterback

Matt Schaub. I don’t remember

the pole-climber’s position; I

think he was a tight end. Turns

out it was a bet. Not sure what

the wager was.”

— AC

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30 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.15

derbydinner.com

031Float fanatic

Jockey

Kyleen Kelly is president and

chairman of the Pegasus Pa-

rade foat for Second Chance

@ Life. Second Chance, a

nonproft that raises aware-

ness about organ donation,

has had a foat in the parade

for the past 17 years. “My

son is a liver recipient of 15

years,” Kelly says, “and that’s

how I originally got involved.”

Regarding each year’s foat,

Kelly says, “We do everything

ourselves, and we even have

a liver recipient that pulls the

foat with his Ford truck!”

Here are a few parade lessons

she has learned over the years.

“We have a budget of

$3,000 to work with, but one

year it came right down to the

wire and we didn’t think we

were going to have enough

money. We thought we would

have to dip into our treasury,

but U of L Lions Eye Bank came

on board at the last second and

saved us!”

“This one time — during our

police escort from our warehouse

to the Kentucky Fair and Expo-

sition Center the Sunday before

the parade — we were going over

the railroad tracks, and a Greek

column fell right off the foat onto

the tracks. Thankfully, it was really

early in the morning, so we could

stop and pick it up without stop-

ping traffc. But you can bet for

the following years, we planned on

having a vehicle follow the foat.”

“Well, now it’s a rule, but we

learned the hard way that you

can’t use paper on the foat. If

it rains, the paper is completely

ruined. You can use any plastic,

foam or wood, but no paper. So

we’ve gotten really handy with

lamination!”

“Our foat last year was a

take on a day of duck hunting in

a feld. Our foat and all our par-

ticipants were in camoufage

and duck blinds. Cabela’s came

on board and supplied all the

equipment and three profes-

sional duck callers, like the ones

from Duck Dynasty! And at the

Tuesday evening preview party,

where we were to be judged

for the frst time, the judge of

the Tournament of Roses from

California came to look at our

foat, and those duck callers

started doing their calls, and

above us, a crowd of ducks ac-

tually started circling our foat!

And this judge just stood there,

totally amazed. He said that, in

California, they don’t have this.

He had to come to Kentucky to

learn about it.”

— MD

Gary Stevens, three-time

Kentucky Derby winner (1988 on

Winning Colors, 1995 on Thunder

Gulch and 1997 on Silver Charm).

What was that frst Derby win

like?

“Some kids grow up wanting to

win the Super Bowl or the World

Series or the Indy 500. And I grew

up wanting to win the Kentucky

Derby. No feeling like it, until you

win a second one and a third one.”

— DJ

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034Turf

“Lifeguard”

Photo by Chris Witzke

Photo byTed Tarquinio

036

Good ol’ boysA train. An entourage. A slow plod on rails through

Kentucky countryside into Louisville. A quaint chug-

chug though Crescent Hill. A cocktail with breakfast?

Why not? It’s Derby Day. You’re on the Derby train. A

fancy train. Beshear’s train. Ladies dipped in pastels

fan hankies at tots waving from daddies’ shoulders.

Hankies are imagined. The rest is true. For the last

several years, Gov. Steve Beshear has orchestrated a

Frankfort-to-Churchill Downs (and back to Frankfort

post-Derby) luxury CSX train ride. Invite only, of

course. “Basically, it’s an economic-development tool,”

Beshear spokesperson Kerri Richardson says. “It’s

usually people we want to woo to Kentucky.” Cool. A

Woo Train. Choo, choo! Woo, woo! Richardson says

the Kentucky Economic Development and Tourism

cabinets host guests. So does CSX. Connected,

wealthy types pay for tickets. Woo, woo!

Richardson says the state never releases a who’s

who list of Woo Train passengers. Fortunately, the

Courier-Journal’s veteran state-government reporter,

Tom Loftus, has taken an interest and done some

digging. He explained in an email that Beshear has a

nonproft called First Saturday in May that raises pri-

vate contributions for his Derby festivities, including

a Friday night gala at the Governor’s Mansion and

the Woo Train. “Not exactly sure how it works. But I

think lobbyists and various others give set amounts to

this non-proft and in return get invited to the Friday

Party, get on the train, and get tickets out of the big

allotment Churchill gives to Governor’s Offce,” Loftus

writes in the email.

According to Loftus’ past Woo Train stories, Uni-

versity of Kentucky president Eli Capilouto has been

one of the hundreds of guests who have boarded. So

has Don Blankenship. That was back in 2012, before

Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, was

indicted on charges that he deliberately violated fed-

eral mine safety rules. But it was two years after the

2010 explosion that killed 29 coal miners at Massey’s

Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. Blankenship

was apparently the guest of Jim Justice II, a billionaire

coal baron and West Virginia’s richest man, who also

owns a luxury casino resort in his home state. Isn’t this

Woo Train so feel-good?

— AM

Greg Blasi likens his job as lead

outrider at Churchill Downs to being

a lifeguard at a pool: He is on the track

for safety. Blasi, now 45, was working

for trainer Todd Pletcher in Florida

when Churchill called in 1999 about

an outrider position. “It’s about being

able to see what a loose horse is going

to do, so it helps to have livestock

and ranch experience,” he says. Part

of Blasi’s job is to catch loose horses

or stop a horse after a race when

jockeys can’t slow 1,200-pound

Thoroughbreds. He says the main

trick is getting ahold of the horse’s

head. “Their body follows their head,

so if you can get control of their

bridle, you get control of the horse,”

he says. Another trick: cornering

horses, approaching from the front. “If

you’re behind them, good luck, ’cause

you’re not gonna catch ’em; their

natural instinct is to try to outrun

you.” Blasi gives “99 percent” of the

credit to what he rides. “You need a

good horse. Otherwise it’s like you’re

trying to catch a horse on foot,” he

says. “I give the quarter horses that I

ride all the credit.”

— MD

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82 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.15

High life

Boom

Concierge

075

Larry Johnson, 70, concierge at the

Seelbach

Get any diffcult requests come Derby

time?

“The hardest thing is when people wait

until the last couple of weeks and expect

a concierge to be able to jump out and get

them a restaurant. By that time, it’s almost

impossible. I do know a lot of the owners

of restaurants, and I’m able to sometimes

fnagle them in, but for the most part, it’s

pretty hard to do.”

Any unruly guests?

“We had one guy one year — he got obnox-

iously drunk while he was here. He abused

a lot of people. He would go through the

lobby and cuss and do ungentlemanly-like

things. He won a bunch on the Derby.

Sunday morning, he walked through the

hotel giving out gratuities to everybody he

offended.”

How about good ones?

“One of my favorite stories is about Bob

and Beverly Lewis. They owned Silver

Charm, who won the ’97 Kentucky Derby.

But this was in 1995. They had this leather

luggage, and the handle broke on them.

Mr. Lewis called me, asked if I could get

it fxed. Saturday morning, it was just like

brand new.

“The frst time I met them, I didn’t even

know who they were. I got on the elevator,

and here was this couple in green Visa

jackets. I asked them, ‘What horse do you

like?’ Mr. Lewis showed me his jacket. On

it, it had Timber Country. And his wife

showed me her jacket, and it had Serena’s

Song on it. I said, ‘Sorry, but those two

horses don’t have a chance.’ They said,

‘What do you mean they don’t have a

chance?’ I said, ‘Well, Serena’s Song is a

great flly, but she’s gonna jump in and lead

most of the race, and probably at the top

of the stretch, she’s going to die from all

the pace. Timber Country comes from be-

hind. It’s going to be way too many horses

for him to get through.’

“About an hour later, Mr. Lewis came

down. That’s when he had the suitcase. He

said, ‘I think you’re an honest person. You

told us exactly what you thought about

our horses.’ (Thunder Gulch won, Timber

Country placed and Serena’s song fnished

16th.) Would you believe on Sunday he

called me over to the front desk and shook

my hand and put a hundred-dollar bill in

my hand? We remained friends up until

he died.”

— DJ

077

This year will be 53-year-old

Brian Beazly’s 30th straight

Derby Fest Balloon Race, though

he hates calling it a “race.” “Race

implies speed, and balloons have

nothing to do with speed. Balloon

competitions have everything

to do with accuracy,” the New

Albany native says. In this “hare

and hound balloon race,” a hare

balloon takes off. Ten to 15

minutes later, 25 to 50 hound

balloons chase (going, oh, 5 mph)

after it, not knowing the fnal

destination. The hare will land

and place a fabric X, 50 feet in

diameter, on the ground in an

open space (last year at E.P. “Tom”

Sawyer State Park). Then each

hound foats over the X, trying

to throw a small three-ounce

marker, attached to a six-foot

streamer with the pilot’s name on

it, closest to the center.

“Altitude control is very

precise. But moving left and right

is (largely) up to Mother Nature;

we have to go the way the wind

takes us,” says Beazly, who won in

1995. “When you climb up, you

will go a little more to the right,

and when you descend, a little

more to the left. So if I ascend

1,000 feet, I’m going to make a

big right-hand turn.” Beazly will

fy the Kosair Children’s Hospital

balloon in this year’s competition

(7 a.m. the Saturday before

Derby; the display of glowing

balloons is the night before at

the Fairgrounds). The balloons

will take off from Bowman Field,

chase crews following by car

and communicating through

walkie-talkies.

“We’ll spend about 45

minutes to an hour in the

air total, and you just never

entirely know where you’re

going to go. If the wind

switches, we switch. We do

always have to think about, ‘If

we take off here now, where

am I going to be in an hour?’

We have to fgure out which

way the wind is going, and then

we have a pretty good idea

of where we’re going to land

before we take off. There’s a lot

of pre-planning,” Beazly says.

“We don’t like surprises.”

— MD

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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.15 135

verandaatnortoncommons.com

Hoof help

As a farrier, Justin Court

has been shoeing horses for

about 10 years. He works on

the road, from the back of

his truck, but his home turf

is a blacksmith shop on the

Churchill Downs backside

(one of the only racetracks in

the U.S. that still has such a

shop). Court — whose father

Jon is a professional jockey,

and whose grandfather

trained 2011 Derby horse

Archarcharch — grew up at

tracks and now tends to the

most important part of the

horse. “There’s an old saying:

‘No hoof, no horse,’” Court

says. “It all starts from the

foot and goes up from there.”

Modern aluminum

horseshoes weigh signif-

cantly less than the steel

used decades ago, and they

vary slightly in design and

size, some being wider for

more traction. Court says he

can usually guess a horse’s

shoe size by simply looking

at a hoof. “There’s actually

a science and an art to it,

believe it or not,” Court says.

“It starts with seeing if their

bone structure is straight

and looking at the way they

travel — the biomechan-

ics.” The ft of the shoes

is important because the

space between the horse’s

kicked-back front feet and

the hind hooves extending

forward can be fractions of

an inch. Court, facing the

backside of the horse, grabs

one of its legs, places it

between his own, and bends

it at the knee so he can hold

the hoof between his thighs.

Court examines the hoof’s

capsule (structural shell).

“You’re looking for a couple

different things — symmetry

or the lack thereof. The idea

is to level that foot as even

as possible,” Court says.

He removes the current

horseshoe (usually 30 to 40

days old) and begins to trim

the hoof of excess keratin

with nippers, which fttingly

resemble an oversized pair

of fngernail clippers. With

his stall jack (a portable anvil

on stilts) standing before

him, he takes a two-pound

shaping hammer and slams

it against the shoe to “mend

and shape it” for that specifc

ftting.

Next, if the shoe fts (har-

dy har har), he uses a small

hammer to nail it into place

(which he says doesn’t hurt

the horse). “There’s a fne

line — sometimes smaller

than a quarter of an inch —

to be able to drive that nail

in to hold the shoe in place,”

Court says. A process called

“clinch blocking” further

secures the shoe. Once all

four shoes are on nice and

tight, Court uses a rasp (an

oversized nail fle) to clinch

the protruding nails into

the hoof. The whole process

takes about 40 minutes. “I

want to make sure when

that horse walks away from

me, I don’t have to worry

about that shoe coming off,”

he says.

— MD

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