Weather outlook for the 151st Kentucky Derby

AccuWeather

The 151st Kentucky Derby begins on Saturday, May 3. AccuWeather speaks with Kevin Kerstein of Churchill Downs Publicity on the upcoming race and how recent weather events have impacted preparations.

Transcript

00:00Tomorrow is the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby and as always it's the first step towards

00:06a possible Triple Crown. Kevin Kirstein with Churchill Downs joins us. Kevin, so good to see

00:11you. Good morning guys, thanks for having me. Well we've done a lot of severe weather stories

00:17in Kentucky this year so it's great to talk about something different, horse racing. Can you share

00:21some of the excitement statewide about this event? I'll tell you what, it is just a true

00:28celebration of everything Kentucky and just a worldwide event here at Churchill Downs

00:32and we're excited to be on the world stage both today and tomorrow. Today is Kentucky

00:36Oaks Day. We're expected to have more than 100,000 people here in the stands and tomorrow

00:40for Kentucky Derby Day. It's just been, you know, you mentioned the severe weather here

00:43in the Commonwealth and it's deterred a little bit of the statewide derby celebration plans

00:49early on but now it looks like it's going to be a great two days of racing and tomorrow

00:53for Kentucky Derby Day we're just really excited to be on the world stage here the next 48

00:57hours. And weather of course can impact any race. What are you expecting temperature wise

01:03and how are teams and trainers preparing? Well I like to say I'm an average handicapper.

01:10I'm an even worse meteorologist so I'm going to leave the weather forecast up to you guys

01:14so hopefully you can give us some good news for the next two days. Today it looks pretty nice

01:19outside. Hopefully the rain will hold off and you know it's always you know a very nerve-wracking

01:23thing for the trainers who are training their horses to compete in the top race of their lives

01:28and now to deal with the weather forecast. Some of these trainers are okay with their horses running

01:33on a fast track or if there's some moisture in it. Some have never experienced that before

01:37so it just gives a little bit of the extra nerves in their stomachs when their horses are maybe

01:42competing on an off-race track but right now everything looks dry for today's Kentucky

01:46Oaks Day and hopefully the same can be said for tomorrow's Derby Day. Yeah I'll dive more into the

01:49forecast coming up but the Kentucky Derby itself it's such a tradition. What is the same and then

01:54what will be new about this year's 151st race? There's so many rich traditions that are part of

02:01Kentucky Derby Day from the playing of my old Kentucky home to just the the celebration of just

02:06the iconic American sports event and the storylines coming into the Derby are just so unique every single

02:12year. There's two really special storylines this year that I'm really focused in on. One is a horse

02:18named Chunk of Gold who's trained by a 32 year old trainer Ethan West. He's never been on the

02:23limelight in the world stage. The horse was only purchased for $2,500 and then you have 72 year

02:30old Lonnie Briley who trains Coal Battle and Coal Battle just a rags to riches story for Lonnie Briley

02:36who's been in the horse racing industry his entire life and he's just finally getting into his top form

02:42of his career training for the first time on his own. So really looking forward to those two stories

02:47and the storylines that will develop here on Kentucky Derby Day but from the traditions to

02:51the individual storylines on these horses it's shaping up to be a great Kentucky Derby 151.

02:55I have a little interesting question for you. My brother is a huge horse racing fan and he tells

03:01me when you look at these horses they know they're athletes and they know what they're expected to do.

03:08Do you agree with that?

03:09I think so. I think when you watch these horses preparing so over the last probably six or seven

03:16days when they're preparing in the mornings training for this race they're sort of cool

03:19calm and collected and in the last couple of days these trainers have taken their horses over here

03:25during the races and schooled them in the paddock so they get used to the crowd and you can tell there's

03:30a little bit more amped up there you know they puff out their chest a little bit their ears are doing

03:35a little bit more attentiveness so you can tell I think from the the horse's body language that they

03:41they know that they're ready for the biggest race of their life.

03:44I know they're athletes but they're so cute. We're seeing all the video of them on your screen

03:47and they're just beautiful beautiful animals. I feel excited already such a fun event and just

03:53hearing from you amazing. So Kevin Christie with Churchill Downs thank you so much for joining us

03:57on AccuWeather Early and we hope it's a really successful weekend.

04:01Thank you guys for having me and hopefully you can give us some good news about this forecast.

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