This year's race was like a premature ejaculation for the moneyed society elite who thrive on the Derby and it's hoopla. The winning horse, Funny Cide, is a gelding! The whole reason to enter and win the Derby is to charge millions in stud fees after the race. And if your horse wins the Triple Crown, well, Katie bar the door! It's like winning ten powerball lotteries.
In May 1970, Hunter S. Thompson wrote an article called The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved. I've never been to the Derby but I have friends who have. A friend of mine described the infield at the Derby as a muddy, drunken gathering that includes passed-out revelers, public sex, and general cruelty. I'm going to bet that the Derby is STILL as decadent and depraved as always.
Here's an excerpt from The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.
Moments after the race was over, the crowd surged wildly for the exits, rushing for cabs and busses. The next day's Courier told of violence in the parking lot; people were punched and trampled, pockets were picked, children lost, bottles hurled. But we missed all this, having retired to the press box for a bit of post-race drinking. By this time we [Thompson and British sketch artist Ralph Steadman] were both half-crazy from too much whiskey, sun fatigue, culture shock, lack of sleep and general dissolution. We hung around the press box long enough to watch a mass interview with the winning owner, a dapper little man named Lehmann who said he had just flown in from Louisville that morning from Nepal, where he'd "bagged a record tiger." The sportswriters murmmered their admiration and a waiter filled Lehman's glass with Chivas Regal. He had just won $127,000 with a horse that cost him $6,500 two years ago. His occupation, he said, was "retired contractor." And then he added, with a big grin, "I just retired."