Flatter: Nothing says spring like Kentucky Derby’s twin peaks

Ah, spring. Or as we know it in Kentucky, that time when the temperature plunges 35 degrees from what it was two days earlier in that gloomy season that would not end.

Welcome back, horses, to Churchill Downs. We missed you through a winter that really had its hooks gouged into us this year. Come to think of it, my last memory of being at a race in person was Nov. 30, when First Resort won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club. It was snowing. As it turns out, First Resort has gone into setback hibernation, not to be seen if and when we get a thaw by the first Saturday in May.

Kentucky Derby 2025 clinch scenarios this weekend.

“It’s always sunny and 75,” the late spokesperson John Asher used to say about Churchill. If it actually was bucketing down rain on shivering onlookers, his quick comeback was, “Well, it was sunny and 75 when I left the house.”

With horse blankets presumably in plenty supply, the Sallee vans have been parading this week through the stable-gate entrance at 3716 Oakdale Avenue. Ah, what better tradition is there right after the ides of March than to see Thoroughbreds returning to the track beneath the twin peaks?

Tsk, tsk. You knew Glenn Youngkin, that carnival barker of a governor from Virginia, was not going to get away with his winner’s circle blooper Saturday at Colonial Downs after the Virginia Derby. What did he say again?

“We all look forward to watching American Promise run beneath the twin peaks in the Kentucky Derby.”

Wait. I am told I may have misquoted him.

“We all look forward to watching American Promise run between the twin peaks in the Kentucky Derby.”

Beneath or between? The first way could have been taken as a tribute to the TV series that starred Kyle MacLachlan, who looks like he could play Youngkin in a biopic. The second way might have been a Freudian slip, perhaps from a recent visit to that anachronism of a restaurant chain that is to Hooters what SpaceX is to NASA.

Hey, we all make mistakes, right? I have the losing bets on my ADWs to prove it not to mention the occasional slip of the tongue on my podcast or the keyboard on this website. But in Youngkin’s case, his gaffe has vanished into the cybersphere. Go find video of him shouting “twin peaks” last weekend. I dare you. Believe me, I have tried.

I seriously doubt Youngkin took any time to order minions to erase that file. I do suspect that no one was rolling and recording when he said it, which was my excuse, or that anyone with a copy of it does not want to show him up. Seriously, when is it ever all right to be critical of an elected official who works for us?

As wonderful a time of year as this is and is about to be, we are sensitive to our own gaffes, especially trying to handicap these races as they become increasingly important. When they happen ahead of the biggest race in America, then we really pick the nit. What was it Nixon once said of media scrutiny? “I don’t mind a microscope, but, oh, boy, when they use a proctoscope, that’s going too far.”

Oh, that would be the late elected official Richard Nixon. Not Grantley Acres owner Geoff Nixon. And certainly not in reference to what is left of the media of today.

But back to the twin peaks. Jogs and gallops will be watched again and again. Gallop-outs will be examined step by step, the better to avoid a repeat of Forte and the scratch heard ’round the world two years ago.

Those last pre-Derby breezes late next month will have more in-person eyes on them than almost any running of a graded stakes the rest of the year. They always happen about a week beforehand, even if entries are being taken sooner and sooner before races. At the rate we are going, the overnight already may be printed for the April 26 opener.

All this presumes the construction work is put on hold. With all the building and rebuilding going on in the 21st century at Churchill Downs between June and April, blue plywood ought to surround the joint as it does around every budding high-rise in New York City.

Whether they run beneath or between or betwixt twin peaks covered in pine trees or plaid tops, there is no place like the home office of racing as we finally lurch into spring. The distractions of a bloviating politician, heavy cranes and a cross-your-fingers turf course notwithstanding, it does not get better than knowing the Kentucky Derby is on the verge of being run for the 151st year in a row.

Now that I think of it, perhaps governin’ Youngkin was more plugged in on plans for the new Churchill Downs infield than he was letting on. Could they be building two high-rise, grandstand pyramids in the middle of the track?

While I wait for someone to locate the video and find out, give me Instant Replay across the board Saturday in the Louisiana Derby. And remind me to make sure the red record indicator is on if and when governor Jeff Landry starts to talk.

Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.