LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Racing royalty visited the Churchill Downs paddock on May 2 as the Kentucky Derby champions Funny Cide (2003) and Mine That Bird (2009) returned for a visit. As they walked quietly across the plaza from the Kentucky Derby Museum, the crowd parted at the unusual sight of two thoroughbreds parading outside the customary tunnel entrance.
As Funny Cide turned the corner to enter the paddock he stopped, ears pricked and stood still surveying the scene in front of him. A large news media contingent had gathered. Their cameras were ready to record the return. With his head held high, he pranced into the paddock like a returning champion. Next, an iconic black cowboy hat floated above the gathered crowd as Chip Woolley proudly escorted Mine That Bird into the paddock.
The two champions mingled with the other horses that were getting ready for the next race. You had to wonder if the sights and sounds were bringing back memories of their racing years. Mine That Bird looked incredible. He walked around the ring with his head tucked looking like a well-trained western show horse. One lady in the crowd leaned forward and said "Chip, who is your horse? What race is he in? He looks good!" to the amusement of the crowd as she didn't realize who she was looking at.
As the connections were interviewed, the horses continued to walk the paddock after the horses in the next race had left during the call to the post. Photographers asked for the opportunity to photograph the two horses together which led to an interesting moment. The handlers asked the horses to pose while the current race call was echoing across the loud speakers. Both horses woke up and started circling excitedly around their handlers. Ears were in a "helicopter" mode swishing back and forth as they not only wouldn't pose, they just kept moving until the race call was over.
Do horses remember their racing days? It seemed obvious that we witnessed a magical moment with two Kentucky Derby champions together at Churchill Downs. For one brief second they posed with the twin spires behind them. Once done, they quietly walked through the crowded plaza back to the Kentucky Derby Museum. As we trailed behind them, a man asked, "Is that somebody special?" I turned around and told him that indeed they are something special: It's not often you get to visit with racing royalty.
In a bucket-list moment, Julie June Stewart bought a ticket to the 2008 Belmont. She hasn't stopped going to the races since. That is when she isn't taking on a wildfire, hurricane, volcano or oil spill as the nation's leading expert in disaster airspace coordination. She recently won third place in the 2012 Thoroughbred Times fiction contest with her suicide prevention story "Moses Finds A Jockey."
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