Soggy day doesn’t dampen party for fans

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Danielle Bunker’s flowery hat drooped and rain dripped from her pink poncho as she settled into the waterlogged Churchill Downs infield, but she wasn’t going to let gloomy weather dampen her Kentucky Derby bachelorette party.

“It’s all in the experience,” Bunker, 28, said Saturday morning as she munched on a pretzel and prepared for a daylong party with nine friends who set up lawn chairs near the giant videoboard looming over the infield.

“We’re bummed but we’re from Ohio, so we’re used to it,” she said of the unfavorable weather. “We’ll make do.”

Morning rain, combined with steady rainfall the day before, turned part of the sprawling infield into a muddy pit hours before the Derby on Saturday. But hardy fans staked out spots to watch what for some was a first-time experience and for many was a yearly pilgrimage to the world’s most famous horse race.

The early rain didn’t spoil the party for the crowd of 158,070 — the seventh-largest in the race’s 143-year history Fans arrive for the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs.

— that watched Always Dreaming win the Run for the Roses. The rain clouds departed before the race.

Ponchos and rain boots were in fashion on a day usually devoted to sundresses, fancy suits and people-watching between horse races. Sunshine emerged by early afternoon, but fans endured another round of late-afternoon showers, briefly forcing them to break out rain gear again. The rain moved out of the area well before the Derby went off in the early evening. The last Derby run on a sloppy track John Minchillo / The Associated Press

was 2013 when Orb splashed home in front.

While the well-heeled and those with the right connections stayed dry under cover, fans on the infield endured a wet, cold morning when temperatures were in the 40s.

Bobby McGohon from nearby Lexington, attending his 33rd straight Derby, constructed a makeshift tent with lawn chairs and tarps to stay dry. Another tarp served as a floor to keep his feet dry.

“We’ve got it down,” he said. “We’ve been preparing for this. We’ve got everything we need.”