A local Derby celebration

The Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 5, is the biggest day in horse racing — even in the Bay Area.

At Golden Gate Fields in Albany, the celebration and betting starts early in the morning and goes until the final live races at the East Bay track.

“Grab your best gal or best pal for the biggest Derby party in the Bay Area,” said Sam Spear, director of media relations for Golden Gate Fields. “It’s a festive day.”

The track opens at 7:15 a.m. on Derby Day to allow hardcore racing fans and bettors to wager on the first races from Churchill Downs.

Often called the most exciting two minutes in sports, the Kentucky Derby is scheduled to start just after 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, but the first live race at Golden Gate Fields starts at 11:45 a.m. The final race at the track concludes by 5 p.m.

Among the festivities are the annual hat contest, with such categories as most outrageous, most glamorous and best racing theme, Spear said.

“People dress up and drink mint juleps,” Spear said, and a Dixieland band called Spirit of ’29 will “roll around the track” playing different locations so everyone can hear them.

Golden Gate Fields’ legendary Cigar Bar party is sold out, but $6 tickets remain for entry into the track’s grandstand.

The co-favorites at the derby are Justify and Mendelssohn, both at 4-to-1, at the betting site www.bovada.lv. Next is Audible at 6-to-1, Magnum Moon at 8-to-1 and Bolt Doro at 9-to-1.

Justify, trained by Bob Baffert, comfortably won the Santa Anita Derby in Arcadia (Los Angeles County) on April 7, propelling the horse to the top of the odds sheet. He’ll be ridden by jockey Mike Smith.

Spear noted that Justify did not race as a 2-year-old and that the last time a horse that didn’t run at that age won the Kentucky Derby was 1882, just seven years after the race was first run. That horse was named Apollo and he’s been attributed with mysterious powers: Horses that don’t race as 2-year-olds have been said to suffer from the “Curse of Apollo,” Spear said.

But curses can be transcended, he noted. The Boston Red Sox were said to suffer from the “Curse of the Bambino” (after trading Babe Ruth), and in 2004 they won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. The Chicago Cubs were blighted by the “Curse of the Billy Goat” after banishing a tavern owner who’d bring his pet goat to the game, but the Cubs won it all for the first time in more than a century in 2016.

“So now we’ll see if the Curse of Apollo will be broken,” Spear said.

For more information about Golden Gate Fields, call (510) 559-7300 or visit www.goldengatefields.com.

Michael Shapiro is author of “A Sense of Place.” www.michaelshapiro.net Twitter: @shapirowrites