Dear Derby Diary,

I did a little side trip yesterday before the big rush of folks gets into town.. You know if you’ve read my residency articles that I like to try out the local cuisine and traditions when I visit places. One of the things that this area is famous for is Kentucky Bourbon! So I took a trip down the interstate to Loretto, hom of the Makers Mark Distillery.

Maker’s Mark is the only operating distillery in America to be designated a National Historic Landmark. Originally built in 1805 as a gristmill distillery, it became the home of Maker’s Mark in 1953. Today, it is the oldest operating distillery on its original site. It is located on picturesque grounds and visitors are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch and relax. The entrance is by an old toll road house with rates still posted including Buggy (15 cents), Horse & Rider (6 cents), Person on Foot (2 cents), but Persons Going to Church (free). On down the road we walked through a covered bridge over Whiskey Creek and by the Quart House, believed to be the oldest remaining “retail whiskey store.” In by gone days customers brought quart bottles and had them filled with whiskey for a quarter. The distinct bottle dipped in hot wax is one of the distinguishing features of this brand of bourbon. The tour was great and you really felt as if you walked back in time throughout the entire thing. I purchased a couple of bottles of their finest and headed back to Louisville for the evening.

After my morning wrapped up in the culture of old time Kentucky, I didn’t want to eat at the hotel or have any big fancy meal so I moseyed on out to the Catfish Haven Restaurant for a mess of Fried Catfish with Hush Puppies and some mouth watering homemade Cheese Biscuits. Wash it all down with a couple of ice cold beers and I was living high on the hog.

But the very best thing about dinner was I was able to run into trainer MalekFarms of the AFC Stables who has brought their wonderful chestnut filly, SABBATH POINT in for the Oaks on Saturday.

It seems he had slipped away from the hubbub of the hotels and restaurants around the track and just wanted some home cookin’ too. We had a delightful conversation over our piles of hot fried catfish and had a few laughs as well. He shipped “SABBATH” in last Saturday after she won two consecutive Grade II outings to move up to the top twenty in the rankings. He explained that She was named for a beautiful lakeside village situated on the northwest shore of Lake George, NY- one of his favorite spots in the midst of the most picturesque scenery imaginable. The village is actually called Sabbath Day Point, but he left the “day” part out and it is famous for a big battle back in the 1750’s.

He told me that he loves Seeking the Gold as a sire. He has produced several stakes winners, and a G1 winner (Orca) as well for the Stables. And he offers great surface versatility, too. He had decided to use Seattle Slew as the dam-sire because he was looking for an outcross, and had good success with Mr. Prospector line sires over Slew as a dam-sire. Damascus was the DDS, simply because he likes to breed for classic distance horses, and there just aren’t many better than Damascus in his estimation.

You could tell just by talking to him how much this horse means to him. He told me how she has been easy to work with. Broke her maiden impressively, over a field of 20 in the slop. He might have rushed her for the World Cup, and it took her a while to get back to form. She had a bit of a stumble in her second start at two, but then she went to Arkansas, and romped in the two G2 races they have for three year old fillies. She popped a 108 SPF in the slop last time out. It was even a Stakes record, in the Fantasy Stakes last time out. He just thinks that it’s too bad the race isn’t in Arkansas. He laughed out loud as he told me that he was lobbying lobby Mike to bring jockey A. Arthur to Kentucky for the big weekend. He’s had the mount in her last two overpowering wins.

His biggest fear is a dry track, and the five week break. She seems to thrive on running a lot, with little spacing between her races. If it’s wet, well, in that case, the others are all running for second place. She’s a real slop demon. That’s no exaggeration there. Look at her race histories. Two dominating wins the only time she’s run on off tracks. It doesn’t look as if the weatherman is going to cooperate though, he is calling for cool and dry right now. I’ve certainly known them to be wrong on occasion though!

We had a great time and great food and beers and the minutes crept into a couple of hours and they nearly threw us out of the Catfish Haven! We promised to hook up again later in the week if possible and I headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep, my belly full and me ready to crash.

I had promised myself that I was going to get up early to watch workouts this morning but it seemed that the Catfish Haven and MalekFarms threw a wrench into those plans. Thank goodness there are workouts tomorrow morning too!

The Celebrities are starting to make their way into Louisville for the parties and even the big race. Tomorrow we will see if we can catch up to a couple and I will bump around the stables and fish for another interview. It is only Monday and already I’m worn out. How do these folks do this all week long? I need to start partying a little more before this week so that I can get myself into party marathon shape!

Good luck to all runners!