Thousands of Louisvillians held their own Kentucky Derby celebration at Churchill Downs Thursday. Rick Howlett of member station WFPL paid a visit to the track in what for many has become the new edition of “Louisville’s Day at the Races.”
That term—Louisville’s Day at the Races--used to apply to Kentucky Oaks Day—Friday—but the increasing popularity of the Oaks has led many locals to come to the track on Thursday, or “Thurby,” as it’s been dubbed.
For some, it’s also a homecoming. Susie Theilen is a Louisville native who lives out west. She was in the Churchill Downs grandstand with family and friends. “This is home, this is home. I love Colorado, but this is where my family is.”
Out in the paddock area, Cathy Barth of Louisville was meeting up with her group. They had already established a Thursday tradition at the track, foregoing the crowds and traffic associated with Derby and Oaks.
While Barth and her friends are glad to see that more locals are choosing Thursday to get together at the track, they’re not exactly crazy about the “Thurby” moniker. “We prefer to call it the Thursday before Derby.”
Churchill Downs has begun a Thurby marketing campaign, complete with its own logo, to grow attendance on Thursday of Derby Week.
