Dad won't see today's 2010 Run for the Roses...

I suspect that my sisters, Beth Anne, Jennifer, and I, were horse-racing crazy as children because of Dad.  When we used to watch the annual running of the Kentucky Derby each year, Dad would recall to us how he used to listen to the race being run on the radio when he was growing up.  He especially recalled two Kentucky Derby Winners, Whirlaway and Citation, both horses running in the 1940s.

Dad loved to gather about the television like we did the first Saturday in May and was as much as an avid fan of picking a winner as Jennifer and myself.  Dad's choices won him the Derby three times:  1979, Spectacular Bid, 1985, Ferdinand, and 1988 with Winning Colors.  When we couldn't all be together in person, we'd be on the telephone calling each other before the race with our choices for the race and then after the race boo-hoo-ing the winner.

We keep the tradition alive of everyone choosing a horse for today's race, but it won't be the same without  Dad there, shouting  "go, go, go" and watching his horse cross the finish line and wear the blanket of roses.