Big Weekend In Lexington (I Should Have Left Town)

Actually, that's not true. While certain things going on were not my cup of tea, Keeneland was running. I love Keeneland. Although to be honest, I like it a lot more during the spring meet than the fall meet. To begin with, it's usually warmer during the spring meet except this year when there were snow flurries on the April 6th opening day (must be that global cooling the environmentalists warned us about in the 70s). Warm weather generally means young ladies wearing skimpy outfits with their knockers hanging out. Hey, I need something to capture my attention before the post parade. That'll do it. The other problem with the fall meet is FOOOOOOOOOOOTBALL. Mainly because it's on at the same time most days. Saturday's tough because college football has many games on (I wear out my remote finger). Too many to keep up in the Keeneland sports bar. NFL games are easier to watch there so I'm more likely to go on a Sunday , but I still prefer the spring when nothing else distracts me.

Of course, I can also go on a weekday, but I have to use vacation. Fortunately this past Friday my department at work had an "outing" to Keeneland. Even better, the Equestrian Bar charges the same for a Maker's and coke that they do for a Jack and coke. Nothing against Jack Daniels, but that's almost sacrilege. Even better, a big bet on a winner meant I didn't switch to beer. Ironically, it was against a work related horse (partially owned by some executive) in the fifth race. I wanted to bet him (but went with Calvin Borel instead) because the horses' name was Load of Chronic, and for some reason, I was one of the few in my group who understood what that meant. In a sense, I felt somewhat younger. Until I realized it was "College Day" which has the advantage of much younger ladies in the all too revealing outfits but is offset by assbag college guys in ill-fitting suits because they think that's what they should wear.

Another problem with Keeneland during football season is how often SEC white trash fans show up there because their team is playing UK. Friday was LSU. I'm sure they were excited to be there because at their Louisiana tracks, it's not often you have a race that isn't fixed. Fortunately, there weren't too many of them when I went downtown later that night (one good bourbon and coke leads to many others). I don't think I could have handled the smell. I ended up at some place called Harvey's which I've walked by, but never went into. Even though one of those other events that I chose to ignore (Big Blew Madness) was going on, that place was still packed. Not sure why. It's a nice bar, but it's nothing special. Okay jukebox (I think) until someone kept playing that song from the iPod Nano commercials. Reasonably priced drinks. Limited room and seating. I guess they get the overflow of weirdos that came down for a Talking Heads tribute band. Now, I like some punk bands. Like The Clash who could actually play their instruments. The Ramones. Social Distortion. Stuff like that. But I wouldn't walk across the street to see the Talking Heads. Let alone a tribute band.

But I digress. The other big event was the UK/LSU game (Big Blew Madness is a practice, people; it don't mean a thing). UK pulled off the big upset by playing a great game. For those who read the fantasy football/soft core porn website I keep for the long running TRU Fantasy Football League (no link, it's dirty), I made a point in week 2 that LSU would lose a game this year due to the ineptitude of coach Les Miles. It just came true. When you have a quarterback (Matt Flynn) who can only throw 25 yards, you have to rely on defense. LSU usually does. For some reason, they decided not to pressure Andre Woodson. It's a stupid move not to pressure mediocre quarterbacks. It's even worse when you're facing a good quarterback. I think everyone should have recognized LSU had issues. Their best tailback is a white guy. How do you expect to win with that? Especially when you decide to run on fourth and two and don't even use him.

On the flip side, I should be really happy that UL beat Cincinnati. After losing to weak ass Syracuse and Utah, I should be happy beating anyone. Maybe the city of Cincinnati was jinxed by the Reds hiring Dusty Baker. He knows how to manage a last place team. Still, there is something wrong here. I remember when UL had a great football team. It was way back in 2006. UL has the best college quarterback in the country. I would take Brian Brohm over half the guys (at least) in the NFL. They return several other key figures from a 12-1 Orange Bowl winning team. Yet, UL has fallen to the point that I'm happy to beat friggin Cincinnati? How did I get here