Kentucky Derby

I think 4 days minimum would be best. Heathrow to Louisville via Charlotte out Thursday back Sunday.

We did Breeders Cup in Keeneland. We went Heathrow - Nashville, 1 night Nashville & drove to Lexington it's a similar distance to Louisville. Drive back Sunday & catch evening flight.

Thanks, Chewy; a little more help than from a friend who lives in Versailles who advised me to go the the April meeting!

To be fair to your mate the Derby does look like manic.

We've done 3 Breeders Cups Keeneland, Santa Anita & Del Mar, all a great experience. I'm sure you'll enjoy it wherever you end up.

I went to most of the Derbys from Thunder Gulch in the mid-nineties until Justify most recently.

Then, as is now I believe, there were no direct flights out of Heathrow to Louisville and having experimented with connecting flights out of different cities, I mostly took the Delta flight out of London to Cincinnati, hired a car and drove down. Took about 1h20m from there to either Louisville or Lexington and it's a pleasant enough drive. You might consider basing yourself at the latter and taking in a few farm tours along the way. Lexington, although much smaller than Louisville, is a pretty nice place to stay and absorb the thoroughbred industry on its doorstep whereas Louisvile is distinctly unremarkable and not very different to the majority of East coast US cities.

Well done Johnny, great info.  This is what makes the forum.

You're very welcome LH.

And it's amazing what you might see on the farm tours. I've had Danzig very literally trying to bite my hand off, charging ferociously at me, his one good eye bursting with sheer rage (he was blind in the other). And Nureyev, his shattered leg in a sling and his future very much in the balance until Walmac's vets worked miracles to save him. Then there was St Jovite, a beast so demented a baseball bat was the only way the lads could contain him.

You won't get that in Louisville.

Brilliant.

I've told my wife it wouldn't be her cup of tea particularly as I'm a fan of "gonzo" writer, Hunter S. Thompson who wrote "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" in 1970.
Includes: The genesis of the article has been described by Thompson as akin to "falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool of mermaids".
I guess I'll be lucky to see a horse.

Royal Academy: American Airlines I think do Flights to Nashville x Dublin, that's if it suits better. Try give your self time to visit Ali's Museum in downtown Louisville.