How do Horses Travel to the Kentucky Derby? ✈️

Checking in from Churchill Downs, day 6 of 10, and while I can’t say I know a lot more about horse racing than when I came (my official pick at the end), I do know a heck of a lot more about the history, traditions, and business of this place.

Check out everything I’m learning here. Below are some of my favorites:

🗞 The Big Story: How Do Horses Travel to the Kentucky Derby?

📡 New Tech: What’s This Bump Behind Every Horse’s Saddle?

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Most Famous Bugler in Sports

How do horses travel to the Kentucky Derby?

The short answer is by plane, but the way they do it is actually a lot more complicated than you might think.

Road to the Race: Leading up to the Kentucky Derby, a single racehorse might participate in anywhere from two to four prep races to qualify for the Run for the Roses. Which often means traveling thousands of miles during the months leading up to the first weekend of May.

For example, one of the biggest races in the U.S. happened less than a month ago in Arcadia, California, which is over 1,800 miles away from Louisville, KY. Not to mention, there are often a few international horses that come from Europe, the Middle East, or Asia and have to fly thousands more miles just for one 2-minute race.

So how do they do it?

Logistics: For many of the horses competing in this year’s Kentucky Derby, they’ll be arriving via a custom-fitted cargo plane that’s specifically configured for transporting horses.

Now, before the horses get loaded onto the plane, they’re walked into specialized jet stalls with anti-slip flooring that are designed to be easily loaded onto cargo planes but are set up like typical transport trailers with hay, water, and shavings. These jet stalls are then loaded one by one into the plane, leaving enough room for a specially trained crew of handlers to walk up and down the aisle to tend to the horses during the flight with extra food and water.

The pilots will also specifically fly the plane to avoid disturbing the horses, doing things like:

Then, once they land, every horse is loaded directly into a truck that drives them to Churchill Downs, where they’ll spend the next week or two acclimating to their new environment and training for the upcoming race.

In total, CNET estimates a one-way ticket on one of these planes costs around $5,000, but for a potential Kentucky Derby-winning horse, it seems well worth the price.

What is this bump behind every horse’s saddle?

It’s actually a high-tech device that helps solve one of the biggest problems in horse racing.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Even though you might not realize it, during the 152nd running of the Oaks and the Derby this week, every horse on the track will have a special device slipped into the underside of their saddle cloth.

But what do they actually do?

Most track injuries are a result of the repetitive nature of running. However, historically, it’s been difficult to detect these types of injuries because they often result from slow, cumulative changes in a horse’s stride and behavior.

That’s why, starting three years ago, every race track in Kentucky started using the device pictured below.

Backed by Science: It’s a 3-ounce device called StrideSAFE that will be worn under every horse’s saddle during the Oaks and the Derby this week. It uses ultra-precise location sensors to measure 1,000 data points per second to account for the exact distance traveled by a given horse in three directional planes:

This data will then be downloaded immediately following both races, and using a series of complex algorithms trained on over 60,000 starts, any subtle changes in a horse’s stride can be used to identify a range of potential injuries before they even happen.

For the last three decades, one man has played the most famous bugle call in sports for millions of fans around the world, but his journey almost ended before it even began.

Opportunity Awaits: This is Steve Buttleman, the Official Bugler of Churchill Downs for the last 31 years. In 1995, Churchill Downs held an open audition to hire the track’s next bugler. Steve didn’t expect to get the job, but he saw the audition as an opportunity to gain experience with the pressure and competition.

However, Steve almost didn’t even go to the audition because he was getting his wife’s car fixed, and it wasn’t ready yet. Still, he took his trumpet outside to warm up in case the car was ready in time.

Fortunately for Steve, the car was ready. However, he would be running a little late.

When Steve arrived at the audition, all seven other candidates were dressed in a coat and tie, while he was wearing cut-off shorts, a windbreaker, and tennis shoes. Steve simply explained the situation and hoped for the best.

Lasting Legacy: Still, after narrowing the job down to two candidates, Churchill Downs chose Steve, and he has played at every Kentucky Derby since 1996, making him the longest-tenured bugler to play at Churchill Downs.

Since earning the job, Steve has played at several notable events:

And in his 31st year as the Official Bugler of Churchill Downs, he continues to proudly call the Kentucky Derby horses to post every May.

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

If you had asked me at the beginning of the week for my pick, I would have told you The Puma, apparently, he bites people who walk by his stall, and I like that level of crazy in a horse.

However, since the Swiftes moved in (rumors that Travis and Taylor took a 10% stake in the horse are swirling), his odds have been bet way down.

So instead, Further Ado to break the curse of the 17th post position.