⭐ Feature: The Kentucky Derby
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Every now and then, I do a lesson on something that is controversial. But that's what happens with culture. Culture can be controversial.

Horse racing is a controversial topic. It's one that gets people very fired up, gets some people very angry, while others absolutely love it. The Kentucky Derby is a horse race that is so big and has been so big in Kentucky and in the world since the late 1800s. Should horse racing be a sport that we get rid of?

You're smart, so I highly encourage you to form your own opinion about that question. Maybe even bring it to your English teacher or your English class as a topic of conversation. In today's lesson, we won't be talking about the controversy. We'll just be talking about the culture, which truly is very strong in Kentucky. Once again, we're ready for a start. They're off in the Kentucky Derby.

Hi everybody, my name is Shauna and this is the American English Podcast. My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States.

Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting. Let's do it. Hi everyone, welcome back. That introduction was taken from a video titled Kentucky Derby 2022. Full race.

It was posted by NBC Sports, and I recommend watching that video and also the one from 2009 to get in the mood for this episode. In this episode, I will talk about some topics that some people consider explicit, such as talking about smoking, alcohol, and gambling.

I'm not a promoter of these things, but when talking about culture, they naturally come up. If you feel uncomfortable with these topics or they aren't suited for the age or the environment you're in, I highly recommend listening to any other episode on this podcast. All right? I'd like to start today's lesson with a question. What comes to mind when you think of Kentucky? I'll give you a minute.

Do you think of fried chicken from KFC? Kentucky fried chicken? Yep, that's from there. Do you think of bourbon? Bourbon is a barrel-aged American whiskey that is amber, brown, or orangish in color.

Well, maybe you did. Many big-name bourbon companies are from Kentucky, like Jim Beam, Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark, and Wild Turkey. Perhaps you thought of bluegrass music, that is, if you like the genre. Chances are you did think of the Kentucky Derby, because that's the name of this episode.

Today, we'll be talking all about the Kentucky Derby. Or if you're a local, you just might refer to it as Derby. The winner can take home over $3 million. Let's talk about the event and the unique culture surrounding it. Be sure to sign up to Season 3 or All Premium Content if you want the English learning material that goes along with this episode.

On your mark, get set, go! This is one of the first episodes where I talk about Kentucky. If your U.S. geography isn't strong, no judgment, you might be wondering, well, where is Kentucky?

Kentucky is a state that's located in the central eastern part of the United States. It's just above Tennessee and one state over from the Atlantic Ocean. Kentucky's capital is Frankfurt, but Louisville is its most populous city with approximately 630,000 people. If you're a local in the area, you probably pronounce the city's name with a southern drawl.

Louisville. Or as she says, it's Louisville, Kentucky. On the first Saturday in May every year, 155,000 people fill the stadium at Churchill Downs in Louisville to watch the Kentucky Derby.

It's often referred to as the most exciting two minutes of sports. Women dressed in elegant attire with large, elaborate hats, and men in colorful suits cheer from the bleachers. But is that all it is? Just two minutes of racing and then it's over? Oh, no.

Leading up to the Kentucky Derby, there are almost three weeks of exciting events. That first Saturday of May, the day of the Kentucky Derby, is a full day of racing. On the racetrack, you can watch up to 14 horse races, one race every half hour.

At 7 p.m., there's the highlight of the day, the main event, the real Kentucky Derby, which is the last race with the best qualifying horses. So what do people do the whole day? Let's pretend you're spending a full day at the Kentucky Derby. We'll talk about some of the cultural aspects, and then we'll talk about the horse race itself. ♪

First of all, it costs around $105 to get tickets in the infield, where you might not have a great view of the racetrack. For a spot in the stands or the bleachers, you can pay anywhere from $300 to $3,000 and up.

The more expensive tickets are for reserved seating in clubhouse boxes, grandstand boxes, and they include free food and drink all day long. So as an attendee, you can grab anything and everything from the concessions. Concessions or concession stands refers to the kiosks or restaurants in a stadium that offer food and drink.

Traditional concession food isn't usually healthy, but it can include anything from hot dogs and hamburgers to popcorn, nachos, and pizza to even pulled pork sandwiches and barbecue. Usually, there's a pretty wide variety of food with a few healthy options in the mix. Once again, with the reserved seating, all of the food and drink from the concessions is free.

One thing that is a tradition at the Kentucky Derby is to have a mint julep. A mint julep is a bourbon cocktail with bourbon, water, mint leaves, and a sugar syrup. Typically, it's served on crushed ice in a silver cup.

It is one strong cocktail, and it's the official drink of the Kentucky Derby. Over 120,000 mint juleps are served that weekend. You'll also see that many spectators smoke cigars in public, in the stadium. According to a native, quote, smoking a cigar is as much of a part of the Kentucky Derby as the hats and the bourbon.

Kentucky has long been a producer of tobacco, and there are many tobacco stores in Louisville. When the Kentucky Derby rolls around, sales spike. They increase drastically. If you haven't heard of Skims yet, let me tell you, they are hands down the comfiest basics I've ever tried on.

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After you place your order, be sure to let them know I sent you, select podcast in the survey, and be sure to select my show in the drop-down menu that follows. It's important to mention here that smoking laws vary drastically from state to state.

For example, in California, there are clear air laws that prohibit smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or electronic smoking devices in any building or even outside if you're near other people. It's strict.

In Kentucky, on the other hand, while you can't smoke in government buildings or on school grounds, smoking is not prohibited in private work environments, restaurants, bars, recreational centers, in retail. So once again, you'll see people smoking cigars in public. Many consider it a luxury.

Maybe cigars are not up your alley. One tradition you shouldn't miss out on is spending time in the paddock. The paddock is an area where you can see all of the horses and jockeys up close, right before a race. It's nice.

If you're a gambler, you might also examine the horses and their jockeys to help you decide which horses you'd like to bet on. Betting on horses is another typical activity of the Kentucky Derby. Of course, it's not something everyone is interested in, but here's how it works. Visitors will examine the odds of a horse winning. They might learn about the jockey, the trainer,

and then they'll place a bet or make a wager on the horse and jockey they expect to win. These bets or wagers, they mean the same thing, can be made or placed at a wagering window. These windows and tellers, the people who run them, are all around the stadium. Bets can also be made on the official Kentucky Derby website.

millions of dollars pour into the race around that first week of May. I'm not a gambler, but here's a little side note. Around 20 horses can race in the Kentucky Derby, and the most popular winning spots historically are 5, 10, and 15. Just saying.

So as a visitor, you can bet on a horse. You can place a wager on a horse. And one last piece of vocabulary here. When an unexpected horse wins the race, it's called an upset. Actually, this is in any sports event where the underdog wins. It was an upset.

The Kentucky Derby has been around since 1875. And since then, there are certain customs that have stood the test of times. There's the bedding, the mint juleps, the red roses, which we'll talk about in a bit, and of course, the dress code. While some people attend the Kentucky Derby in regular clothes, usually in the infield,

Almost everyone in the reserved seating area goes all out with their attire. In other words, they get creative with their outfits. Women wear wildly large yet elegant hats, dresses, and heels. Picture the guests at a royal wedding or at the UK's Royal Ascot, another famous horse racing event. Well, that's what many of the attendees look like.

Men wear suits, sometimes with elaborate patterns and bow ties. Some wear hats. In general, most outfits are loud and proud. Leading up to 7 p.m., so much is happening at Churchill Downs. You'll see women and men walking around and socializing. You'll see the many horse races. And then right at about 7 o'clock, every seat is filled.

The audience gets loud or boisterous, maybe because everyone's a little bit tipsy by that point, and they're ready to cheer on their horse and jockey. To cheer on means to encourage a team or a player by shouting, Go number five! Go number five! You can do it! Come on, number five! We can also use the verb to root for. Who are you rooting for?

I'm rooting for horse number five. Maybe it's because I bet on horse number five. Before the start of the race, the horses and jockeys will do a brief warm-up, and then they'll stand behind a closed gate so that no horse can jump the gun.

so that no horse starts too early. When the gates open, the bells ring and the horses speed off. They go around the track for one and one-fourth miles, or 10 furlongs. A furlong is a common measurement in horse racing. A furlong is an eighth of a mile or approximately 200 meters. All in all, the whole race takes place in a matter of two minutes.

Remember, the most exciting two minutes of sports. And so those two minutes are intense. The horses and their jockeys maneuver their way around that racetrack. And meanwhile, the spectators go wild. Whoever crosses the finish line first is the winner.

And the winnings, or the purse, are big. So the purse is the amount of money that can be won. So currently the purse, the amount of money that can be won, is over $5 million.

And that's the sum that's divided between first place, second place, third place, fourth place, and fifth place. The first place winner takes home $3.1 million. And so that money usually goes to the jockey, right? So the man on the horse, the trainer, and the horse owner.

The winner will also receive the highest honor during the award ceremony, when the horse is covered in a blanket of red roses and paraded around the stadium. It's the reason why the Kentucky Derby is also called the Running of the Roses.

The red rose is the official flower of the Kentucky Derby. And draping the 554 roses on the horse after winning has been a part of the ceremony since 1896. Now let's talk about the jockeys and the horses. A jockey is a person who rides a horse professionally. A typical jockey is on the shorter side, usually between 4'10",

and 5'7". One of the most famous American jockeys of all time is Bill Shoemaker. Legend has it that Bill, who was born just 1 pound and 13 ounces, so just 0.8 kilograms, that he wasn't expected to survive after birth.

Yet, by the end of his life, he was one of the most famous horse racers. He won 8,833 races, four of those at the Kentucky Derby. In fact, he kept the world record for most wins for a total of 29 years.

A jockey is, of course, nothing without his horse. The horses that race in the Kentucky Derby are three-year-old thoroughbreds, which is a breed of horse known for their speed, their strength, and their spirit. It's the same horse breed you'll see in polo, in fox hunting, and in competitions like show jumping.

What's nuts is how expensive they are. In the U.S., the thoroughbred breeding industry, so the business of breeding these elite racehorses, generates nearly $6 billion in annual revenue. It's huge. Thoroughbred horses are usually sold at auctions. An auction is an event where buyers bid on goods or property.

Whoever has the highest bid at an auction wins. So these thoroughbred horses are usually sold at auctions. The thing is, these horses can cost a buyer an arm and a leg. In other words, they can be extremely pricey. It's not abnormal to pay $100,000 per horse or even $1,000,000 per horse if they're the cream of the crop.

if they're the best of the best. So naturally, this industry, this industry of thoroughbred breeding, attracts affluent Americans, Americans who have quite a bit of money. Most definitely, that was the case for a horse named the Green Monkey, who was the descendant of two of the most famous horses in North American history, Secretariat and Northern Dancer.

The Green Monkey, this beautiful horse, was sold at an auction for $16 million. It's the highest price anyone has ever paid for a horse at an auction. And unfortunately for its owner, the Green Monkey was never as successful of a racer as his relatives. There are a few other pieces of vocabulary that I'd like to teach.

A male horse that is younger than four years old is called a colt. A female horse younger than four years old is called a filly. Both colts and fillies can technically run in the Kentucky Derby, but only two fillies in the past 20 years have qualified. At Capella University, you can learn at your own pace with our FlexPath learning format.

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On the Friday before the Kentucky Derby, there's an event called the Kentucky Oaks, which is for the three-year-old fillies. In the end, the winning filly is covered in a blanket of lilies, not roses, like in the actual Kentucky Derby. When horses turn four, a male horse is called a stallion and a female horse is called a mare.

At four, such horses run in what are called handicap races. Let's imagine you really want to come to this event. Well, when should you go? As I mentioned in the beginning, there are so many different fun activities you can take part in the two weeks leading up to Derby Day, so the two weeks before that first Saturday in May. You can attend Thunder over Louisville,

which is the largest firework show in the United States. Over 2,000 people organize that event annually, and about half a million people attend. As a visitor, you can listen to an epic 28-minute soundtrack that lines up with the pyrotechnics and, yeah, spend some time outside. Enjoy the largest firework show in the U.S.,

You can also watch the Sam Tech Great Bed Race. Yeah, you heard me. Imagine you and four of your colleagues attaching a bed to wheels and racing a decorated bed and that you are in costume. Let's just say it's very popular, it's very wacky, and it happens the week of the Kentucky Derby.

You can attend the Great Balloon Race or Balloon Glow, where the sky is filled with colorful hot air balloons. At Balloon Glow specifically, the hot air balloons are lit up. So it's at nighttime. And so you get to see these sort of magical, lighted, colorful balloons filling the sky.

There's also a marathon if you're into running. There's a wine fest, steamboat races, many concerts in the park, food and drink events, and just parties in general. That's for the two weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby. And if you get what's called a Pegasus pin, it'll allow you to get into many of these events for free.

So what do you guys think? Does the Kentucky Derby sound like something you're interested in? With anything related to culture, especially when it comes to big events like this one, there are going to be some people that dislike it. I searched on the internet to figure out what people hate about the Kentucky Derby, and there are two main things that stick out. Number one,

the gambling aspect. So yeah, you can gamble at the Kentucky Derby. In the stadium, there are signs all around the place to help people with gambling problems. If you have a gambling problem and need help, you can actually dial 1-800-GAMBLER in the U.S. and talk to someone. We also have Gamblers Anonymous here. Number two is breakdowns at racetracks.

For every 1,000 race starts in the U.S., on average 5.2 of them result in either a breakdown or a slight injury for the horse.

A breakdown would be a situation where the horse gets injured and it affects their racing career. So that's not a nice stat to hear, 5.2 out of 1,000. There was a chart created by the New York Times a while back that illustrates how many incidents happen on racetracks across the U.S. And it listed the names of the racetracks,

It listed the names of the states. Some states have a lot of problematic racetracks, to be honest. Others don't. So some racetracks have very few incidents. Others have many.

I talked to my neighbor about this because she's a horseback riding instructor and a horse lover. And she said, you know what? It's true. Some racetracks need to be redone and the owners of the track are not doing it. So she personally refuses to go to any events at racetracks that could pose unnecessary external risks to a horse.

So if you want to go to a horse race, but you're not sure whether you support this sort of event, in her opinion, it's just good to be aware which tracks are not taking care of the horses. I'm not super knowledgeable about this. I just wanted to share her two cents on the matter.

As you know, this is a feature episode, meaning that I posted it in the past, and I'm posting it again with updated information and because it's relevant. The Derby is coming up, and so it's something that you can be thinking about.

Last time I posted, I actually created a poll for you guys to tell me if you think horse racing should be banned as a sport. I got 823 responses. Once again, this was episode 144.2, so you can see those for yourself. 568 of you, so 69%, said yes.

the world should end horse racing as a sport. 31% said no. That's 255 people. So thank you so much for voting. I do find it very interesting to see where people from around the world stand on these things, and I thought I'd share the stats with you. So what did we learn in this episode?

Could you tell me where Kentucky is located? Could you tell me what the official cocktail is of the Kentucky Derby? What about what is placed on the horse's back when they win? Do you know what a jockey is? If I say, meet me at the concessions, where do I want you to go? Do you remember what breed of horses run in the Kentucky Derby? What about what's the difference between a colt and a filly?

There are a bunch of listening comprehension questions as part of the premium content for this week's episode. You'll also get the transcript for this audio and the transcript reader so that you can work on your pronunciation. Be sure to check out season three or all premium content. You'll find the links to it in the episode notes.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson. Be sure to listen to it one more time if you want to get that extra listening practice. I guarantee the second time around, you'll understand much more. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the rest of your day. Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English Podcast. Remember, it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension, but to show you how to speak like someone from the States. If you want to receive the full transcript for this episode, or you just want to support this podcast, make sure to sign up to premium content on AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. Thanks and hope to see you soon.

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