Off-Beat Kentucky Derby Props – Should We Expect the Absurd?

The Super Bowl of horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, will last just two minutes on Saturday, but more than 100,000 fans will attend in Louisville, and millions will turn-back-the-clock to a lost era, watching the “Sport of Kings” on television.

Strange things happen when people (and horses?) have too many mint juleps. Keeping in mind that somewhere in the vicinity of 75,000 of the potent potables are likely to be served on Sunday, let’s take a look at some eccentric (along with some more mundane) props for the 141st “Run for the Roses.”

Off-Beat Kentucky Derby Props:

• Odds that a Jockey’s pants fall down during race: 1000/1
• Odds that any horse will scratch: 4/5
• Odds that a woman’s hat blows onto the track: 8/1
• Over/under on attendance: 157,000
• Over/under on the number of mint juleps sold at the race: 75,000
• Odds that the winning owner slurs his words on camera: 100/1 (This is substantially related to the prop above, methinks!)
• Over/under on TV Viewership: 14.75 million
• Odds that the winning owner is a former winner: 20/1
• Odds that the winning jockey is a former winner: 1/1
• Odds that the winning owner will be from:
  • Outside the USA, originally: 3/5
  • Kentucky: 3/2
  • California: 5/1
• Will more celebrities attend the race or the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight?
  • Fight: 5/1
  • Race: 1/5
• Will the race get better TV ratings than the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight?
  • Yes: 1/5
  • No: 5/1

(Photo credit: Bill Brine (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo may appear cropped.)