Just as the threat of a muddy track couldn't dampen spirits for the 134th Kentucky Derby, a little rain didn't hinder the annual Governor's Derby breakfast Saturday " Gov. Steve Beshear's first to host.
"Happy Derby!" Beshear said in a speech in the crowded dining tent. "Even in the rain, it's a great day. Rain, sleet, snow or hail, people still come."
At a time when the state faces a $900 million revenue shortfall over the next two years, spending on the breakfast was cut back, though it was still just as much fun, Beshear said.
Beshear said his favored horses were Big Brown and Colonel John. "Two good Kentucky-bred horses," he said. (Brown won and the Colonel was sixth).
Smiles on the throng of people on hand showed a good time was in the works. In addition to the festivities and socializing, there were 25,000 scrambled eggs, 15,000 biscuits, 1,200 pounds of sausage, and 60 bushels of apples 15,000 cups of coffee and 2,100 pounds of country ham.
Children painted each other's faces and dogs played on the Capitol lawn as Civil War re-enactors along with Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln posed for pictures and walked among the throngs.
Cliff and Joan Howard, of Frankfort, have been impersonating President Lincoln and former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln since 1985 and frequenting the Derby Breakfast since then. Both former teachers, the Howards make appearances across the nation offering a living look at the 16th president and first lady.
"We've approached it from a historical perspective," Joan Howard said. "It's a fun way to study history."
Did Abe Lincoln have a particularly memorable Derby year? Maybe not, but Cliff Howard does. "When Secretariat was in his heyday, that was an exciting year," Howard said.
The Howards' son, City Commissioner Doug Howard, was born on Derby Day in 1973, the day Secretariat logged the fastest mile and a quarter in Derby history.
Cliff Howard sent Secretariat's owner a letter years later requesting to see the legendary steed. "He was magnificent," Howard said.
As far as horses in the field today, Joan Howard, a distant relative of the real Mary Todd Lincoln, said she liked the filly, Eight Belles. (Who finished a gallant second but leg injuries felled her after the finish line and she was euthanized on the track.)
Kentucky State Police Trooper Ronald Turley has been working the event since he came to Frankfort in 1992. "The big rain already came through," he said, referring to yesterday's early morning showers, which thinned around 11 a.m. as the crowd departed for Louisville. "I've seen it much worse than this."
And despite the rain, turnout was still strong. "It's a little slow right now," said Kentucky State Parks Commissioner Gerry van der Meer.
"We've probably served 3,000 people as of 8 a.m. We're expecting about 9,000 over the next few hours. The weather's always iffy on Derby Day, it seems."
Dancers danced and bands played, taking brief intermissions as rain intensified and lagged. "We've always danced, even in the rain," said Linda Branson of dance troop Wildcat Cloggers.
"We're like the post office. Nothing stops us."
The troop, featuring members from all over the Bluegrass, has been performing at the Derby Breakfast for more than 10 years, dancing this year to Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up."
Just as event organizers prepare for the breakfast months in advance, performers keep Derby Day in mind long before the Run for the Roses arrives. "We've been preparing since October," Sandra Barnett, a recently enlisted member of Wildcat Cloggers said.
Becky Vittetow of the Kentucky Historical Society helped children make derby hats. "We've been doing this quite a few years. We used to use old newspapers, but these are giant coffee filters," she said. "They work great."
This year's Derby Breakfast was Kentucky Historical Society Volunteer and Frankfort High School student Heather Brown's first.
"We had to get up very early, but it was worth it," she said.