This year the Club is 157 members.  This is a lot of people to try and squeeze into the paddock before a race so we have to subdivide the groups.  We want everyone to have the opportunity to be able to enjoy the pre-race pageantry but also want to make sure that everyone is safe as well.  It’s important to limit the size in the paddock not only to prevent our overwhelming the other owners but also because of the potential for the unexpected.

For those of you that were around opening night in 2018, you saw a horse get loose on the way to the track and nearly got into the crowd. The same thing happened several years ago when a horse unseated his rider in the paddock and then broke through the fencing shortly after the command for riders up. In other words: the paddock can be a dangerous place so we’ll keep the numbers down and rotate access.

You can bring a spouse or child into the paddock with you but please keep it limited to that. If it gets too crowded we’ll have revert to a members only policy.

The traditional drawing day for the paddock groups has become the day after our anniversary.  I divide the alphabetical list of members and assign each segment of list a number.  My lovely wife of 3 years and a day then draws the numbers out of a hat and that becomes the order of the paddock groups!

This year we’ve split the gang into 3 with roughly 50 members per group. Without further ado, here are the paddock groups for 2018:

Group 1: Nelson – Zobel
Group 2: Heidelberger – Mueller
Group 3: Allen – Hegseth

Please make a note of which group you are in.  I try to remember to list the names in posts before the race but many times I forget and only mention the group number!

Dos Cuernos is on the first load coming up to Canterbury from Oaklawn and should be settled into the Litfin barn on Tuesday.  Team Broberg will be up and settled in mid-week as well and poised to claim the Club’s second horse.

The track may have opened last weekend but between the kickoff gathering Saturday morning and hopefully a race – THIS is the weekend the Club party gets started!!