The future of one of Kentucky Derby Day's "touchstone moments" -- the playing of Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" -- remains "under discussion," according to Gregory Hall of BLOODHORSE. Churchill Downs VP/Corporate Communications Tonya AbeIn recently "stopped short of confirming that the song will be played as it has been for decades" when Kentucky Derby entrants "parade before the Twin Spires." AbeIn: "There is still a great deal of thoughtful dialogue surrounding the song, so I cannot yet definitively say what it will look like." Hall noted the song and its lyrics have been "debated for years, with detractors saying it diminishes the human suffering of slavery while defenders credit the song's lyrics, in the voice of a slave, with humanizing Blacks of the time." Regardless of what is done with the song this year, social justice issues are "part of the discussion for the 146th Derby, both in Louisville and nationally." Protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor are being "planned in the city -- including near the track -- for Derby weekend." NBC Sports Coordinating Producer Rob Hyland said that the protests "will be part of coverage by both the NBC news and sports divisions" (BLOODHORSE.com, 9/2).
PRESSURE ON BLACK OWNER TO BOYCOTT: In N.Y, Joe Drape reports Greg Harbut, whose ownership of Necker Island makes him a "rare Black horse owner in a sport that is among the whitest in America," now is "hearing calls that he should boycott" the Derby. Harbut and his team said that civil rights activists had "privately urged him to follow the lead of professional basketball and baseball players who boycotted their own games." But how can Harbut be "expected to give up his hard-won seat in the owner’s box?" Harbut: "This is part of my family’s legacy, and it is a chance to remind people on a big stage -- the biggest stage -- that horse racing history here begins with African-Americans" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/3).
