The Kentucky Derby is held on the first Saturday in May. This year, May 3rd will be the 151st race date. Nicknamed “the most exciting two minutes in sports”, you don’t want to miss the excitement of watching the 20 best horses in the nation running to the roses. The traditions of this event are unique, fun and the perfect opportunity to gather your friends or family for a fun Derby Day Party at home.
Decorations
The official colors of the Kentucky Derby are red, black and gold. You will find a lot of cute Derby related decorations online on Amazon or Oriental Trading. Be sure to include an area for your guests to place bets and set up a photo booth area with a racetrack backdrop and photo booth signs. Fill your tabletops with horseshoe confetti, display roses in vases and jockey silks along the wall.
The Hat
The Derby is well known for the spectators’ elaborate hats. Have your guests make their hat much like they would at an Ugly Christmas sweater party. Provide inexpensive straw hats from Dollar Tree or OrientalTrading.com. Decorate with ribbons, flowers, feathers and netting. Give prizes for the biggest, silliest, most unique or most colorful hat. Don’t forget to take a group picture of everyone rocking their Derby Day hats.
The Horses
If your party will include little jockeys, you might want to provide materials for each jockey to make a hobby horse. You will need a pool noodle, yarn, felt, large google eyes and a hot glue gun. Fold the pool noodle over (about ¼ of the way down) to make the head and secure it with hot glue gun and yarn. Create ears and mane from felt and glue in place. Add eyes and felt nostrils and you are ready for the races!
Place your Bets
Unlike the usual win, place or show, it is easier to just have the players determine the winner. This can be done in a few ways. The easiest way is to determine how much money each player will put into the pool. The players choose their horses and the pot is split with the number of people who chose the winning horse. Or, you could have all the players pick a horse (or two depending on how many people are at the party) and that is their horse. Again, determine how much the wager is and the winner will get the whole pot.
Food
What’s a sporting event without food? Traditional race food includes hot brown sliders, which are made with turkey, bacon, mornay (white cheese) sauce and tomatoes on a slider bun or Hawaiian roll. Add the sandwiches to a buffet of hush puppies, deviled eggs and a watermelon salad with feta, mint and cucumbers. Dessert options include pecan pie, peach cobbler or even mint ice cream.
Drinks
Everyone knows that Mint Juleps, made with bourbon, simple syrup and mint leaves, is a staple at the Derby. You can also make a non-alcoholic version in which you replace the bourbon with lemonade. Sweet tea is also a hit for a Derby Day party.
Additional Games
Since the Derby goes so fast, you might want to keep the party going with a few games. Simple ideas include horseshoes or Pin the Tail on the Horse, but in the spirit of competition, we thought we would include another idea.
The Kentucky Derby is also known as the Run for the Roses. You could easily incorporate some Minute to Win Games using rose petals like This Blows (blowing petals with a straw into a cup on the edge of the table) or Separation Anxiety (separating different colored petals into separate bowls). Players can also attempt the Egg Race while galloping on their hobby horse (hold an egg on a spoon and get it from point A to point B.
Gift bags
Don’t forget to send your friends home with a small gift bag. You can include pictures from their photo booth, their hats and hobby horses. For an adults-only bag, you can include a mini bourbon bottle, a mint herb planter and a chocolate-covered rose. The kids may enjoy Make a Horse stickers, a personalized horseshoe craft or a horse-shaped cookie cutter and cookie mix.
Pam Molnar is a freelance writer who specializes in creating themed parties for her family and friends.