BRADENTON BEACH – The Sports Lounge in Bradenton Beach hosted its fourth annual Kentucky Derby party on Saturday, May 2.
The annual Kentucky Derby celebration featured a “best hat” contest and a Derby-themed, ballon-filled photo arch. Partygoers enjoyed a bevy of food prepared by Bradenton resident and Sports Lounge patron Sandy Ziros. Commemorative bottles of Woodford Reserve whiskey were raffled off and awarded as prizes. And there was blind draw horse racing raffle in which tickets were randomly drawn from bags containing the names of the competing horses.
Sports Lounge General Manager Courtney McGough helped organize the party and she bartender Ryan Talbert worked the bar and served up the Derby Day spirits during the Derby party that started at 3 p.m. and lasted long after the race was run.
Ziros prepared the free party food that included mini-ham and cheese sandwiches, mini-turkey and cheese sandwiches, meatloaf stackers, Italian sausage with peppers, bourbon meatballs, pulled pork, potato salad, baked beans and pies and cake for dessert; and others brought chips and dips to supplement the food offerings.
Bradenton Beach residents, Sports Lounge regulars and avid Kansas City Chiefs’ fans Tammi and Greg McCoy won the best hat contest – for which they took home a commemorative bottle Woodford Reserve.
Before the race was run, partygoers could buy blind draw race raffle tickets. Drawn from bags containing pieces of paper with the names of a horse written on them, the race raffle tickets sold for $10, $20 or $50 and the prize money corresponded with the ticket price.
Post time for the 152nd annual Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky was 6:57 p.m. and Golden Tempo (23-1 odds) came from the back of the pack and ran the winning race. Competing in his 11th Kentucky Derby, jockey Jose Ortiz claimed his first Derby win. Cherie DeVaux trained Golden Tempo and she became the first female trainer to ever win the Kentucky Derby. Ortiz’s brother, Irad, rode race co-favorite Renegade (5-1 odds) to a second-place finish and Joseph D. Ramos rode longshot Ocelli (70-1 odds) to a third-place finish.
Back in Bradenton Beach, Sandy Ziros and Tammi McCoy were among the blind draw race winners, with Ziros and McCoy each receiving $360 payouts for their $20 winning tickets.
“It was a great turnout,” Ziros said when contacted later.
“It was lot of fun. We had a great time,” Greg McCoy said when contacted later. “It’s always a great party. Al (Ziros), Sandy, Courtney and everyone else did a great job of setting it up. It was fantastic time and we look forward to doing it again next year.”
When contacted the following day – after putting in a 17-hour workday on race day – Courtney said, “It was an unbelievable day. We couldn’t do it without the help of our locals and owner, Butch Brown. We look forward to bringing a bigger crowd every year.”
