Song of the Day 5/2: Dan Fogelberg, “Run for the Roses”
For decades, the first weekend in May has been circled on the calendars of Delaware’s horse racing fans. The Kentucky Derby is always run on the first Saturday of the month (pandemic years excepted), with Winterthur’s Point-to-Point races held the next day. Alas, Winterthur has put its steeplechase races on hiatus, perhaps permanently, but Churchill Downs is still going strong. The 152nd edition of the race will start at about 6:57 p.m.
I knew soft-rock stalwart Don Fogelberg wrote “Run for the Roses” about the Kentucky Derby, but I didn’t realize it was commissioned by ABC to air during its coverage of the 1980 race. Fogelberg said it was one of the quickest songs he ever completed – he wrote it in two days and recorded in two more.
It was included on Fogelberg’s album “The Innocent Age” the next year. Released as a single in 1982, it reached No. 18 on the Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Nice song, but it’s always bugged me that this horse was supposedly born in “Western Kentucky.” As a Kentuckian and horse racing fan I have to point out that horses are born in the bluegrass country of *central” Kentucky. It would have been so easy to say that. The Derby is in Louisville, 70 miles west but still very far from western Kentucky. I’m not sure what they do out there, but it’s not horses. Maybe grow tobacco. Speaking of the Derby, don’t sleep on Chief Wallabee.