As I sat at my computer this morning, planning out the day and getting our tickets for tonight’s opening session at Churchill Downs, I came across an email from the track and one of the articles in the newsletter was about My Old Kentucky Home and the tradition it’s played in the history of the Kentucky Derby.

While no one is quite sure exactly when this song began playing, records seem to indicate that it’s sweet sounds echoed first in 1920 before the 47th Kentucky Derby. In 1936 the University of Louisville Marching Band started performing the song and has only missed a few dates since.

The song by Stephan Foster, considered the father of American Music is tied inevitably to the state park of the same name in Elizabethtown, Kentucky where the home that Foster lived in for many years still stands.

As born-and-bred Kentuckians, our state song is instilled deeply in our hearts and minds. We sing it after every University of Kentucky men’s basketball win and we take great pride in the song. My first actual trip to the Kentucky Derby was in 2015. How I went so many years without going blows my mind and the experience was well worth it. But perhaps the best memory of the day was when the UofL Marching Band started playing My Old Kentucky Home and I broke into tears. It was such a moving and emotional moment. I barely had time to get my camera ready for the start of the race.

I sit here a week and 6 hours away from that moment. I don’t know how I will handle it. But for today, I’m whistling the song and the lyrics echo through my mind.

Weep no more my lady.
Oh! Weep no more today!
We will sing one song
For my old Kentucky home
For the old Kentucky home, far away.