Sunday, May 3, 1998

BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The action in the infield included mud diving. | ZOOM |

LOUISVILLE -- The race track hemmed them in. The sprawling white grandstand kept watch. But no one could control what nearly 70,000 of Churchill Downs' most raucous fans might do on Derby Day.

They buy the cheapest tickets -- $30 -- for admission to the infield, an oval mass of human flesh and muddy grass. The 20-something college crowd occupied one end; the calmer over-30-with-kids group packed the other.

And many couldn't care less about horse racing.

"We came for the party and to people watch," Carrie Nangle, 20, of Springfield, Ohio, said as she played a round of cards with friends from Xavier University. "I don't know anything about horse racing."

Neither do most of the other college students that pack the east side of the infield. They come for the volleyball competitions, the drinking games and the chance to see some female skin.

There is a constant din of loud whoops and youthful hollers. When the track bugler blows the call to the post, screams erupt. But that's about the only connection to horse racing you'll find at this end of the infield. An outbreak of cheers always brought a mass of onlookers, hopeful of seeing something crazy or X-rated. For this crowd, Derby Day is a excuse to merge with a bunch of strangers for a major lawn picnic.

"We just came for the party," said Ian Tateman, a Purdue University junior from Muncie, Ind. "I would never bet, because if I did I'd never remember who I bet on."

On the opposite end of the infield, the crowd had its own way of having a good time: These folks actually watched the horses race on two jumbo television screens.

Jennifer Yingst, 27, of Los Angeles sat on her husband Robby's shoulders to see the television. It was the couple's first Derby and Jennifer won some cash when Yes It's Time won in the third race. "This is so wonderful," Mrs. Yingst said. "We don't have anything like this."

A few hundred feet away Greg Groves, 43, of Columbus, Ohio, trolled for plastic fish in a kiddie pool he somehow filled with water. "The secret is getting the water to fill it up."

The pool drew a crowd when women starting bobbing for dollars. Marina Stevens, 16, of Louisville, upped the stakes and went under for a $10 bill. She came up soaking wet and a little richer.

Holding court throughout was Davey Humes, the self-elected mayor of the infield. The 39-year-old Moline, Ill., native said this was his 20th Derby in the infield.

His slogan is "Buy me a drink and I'll leave you alone." He wears black shorts, a tuxedo jacket, a lamp shade for a hat and a sash proclaiming his title. Mr. Humes offers temporary marriage annulments, Derby tips, julep tastings and, most important, territory dispute arbitration. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it, Mr. Humes said.

"It took me a few years to work into my position," he said.