Are you new to horse racing? Here are three easy tips for watching the Kentucky Derby

I watched Rich Strike win the Kentucky Derby in 2022, but I didn't really see it.

Somewhere between keeping track of my five losing bets and the pageantry of the day, I missed the whole thing. I certainly saw 20 horses run around the track, but amid the intensity of "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports," I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing.

I was right there in the press box in the grandstand. How did I miss it? How?

Turns out, I was looking at the wrong thing, and I've been looking at a lot of wrong things since I first began attending the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs five years ago.

So with three weeks to go before the 149th Kentucky Derby — and unwilling to make the same mistake again — I spent an afternoon at Keeneland Race Track in Lexington with Greg Burke, who runs the track's BETology department. We don't have BETologists at Churchill Downs, but let me tell you, they are a treasure. Keeneland's fleet of BETologists is one of just a few in the country. Burke and his team predominately focus on teaching newcomers how to place bets, but their primary goal is to enhance the horse racing experience for anyone who asks for help.

Clearly, I needed help.

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Burke kindly and patiently entertained my (admittedly) amateur questions for nearly three hours. Using live races as an example, he taught me some best practices for watching a race. His solutions sounded extremely obvious once I learned them — but no one had ever explained it to me in such a clear, simple way.

Let me be explicitly clear, for longtime racing fans, these tips are going to feel as basic a reading instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I'm also sure many of you can school me on even better ways to watch a race.

By the time I drove back to Louisville, I had a deeper understanding of what I was seeing on the track and how to make the most of it. I imagine there are other semi-newcomers to the sport, who can benefit from what Burke taught me, too.

There are ways to set yourself up to enjoy a race well before the bell rings and the starting gate clangs open.

Here's how Burke helped prepare me for this year’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

First, consider your vantage point and attention to the last turn

Whether you're seated high in the Grandstand or on the ground in the infield just feet from the track, it's important to have a good view of the final turn.

Even though Keeneland's track is just over a mile long, Burke says, the final turn is where the most profound moments of a horse race happen. That's where your focus should be. If something big happens, it's likely going to happen there.

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"In the last turn, that is where the horses are really starting to make their moves a lot of jockeying is going on," Burke explained. "That's where a lot of the races are won and lost. When they come out of that turn, horses… just turn on the jets and put the rest of the runners in is his or her dust, for lack of a better word. That is absolutely where the move is made that's going to take them to the finish line."

Get to know your horses and jockeys before the races start

The 20 minutes or so before a race might seem like the ideal time to grab a beverage, use the restroom or place a final bet. If you're trying to cram all that in, though, you may miss your opportunity to familiarize yourself with the horses and their identifiers. A lot of racegoers rely on the saddle towel — which is the colored cloth with the number identifying the horse’s post position — to find their horse. Those aren't necessarily visible from every angle of the track, Burke said.

If you're trying to track a specific horse, or a few specific horses, the best way to do that is by studying the colors the jockey is wearing before the race. You can do this up close in the paddock area or as the horses step out on the track and head to the starting gate before the race.

"You can see colors around the track a lot better than you can see the numbers," Burke explained. "The numbers aren't big enough. But you can find the color of the jockey’s helmet, you see, it's the highest point of the horses and the jockey together."

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If you do miss the chance to see the silks ahead of time, a description of the jockey silks is listed in the program. For the Kentucky Derby, the program usually takes it a step further and prints small, colored pictures of the silks, too.

Don't forget to actually watch the horses leading the race

Very few people come to the racetrack and just put one bet on the Kentucky Derby. By the time the Run for the Roses begins, you may have several bets and plenty of dollars on the line.

While I got better at picking out a single horse from far out distances on the day Burke and I spent at Keeneland, it's going to be much more difficult on the first Saturday in May. There are 20 horses in the Kentucky Derby to pay attention to, and the BETologist says even racegoers with the best peripheral vision will have a hard time keeping track of all the horses they bet on while seeing the entire race for what it is.

If the horses you've bet on are trailing far behind, fixating on your bets will likely keep you from seeing the most exciting parts of the race.

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The solution to this is embarrassingly simple: focus on the horses that are winning.

"We're all trying to win, and hit the board," Burke said. "So, our main focus is going to be the winner. Then making the second, third and maybe fourth spots."

That's when it finally all made sense to me — I didn’t see Rich Strike win because I wasn’t looking at him.

I wasn't watching for the Kentucky Derby winner, because I was laser-focused on my five losing tickets that were trailing several positions behind a true longshot.

Through these three simple tips, Burke completely changed how I watch and see horse races in real-time.

I’m hopeful and even confident I'll really see the winner this year.

…. now if only Burke could change my luck, too.

Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4053.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Three easy tips for watching the Kentucky Derby from a betting expert