1.0The News Journalhttps://qa.thenewsjournal.netrich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="mjbKsxaAKQ"><a href="https://qa.thenewsjournal.net/phillip-perkins-heading-70th-consecutive-kentucky-derby/">Phillip Perkins heading to his 70th consecutive Kentucky Derby</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://qa.thenewsjournal.net/phillip-perkins-heading-70th-consecutive-kentucky-derby/embed/#?secret=mjbKsxaAKQ" width="600" height="338" title="“Phillip Perkins heading to his 70th consecutive Kentucky Derby” — The News Journal" data-secret="mjbKsxaAKQ" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! 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Provided that he can make it to Louisville Saturday and get a ticket – he normally buys one from a scalper – Perkins will celebrate a milestone attending his 70th consecutive Kentucky Derby. “There is nobody, even on millionaire’s row, that enjoys the Derby, the festivities, that has the interest in it that I do,” Perkins said. “People say, doesn’t it get old to you?’ No. The only thing that gets old is the hassle for a ticket or a parking place. When those horses come out on the track, I have to calm myself down because my heart starts beating so fast. I get so excited like I was there the first time.” “To me, the number one sport in Kentucky is the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Derby was known a long, long time before they ever put a three point shot up there.” Perkins, who is a retired teacher, still remembers his first Derby. He and his 18-year-old brother, Edgar Perkins, hitchhiked there. “He had gone to the Derby either four or six years. He had gone to the Derby with the National Guard. Back then, you could join the National Guard if you could carry a rifle and drill. Age didn’t matter back then,” Phillip Perkins noted. The duo arrived at Churchill Downs in time for the first race. “The first person we saw when we arrived was Mr. Wallace Hicks. He had been my brother’s teacher at Williamsburg and he was my science teacher in seventh grade. I had proof that we made it,” Phillip said laughing. A friend, Sonny White, had told him beforehand that they would never make it there. “There was an old man holding a wooden ladder against a brick wall that separates Central Avenue from the race track. He said, ‘Come on boys. Give me $1 a piece and I will let you climb the ladder.’ Man I’m telling you they were going up the ladder like nobody’s business,” Perkins recalled. “Some people sat down on a concrete ledge up there. Some people jumped over to the other side and went over into the infield or wherever they wanted to go. This was 1948. They didn’t have all that security that they do now.” Before the boys could climb up, two policemen came along carrying two big nightsticks and told the old man, he couldn’t have that ladder up there. “He was, ‘Oh, yes sir! Yes sir!’ He grabbed that ladder and he laid it down long ways against the wall,” Perkins recalls. “They didn’t take 10 steps until that old guy had that ladder back up against the wall.” The old man ended up letting the two boys climb the ladder for $1 total. “We had the best seats in the house. We could see all around the race track,” Perkins said. The winner that year was Citation, who is still Perkins favorite Derby winner. Phillip and Edgar Perkins hitchhiked to the Derby for the next three years before his brother went off to the Korean War. “He wrote me a letter in 1952. He said, ‘Now you have a string going. Don’t break it.’ He said, ‘Just be careful. You can hitchhike by yourself. Go see the Derby. That has happened time and time again.” One advance ticket Perkins said that he doesn’t anticipate having a problem buying a ticket from a scalper this year. There was only one year that he had an advanced ticket to the Derby. This was the year after his brother was robbed and murdered in 2004. At the time, Perkins was thinking about breaking his streak in 2005. Byron Crawford, who had done articles on Phillip Perkins several times, called after he heard that Edgar Perkins had been killed. Crawford insisted that Phillip not break the string. He contacted Churchill Downs, who called Phillip. “They said if anybody is anybody is going to see the Derby this year it ought to be you. They sent me two third floor club house seats and a valet parking pass,” Perkins said. “The valet parking pass was really worth more to me. I can buy a ticket from a scalper.” The last couple of years Perkins hasn’t had to purchase a ticket. He said somebody has walked up to him the last two years and given him a ticket. The people have asked him, ‘Is this really your 68th or 69th Kentucky Derby and you can’t get a ticket from Churchill Downs?” Derby day attire Perkins Derby day attire this year includes a sports coat with the winners of every Kentucky Derby winner since 1875 embroidered on it and the names of all the winners. It was a present from his only grandson, Cody Perkins, and his wife, Sarah. It is one of his most prized possessions. Tammy Detillier, a former student of Perkins, spent three months embroidering the coat with the name of each Derby winner. It has 142 Derby winner names on the outside. “I asked her if she would do this again? She said no,” Phillip Perkins noted. There is still some room on the coat for a few more names. The names of most Derby winners are embroidered in black thread. Triple Crown winners, those few horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and The Belmont, are embroidered in gold. Phillies or female horses, who won the Derby, have their names embroidered in pink. Geldings are embroidered in green. Only nine geldings have won the Derby. Perkins hat, which he has worn to the Derby for several years now, has a tag that reads, “Talk Derby to Me.” “I’ve worn this hat for about 10 or 15 years. I have had more fun with it,” Perkins noted. “This gets me more hugs and more kisses. There is always somebody, who wants to come […]