The Kentucky Derby may not be the first place you’d look if you were looking for an absolute golf nut, but there will a certified one riding in “The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports” on Saturday evening.
Jockey Corey Lanerie is someone all golf fans can get behind and empathize with. The 10 handicap is a man after our own sick, twisted, golf-loving hearts. GolfDigest.com’s John Strege rounded up some great quotes from Lanerie as he prepares to Race for the Roses at 6:34 p.m. this evening.
“I work to play golf,” he once told the Daily Racing Form, which said he plays golf four times a week. It once asked him about his hobbies.
“Golf. That’s about it,” he said. “I ride horses and play golf every chance I get. I don’t like to fish. I like to fish if they’re biting every 30 seconds. I don’t like to find them.”
Lanerie is a member of the University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville, Ky., and has a handicap index of 10.7.
Last year, in an interview with Lori Dougherty, he said, “When I play golf it gets my mind away from everything from the racetrack. When I go play golf I’m just focusing on my shot and it takes me away from anything that is going on at the racetrack.”
Lanerie’s home track is Churchill Downs, where he has been the leading rider 10 times. “I know Churchill better than anybody,” he told the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Jonathan Lintner last year.
Lookin At Lee, who drew the No. 1 post position, was 20-to-1 in the morning line odds, according to the Kentucky Derby website.
“Lookin At Lee, a late-running longshot, will come out of the dreaded No. 1 post position, but his running style should allow him to save ground on the first turn,” Dan Wolken of USA Today wrote. “He’s also being ridden by Corey Lanerie, who knows his way around Churchill Downs as a 10-time leading rider here.”
— — —
Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest goings-on in the world of golf by following the SwingxSwing Clubhouse on social media. We share stories, stats and breaking news on Twitter, keep the fun going off the course on Instagram and share any and all golf-related topics on Facebook.
