LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Rick Bozich covered his first Derby in 1979 (Spectacular Bid). 

"I felt lost," Bozich said. "I had never been to Churchill Downs, never covered a horse race."

Eric Crawford agreed with the sentiment.

"It's not a sport most people have a lot to do with, and it's so different from covering anything else," he said. "There's nothing else like it. It's very labor intensive. You don't just drop in and do the job. It takes time."

"It's maybe six or eight or 30 years before you know what's going on," Bozich added. "It's a different language, a community all it's own."

For those of us who don't cover the sport year-round, it is a different world and a different language that takes some getting used to — even if you're from Kentucky and grew up watching the race.

"I worked the spring meet at Churchill Downs before becoming full-time at WDRB," John Lewis said. "I thought I knew my way around Churchill Downs, figured I'd be fine. It was a totally different story from working as part of the Downs crew to actually working for a broadcast television station where you're on the backside and trying to find this trainer or run down that trainer."

Aaron Matas and Annice McEwan experienced the Derby for the first time in 2019.

"I liked how different it was," Matas said. "I tried to soak it in and tried to remember that you don't see the sunrise in our job too often. Everything was so pretty, and getting to see the horses up close walking on the backside or working out on the track, it was really special. I enjoyed it."

"Derby is everything people said and then some," McEwan added. "I had some friends who were pretty jealous that I got to be in it and around it and report on it."

My introduction to covering the Derby was being a videographer for the great Cawood Ledford, the Hall of Fame broadcaster and Kentucky legend. I followed him around the barns as he would ask trainers for interviews for a show he hosted, called "Down the Stretch." They would always drop what they were doing to gladly give 10 or 15 minutes to Cawood. 

It wasn't until the following year when I was on my own that I realized it wasn't quite that easy to get one-on-one interviews whenever you wanted them. Call it the power of Cawood.

Bozich's big fear was asking a stupid question. Crawford said he just tried not to step in the way of a horse and possibly get killed. 

We all agree that it is part of the rhythm of our lives. For several of us, it's been that way for decades.

"The way the weather is now with the trees showing out — the first thing I start to think of is 'It's Derby time,'" Lewis said.

We're all missing Derby time. Hopefully, it will all come together for a run in September. 

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