The Kentucky Derby Festival is pleased to announce some special activities in 2008 to celebrate what could be the Delta Queen’s last year to take part in the Kentucky Derby Festival Great Steamboat Race. The Delta Queen, based out of the port of Cincinnati, is in jeopardy of losing its exemption to make overnight passenger cruises and thus would not be able to participate in future Great Steamboat Races unless another exemption is granted by this November. The Delta Queen raced the hometown Belle of Louisville in the inaugural Great Steamboat Race in 1963 and has been a contestant almost every year since. To help commemorate the heritage of this historic vessel, the Derby Festival has planned the following activities on Great Steamboat Race Day, Wednesday, April 30:
A “Tea With the Queen” party will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Chow Wagon at Kroger’s Fest-a-Ville on the Waterfront. This family-oriented event will feature appearances by several former Kentucky Derby Festival Queens, dating back to 1957. They will be on hand to meet and greet the public and assist children with decorating tiaras and coronets that will be given out. A variety of refreshments will be served, including tea, punch, cookies and other finger foods. Derby Festival mascots Peggy and Gus will also be part of the festivities. Families may have their picture taken in front of the Delta Queen.
A Calliope Contest between the Belle of Louisville and the Delta Queen will be held at 3 p.m. along the East Wharf on Louisville’s waterfront. The musical contest, featuring traditional tunes played on the boats’ steam whistles, will be judged by Louisville native Patrick Henry Hughes, a local celebrity since appearing on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” this spring.
The Great Steamboat Race Awards Ceremony will take place on the main stage at the Chow Wagon, beginning at approximately 7 p.m. The captain and crew of the winning vessel will receive the Golden Antlers and various dignitaries will make remarks. The winner of the Calliope Contest will receive an award created by Louisville Stoneware, presented by Patrick Henry Hughes.
A Mardi Gras party to celebrate the Delta Queen’s river heritage will take place at the Chow Wagon from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Zydeco Bon will provide musical entertainment and Mardi Gras-style beads will be distributed.
A fireworks show at 10 p.m. will accompany the Delta Queen’s departure from the wharf as she heads upriver to Cincinnati. All of the aforementioned Great Steamboat Race activities are free with a 2008 Pegasus Pin.
The Great Steamboat Race starts at the Clark Memorial Bridge and proceeds upriver to Six Mile Island before returning to the bridge for the finish. The 14-mile route takes about 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours. The Belle of Louisville leads the annual racing series on the Ohio River to 22 to 19.
In 2007, the Belle of Louisville was named winner of the Derby Festival Great Steamboat Race, after a controversial call by the judges. The panel of judges conferred for several minutes after the race. Despite the Delta Queen crossing under the 2nd Street Bridge finish ahead of the Belle of Louisville, it was decided that the Belle should be declared the winner. The judges ruled that the Delta Queen cut off the Belle at the Big 4 Bridge and that the Belle should be given a weight allowance.
“Jockeys have to deal with weight allowances and so do boat captains, the Belle of Louisville carried at least 500 more people than the Delta Queen, therefore the Belle of Louisville is declared the winner,” said official race judge Captain John Bingaman with the U.S. Coast Guard.
New Belle of Louisville Captain Mark Doty said, “We asked the Delta Queen to do one thing and one thing only, to make the buoy and they didn’t do it.”
The victory gives the Belle of Louisville possession of the Golden Antlers for a year and widens the Belle of Louisville’s lead in the annual racing series on the Ohio River to 22 to 19.
“I believe I have just been robbed. I will be back next year for my antlers,” said Buford Wilkinson, new captain of the Delta Queen. This was his first Great Steamboat Race.
The race went off under cloudy conditions, with the Belle of Cincinnati serving as a Judge’s Vessel and passenger boat. Spectators aboard the Belle of Louisville included the Derby Festival Royal Court, renowned magician and Louisville native Mac King and actress Kate Linder from the soap opera The Young & The Restless. The 2007 Derby Festival Great Steamboat Race is sponsored by Owens Corning Basement Finishing Systems. Contributing sponsors of the event are Four Roses Bourbons and Lite 106.9 WVEZ.
The Belle of Louisville, which was added to the National Historic Register in 1990, is one of six authentic paddlewheel steamboats operating on U.S. waterways. The Belle was launched in 1914 under the name Idlewild. She was purchased at auction in 1962 by then-Jefferson County Judge/Executive Marlow Cook for $34,000. The following year she competed against the Delta Queen in the first-ever Great Steamboat Race.
