May 13 - Proud Spell

She's a wonderful filly that won the Kentucky Oaks for her owner the former governor of Kentucky, Bereton Jones. She is by his farm's stallion Proud Spell.

But let's totally highjack today's story.

A few years ago, I had a friend from high school in town that I hadn't seen in maybe 40 years. Linda Ziemba grew up in Cottage Grove, Tennessee but now she lives in New Jersey. She has a company with an interesting product that prevents drones from flying into specific air space such as stadiums etc. She was in Kentucky on business. We met at a restaurant in Midway, Kentucky, a cute little place with about 10 tables. At one of the tables was Governor Jones and his family. We said hello. He had given a quote that was used on the back of the book, A Brush With Greatness as well as Proud Spell being in the book.

His son, Bret, was there with his very pregnant wife and a couple of kids. They were on their way for a "scheduled delivery" to the hospital after lunch so there was a certain excitement in the entire group. All this info was provided by the governor when he came to our table to say hello and I was introducing the governor to my high school friend.

The Jones left. When it was time to pay for lunch, I was informed that Governor Jones had bought our lunch. Again, nice touch! I'm sure Linda had to be tad impressed, right?

Then, the waitress told us that the governor bought everybody's lunch that day to make up for all the noise and commotion caused by his rowdy grandkids. I really hadn't noticed them making a raucous. So, I think painting Proud Spell got us a free lunch and special recognition, instead it was just another example of how kind and considerate Governor Jones was and we just had the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time.