There's this, like, lattice o’ coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example: suppose you're thinkin’ about a plate o’ shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o’ shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin’ for one, either. It’s all part of a cosmic unconciousness.

—Miller (Tracey Walter), Repo Man

There’s an old saying around the racetrack: White snows in March, bet the white silks in May. Since there was an inordinate amount of snow this winter in many parts of this great land, and since there is an equally inordinate number of jockeys who will be sporting white-colored silks (the uniform jockeys wear, representing the horse’s owner) in Saturday’s 134th running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (henceforth to be referred to as the Derby), it seems like a good year to put this adage to use.

Erm, ah, seriously? I’m kidding. I made that up. There is no adage equating snowy Marches to white silks in the Derby. But I made up this little white lie to make a point: it’s fun to bet the Kentucky Derby, probably the only horse race which busts out from its usual rear-of-the-sports-pages home, to burst into the public consciousness for a week. Even if you know nothing about horseracing, why not make up a saying of your own and go with it? If you want to weed through printed website pages of Byzantine turf data and jargon-laced “professional” analysis that would probably—literally—stretch to the moon, go right ahead. If you want to have a little fun handicapping this year’s race, read on.