Survivors Sail in Sea of Pink on Oaks Day

They speak in code, using terms like “DCIS” or “epithelial,” a language only those chosen for inclusion in an elite club would understand. The members of this club are survivors of breast or ovarian cancer, two forms of cancer that will afflict thousands each year. On Kentucky Oaks Day, they'll march together in the Survivors Parade to celebrate how far they've come and gain encouragement for the road they have left to travel.

Churchill Downs Racetrack will honor 142 survivors of breast or ovarian cancer in the Longines Kentucky Oaks Survivors Parade Presented by Kroger on Oaks Day, May 6. That's one survivor for every year the Kentucky Oaks, the renowned race for 3-year-old fillies, has been run. The parade is part of Churchill Downs' Pink Out, a day to honor the ladies–when the legendary Twin Spires glow pink, the grandstand and its patrons don bright pink, and awareness and funds are raised for women's health issues.

Over 500 breast or ovarian cancer survivors were nominated by family and friends to participate in this year's Survivors Parade. Through a month-long online voting campaign, 141 women and one man from over 80 cities across the U.S. and Canada earned the most votes and will receive two tickets to the Kentucky Oaks, enjoy a lunch buffet, and parade in front of thousands over the Churchill Downs racetrack.

“If you're fortunate enough to be close to the track, or really anywhere on the track that day, and you get to lay your eyes on the Survivors Parade, if you're close enough to see those faces, it's a wonderful, empowering and inspiring thing,” said John Asher, Vice President of Communications for Churchill Downs. “Just seeing the glow on those faces as the crowd cheers for them, it was a magical thing from the get-go and just continues to be years later and it's become a wonderful part of the Kentucky Oaks tradition.”

Now in its eighth year, the Survivors Parade grew from the inspiration and admiration for one of Churchill Downs' own, Tricia Amburgey. She started her career at the historic track as an intern while a student at nearby Bellarmine College. Over the next 22 years she worked her way to Vice President of Sales and was instrumental in the track's $177 million 15-year renovation projects.

As Amburgey's career soared, so too did the respect and appreciation she earned from her co-workers. In late 2008, soon after Amburgey received a stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis, an idea was born to turn a day that honors the fillies into a day that supports their human counterparts like Amburgey. Just before Rachel Alexandra made history with a 20 ¼-length win in Kentucky Oaks 135, Amburgey made history of her own, as she led the first 135 survivors in the inaugural Survivors Parade.

Over the next five years Amburgey continued to help with the event while fighting her own cancer battle, which required a double mastectomy and years of aggressive treatments. Her valiant battle ended in October 2013 when the cancer claimed her life at age 42 and took her from her husband and three young children. But Amburgey's legacy lives on in the emotional and inspirational celebration of the Survivors Parade and the stories of encouragement and perseverance it tells.

One of those stories belongs to Eclipse Award winning turf writer Jennie Rees. In the fall of 2015, considering a buyout from her 34-year employer, the Louisville Courier-Journal, Rees decided to put her health affairs in order and schedule the screenings she'd postponed. She was a year overdue for her annual mammogram, with a family history of breast cancer, when a suspicious spot was detected on the scan. Subsequent mammograms and biopsy revealed it was ductal carcinoma in citu (DCIS), stage 0 breast cancer.

When two lumpectomies proved incomplete, Rees chose a radical double mastectomy. It was an extreme measure for stage 0 breast cancer, but a treatment that fits the writer's fast-paced lifestyle and has allowed her to pursue her evolving career without the side-effects of radiation or a lifetime of annual MRIs and mammograms.

“What I'm going through is nothing compared to what so many women and men go through, and I just wanted to really use this parade, to use my connections in the media, to help get the message out about the importance of early detection and having those mammograms as scheduled,” Rees said.

Rees was nominated to the parade by her sister Kathy Johnson and will march with sister-in-law Linda Serpas. Serpas resides in Florida, but spent weeks in Louisville nursing Rees through her recovery while Rees's trainer-husband was stabled at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

“It's so emotional to just be watching it, that I can't imagine what it's like when you're in it,” Rees said of the parade. “You see the women walking by and waving and smiling…in front of a crowd of 100,000. Everybody's honoring all these people, cheering those that are there in person and honoring and commemorating those that are not able to be there in person or who have passed. I really don't know quite what to expect.”

A stroll on the racetrack is a near-daily occurrence for Blood-Horse photographer Anne Eberhardt Keogh, but on Oaks Day 2014 the dirt track beneath her feet offered a different feel when she walked as one of 140 survivors parading over the track. Keogh was diagnosed with invasive stage 2 breast cancer in late 2013 and underwent a lumpectomy, followed by radiation, and is currently on a five-year course of the drug Tamoxifen.

Through the support of co-workers and friends, Keogh not only garnered a spot among the parade participants, but received their help coordinating a quick change from work clothes to dress pinks, and swapping her camera for a pink hat. Immediately after the parade, Keogh was back at work on the finish line, photographing Untapable's Kentucky Oaks victory.

“I'm usually behind the camera, so I was a little more in the spotlight and then I had all these photographers taking my photograph and yelling words of support to me; it was a lot of fun,” Keogh said. “My preference is to be behind the camera, but I had a really good time and for other people that have never been on the track, the tremendous volume of cheering and clapping, it's so loud and there's so many people there on Oaks Day, the place is packed and it's just wonderful. It's a wonderful experience. I think it's great that they do it every year and try to get as many people as they can.”

To date, the Pink Out celebration and Survivors Parade have raised more than $740,000 for women's health organizations. This year, Bright Pink®, a national non-profit organization that concentrates its efforts on prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer in young women, has already received over $25,000 from the event in online donations and will receive another $50,000 through Churchill's Pink Out. Horses for Hope, which provides breast cancer awareness and education to Kentucky's horse industry, will receive $30,000 which represents $1 from every Grey Goose® Oaks Lily® cocktail sold on Kentucky Oaks Day.