![]() “We told my parents we met at Seneca Park and never revealed the truth until right before we were married in 1992.” They were only strict about New Year’s Eve and the Kentucky Derby, so I never told them I had met Tommy at the third turn,” Gretchyn said. “My parents were pretty lenient while I was growing up. Before long, he asked her to go steady and gave her his ring. Tommy would visit Gretchyn by riding his bicycle several miles to her home and by the fall, they would talk for hours on the telephone after school. “It just sounds like such a crazy story when we try to tell this to our kids about how we met,” said Gretchyn.ĭuring the summer of 1983, the young couple’s romance grew. “He spun the bottle, of course it landed on me, he leaned over and kissed me and that’s how it all got started.” “Well I thought we were going to play with a group of people but Tommy led me to a blanket and no one else was there to play,” she laughed. (Hey, remember this is the Kentucky Derby and in the infield, pretty much anything legal goes.) Once he’d won the game, being a smooth operator even at age 15, Tommy suggested that Gretchyn join him for a game of spin the bottle. Tommy lost the first toss but convinced his friend to make it the best two out of three. “I didn’t know it at the time but in order to decide which boy got to hang out with me, they flipped a coin,” said Gretchyn. I had never met anyone like her,” Tommy said.īut how could he make sure he could spend the rest of that Kentucky Derby Day with her? ![]() “The thing I remember about Gretchyn was how easy she was to talk to. When Tommy and Gretchyn met, he knew he wanted to spend the day with her. Of course, all good love stories have a twist and this one has a doozy. Eddie wore a pink cowboy hat in honor of Churchill Down’s tradition of shining a light on Breast Cancer Awareness at the Oaks. “At the infield’s third turn, we both got lucky on that beautiful Derby Day.”Įddie Turpen and his daughter Gretchyn Furlong at the Kentucky Oaks. “Sunny’s Halo won the Kentucky Derby but Tommy Furlong won my heart,” said Gretchyn. ![]() Gretchyn was a rule follower and said she really doesn’t know why she disobeyed her parents on that day, but if she hadn’t, she would never have caught Tommy’s eye. ![]() Like prairie dogs or Emperor penguins, some huddled together as they moved through the mass of race fans while other groups branched out and mingled with strangers.Īs Tommy and his Trinity High School crew set up their infield camp at the third turn, Gretchyn, who was under strict orders from her parents to stay close to the infield’s first turn, wandered over to the rowdier section where the boys had laid out their blankets and punch. Time passed punctuated by the thundering thoroughbreds circling the infield while the sing-song cadence of the track announcer did his job by whipping up anticipation over the loudspeakers throughout the day.Īs the sun beat down on the shadeless lawn separated by fencing from the dirt track, small herds of teenagers roamed the inner boundaries of the infield. The din of the swelling crowd continued to grow as the sun moved lazily across a cloudless blue sky. On that day, excitement hummed through the air as it always does at the Kentucky Derby. Looking back, maybe it was a magic love potion in those plastic bags because within the next few hours, Tommy Furlong, whose last name happens to be the term used to measure distance in a horse race, would meet the girl of his dreams in the infield during the 109th Kentucky Derby. ![]()
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