A miracle allows Kentucky Derby's most remarkable ...
Key takeaways
- "It was weird," says Barbara Weihe, his wife of 68 years and three months and one week.
- No, he hadn't missed in 1954, when he and his teenaged buddies stood outside befuddled until they spotted a friendly drainpipe they could scale.
- "Derby Bob," as became the name, patronized the Derby through so many crummy weather days: the heartless cold of 1957, the ruthless heat of 2008, the shameless rains of the late 2010s.
Why this matters: a sports story that could shift standings, legacies, or fan conversations.
Kentucky Derby superfan Bob Weihe attended his 80th straight race on Saturday and witnessed Golden Tempo win in a stunner. Courtesy of Bob Weihe Chuck Culpepper Multiple Authors May 3, 2026, 12:00 AM ETEmail Print Open Extended Reactions LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Something screwy happened lately with the vital signs of an 88-year-old man. He had just spent four months in hospital rooms and rehab floors in quiet agony and ostensible decline. All of a sudden, the blood pressure monitor, so huffy for so long as Bob Weihe's pressure kept nosediving enough to thwart rehab efforts (and pretty much all else), chimed in with a fresh reading. It declared an impossible, impeccable 120/80.
"It was weird," says Barbara Weihe, his wife of 68 years and three months and one week. She reckons it had "something to do with getting home" in mid-April for the first time since Christmas morning. She then agrees with her son from across the family room on Friday night that it clearly has something to do with something else. From the time Bob Weihe at age 9 accompanied his mother to the 1947 Kentucky Derby, and she recommended he crawl through knees and ankles of a four-deep crowd to the rail to glimpse the indecipherable blur of horses going by, he has attended every single Derby. That means that if he somehow could attend the one on Saturday, his streak could reach a dumbfounding 80, in a world where it's so rare to hear the words "80 in a row."
No, he hadn't missed in 1954, when he and his teenaged buddies stood outside befuddled until they spotted a friendly drainpipe they could scale. He certainly hadn't missed in 1963, when he drove his Coca-Cola truck around southern Indiana recommending the overlooked Chateaugay to those who asked for a Derby tip, then went back around southern Indiana the next week distributing winnings to those who had listened. He didn't miss that time when Barbara had surgery -- "I wouldn't have him miss the Derby for anything," she said in 2020 -- so he took his 90-year-old mother while Barbara got discharged on the Derby afternoon and briefly lacked a ride home, a story that exhibits her runaway good humor. He didn't miss even in 2020, the empty, ghostly, fan-less Derby of Sept. 5 during COVID-19 restrictions, when an owner of the horse Max Player learned his streak might end at 73 straight, then kindly lassoed Bob into their owner group.