BY GREGORY A. HALL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LOUISVILLE -- Boys cheered. Girls screamed. Parents hoisted small children on their shoulders just to get a glimpse.
A star from Titanic? Yeah, Gloria Stuart was in the Pegasus Parade, but the Academy Award nominee wasn't the big star.
Those cheers went to Kentucky's heroes, the national basketball champion Wildcats.
A star from the biggest-grossing movie in history took second billing to the University of Kentucky hoopsters.
UK coach Orlando "Tubby" Smith compared the event to the school's celebration in Lexington the day after the championship.
"This is just an extension of that," he said. "These are moments that you really get a chance to cherish."
He arrived in Louisville for his first Derby after a golf match Thursday morning in Birmingham, Ala., with his predecessor, Rick Pitino.
Mr. Smith's Derby pick is no surprise: Halory Hunter, the horse owned by Mr. Pitino. "I've got to bet on that one," Mr. Smith said. Ms. Stuart doesn't know which horse she'll pick. With forecasts for possible showers, she's pulling for a horse that won't sink in rain-soaked Churchill Downs.
"I'm going to pick a mudder," she said. "My mother taught me that when it rains, pick a mudder."
The trip to Kentucky is the first for Ms. Stuart, who played the elderly Rose in Titanic.
"My parents came to the Derby years ago," said the 87-year-old actress. She thinks it was Secretariat's 1973 Derby.
Ms. Stuart may have been the only person in the crowd who didn't know about UK. "Is that a professional team?"
Neil Bradford, clad in a Cardinals shirt, wasn't too thrilled to hear the UK team would be coming by toward the end of the parade. "We might leave early then," he said. "Beat the traffic." He won't be betting on Halory Hunter. "I wish I could bet on every other horse but that one," he said.
Early-morning rains cast doubts on whether the UK fans would come en masse. They did.
Louise Barrett of nearby Henryville, Ind., comes most years to the parade. A flood couldn't have kept her from coming Thursday. "I mainly came to see the Wildcats, rain or shine," she said. Like many lining Broadway, the Rev. Ted Wilson had a "K" hat on. His was a concession to necessity, not worship of a Big Blue idol.
"I actually just bought the cap a little bit ago," he said, "because I forgot to bring one down."
He's really an Iowa State fan who moved to Louisville last year. Gov. Paul Patton was one of the many politicians in the parade. "I don't think they come to see the politicians," the Rev. Wilson said. "The politicians try to horn in on somebody else's crowd."
Before the parade, the governor wasn't sure which star, basketball team or float would get the biggest cheers. He wasn't disappointed, though, with the response for the Wildcats.
"They're real heroes."
