According to a USA Today survey, "The Kentucky Derby is the No. 2 reason to throw a party, second only to New Year's Eve."

Whether in Louisville or Los Angeles, here are some tips and suggestions for throwing a Kentucky Derby party!

Garnish silver serving trays with rosettes of tomatoes and radishes. Watercress. Bibb lettuce and mint are also traditional and attractive to use with molded salads, terrines, and appetizers.

Add a ringed water mold of roses and mint to a punch bowl for Mock Champagne Punch.

Make your food table festive by using horseshoe-shaped molds for aspics and pates.

Garnish trays with tomato roses or piped cream cheese roses. Garnish plates with rinsed and dried flower petals, or scatter them on the table around the centerpiece.

Cake molds of horseshoe and hot air balloon shapes are available. There are also candy molds of roses, horses and other decorative molds. Kentucky candies, such as the famous Bourbon Balls, are impressive to pass at the end of dinner or to give as gifts.

Edible centerpieces, such as fresh fruit. vegetables and even scooped-out loaves of bread make interesting containers for many foods. Roses, tulips, violets, mums and nasturtiums are edible flower petals.

Center pieces of red roses or colorful spring flowers will capture the Derby spirit.

This is a perfect occasion for displaying sterling silver for an elegant dinner or buffet.

Fill large vases or unusual containers with azaleas, dogwood, or any flowering greenery from your yard. The aroma and color will enhance your home and add a touch of "Derby Fever".

Carved ice or tallow-sculptured horseheads are conversational selections as well as unusual decorations. These are especially adaptable to areas which are spacious.

Baskets filled with red geraniums or tulips create an informal atmosphere. They can be used for tables, patios and outdoor barbecues.

A fifth of Kentucky Bourbon frozen in a block of ice is a conversation piece. The Bourbon is set in an empty half gallon milk carton filled with water, sprigs of greenery, rose petals and then frozen. Peel off the carton and set iced Bourbon on a cocktail napkin to prevent slipping, and then in a deep tray to catch the melting ice. Surround the iced Bourbon with greenery.

Instead of the traditional red for roses perhaps you would prefer to use another color theme, such as your favorite racing silks.

Make an infield centerpiece by lining a large tray with foil. Cut a piece of grass sod to fit the tray, arrange a grouping of ceramic or wooden horses. Build a fence around the entire piece with popsicle sticks or roping. Add small flowers if you wish.

Place a large, handsome horse sculpture in the center of a table and surround with greenery and a garland of roses for the horse's neck.

Grapevine and straw wreaths can be decorated with betting tickets, racing forms, miniature horses, silk roses and ribbons as door decorations. Corn husk or wood roses also may be used as door decorations.

One of the Kentucky Derby Festival's main events is the Balloon Race, so balloons make appropriate decorations. Purchase oversized balloons, fill with helium, tape ribbons over each balloon, tie straw baskets underneath balloons and fill with flowers.

If entertaining informally, use signs to decorate your home. Tape a sign on the closet door marked "Paddock", on the bar marked "Watering Hole", on the kitchen door marked "Infield", to the dining area as the "Clubhouse" and the television room as the "Grandstand".

Many people collect the annual Kentucky Derby poster to add to their collection and to display at Derby party time.

The sound track from "The Greatest Race" is available on a 15 minute cassette tape. Played about a half an hour before the race, it would add to the excitement. This may inspire everyone at the party to join in with the television crowd and sing "My Old Kentucky Home."

Decorate a mailbox or lamp post with large red bows or balloons. Line a walkway or front stoop with masses of red geraniums.

And if it's still #2 to New Year's Eve, well then there's not enough horseplayers in your circle of friends!

My own KD experience usually isn't a party... we try to do a weekend getaway every year to an OTB site, a just-the-two-fo-us kind of thing to a track we've never been to. Last year we went to Windsor, ON, and spent the big day at Windsor Harness (I missed the WHAS exacta for the first time ever, and once again missed the Derby... 0 for 5!). This year I'm trying to get reservations at Mountaineer Park, but it's not looking good, so I'll probably go back to Arlington Park. I haven't been there since the mighty Cigar was there, and it's great to have it open again.

R (headed to Churchill for the Breeders' Cup again this year)

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Place a red rose at each ladies' place-setting and use red or silver bordered placecards for a sit-down dinner.

Fill a silver wine cooler with long stemmed red roses as a centerpiece encircled by silver julep cups filled with fresh mint.

Buffet tables can be accented by wrapping red napkins around silver flatwear and tying with narrow white satin ribbon.

Red or jockey silk colors make colorful runners for tables.

If you are using a lace table cloth, have a red taffeta cloth made as an undercloth.

Use local Kentucky pottery for favors, containers or as serving pieces.

Horse head place mats can be cut from felt and wood-carved horse head napkin rings are available at some stores.

This has been a weird, weird year on the trail. (Two prep races on TV this Saturday, the Flamingo Stakes and the Santa Anita Derby, and then three next weekend-- the Wood, Blue Grass, and Arkansas Derby.) It's a mess. Right at this very moment, if it were Derby time, I'd be going with Hal's Hope, but I'm sure glad the Blue Grass comes before the Derby; Florida's been awful this year.

(As a sidelight, I just watched the first two-year-old race in Kentucky this year, and those four-and-a-half furlong maiden special races are second only to the Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs for producing WHAS Stakes winners; this one was taken by a horse with the unassuming name of The Goo...)

If you're holding a betting kind of Derby party and you need a quick and easy way to keep track of odds, there are two or three computer programs designed for it that can be found over at www.winfiles.com.

R

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KEENELAND: THE ASHLAND STAKES- GRADE 1 SAT 4/8
Here is an overview of the starters:

RINGS A CHIME: Had to contend with Surfside the last 3 races but now gets to hook Cash Run early. The lesser of 2 evils?

DEED I DO: Never worse than 2nd in 5 carer races. Gets blinkers on and might get the perfect pace trip.

I'M JUST A PEACH: Is a maiden. Nuff said

CIRCLE OF LIFE: Won the Grade 1 Spinaway as a 2yo. Comes off an allowance win.

ZOFTIG: Was a late running 3rd in the Fairgrounds Oaks. Closer gets a perfect pace set up.

CASH RUN: Possible vulnerable highweight favorite won't wear a nasal strip and she has faltered in the past without one.