The Kentucky Derby is returning to pre-COVID-19 conditions this month. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Throngs of fashionable people displaying the proper millinery, proper bank accounts, stylish walks and Kentucky pedigrees return to the famed “First Saturday in May” here in 2022.

No more COVID-19 protocols to bring down the lift provided to the gentry of my old Kentucky home. The 2022 Kentucky Derby will be celebrated as the time for flinging aside any conservative thinking, dress or behavior now that Churchill Downs in Louisville has opened its doors and seating capacity to pre-2020 revelry and spending.

The infield will be fully available for the more youthful of the expected crowd of 150,000-plus. Those with less rigid budgets can coast into their grandstand seats that begin at a not-so-modest $1,143 even an eighth of a mile up the home stretch from the finish line.

Mint juleps will be waved. Women will don their wide-brimmed hats and especially tailored spring dresses as the thoroughbreds emerge from the crowded paddock to the somewhat altered strains of “My Old Kentucky Home.”

The thousands of patrons crave normalcy — the way things were when the bourbon burgers, chardonnay and pinot noir came alongside the grandeur of the thoroughbreds and the distinct odor of old money.

The Kentucky Trifecta of thoroughbreds, bourbon and putting opulence on parade is back in vogue. Why hold back? They couldn’t flaunt much of anything in either 2020 or 2021. Flaunt it again is the standard phrase.

Twin Spires. Owner’s silks. The finest three-year-old horses in training. A two-day celebration where the irreplaceable Kentucky Derby is paired with the Kentucky Oaks, to bring in an estimated $600 million to the once-sagging Louisville economy.

Throw restraints to the wind (finally). Bring back “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” and “The Run for the Roses” to the vocabularies of everyone in attendance.

A mostly wide open betting field of 20 entries, now breaking from one starting gate that can hold all of them. The black beauty Zandon. The bleached white of tri-favorite White Abarrio, a grandson of the fabled sire Tapit. A long list of those whose odds tilt above 20-1. People with hunches wagering on Epicenter, Mo Donegal, Taiba or Charge It. Trainers with known backgrounds, but who have never won the Kentucky Derby.

None of the thoroughbreds dancing on their toes has ever run as far as the mile-and-a-quarter distance. There is an entry from Japan. Thoroughbreds and jockeys from all across the map of the United States.

Celebrities in Louisville from Hollywood. To be seen. To be written about as a goal of many.

The one race that can still raise the antenna of people who work from nine-to-five or brave the perils of $4.25 a gallon gasoline or ever-rising milk prices and the cost of a dozen eggs. There must not be any supply chain interruptions in the tiered stands at Churchill Downs.

Ride the return to normalcy in the ranks of the blue bloods of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. University of Kentucky basketball has no recent national championships to celebrate. Neither do the Louisville Cardinals.

Hail the bluegrass and the aged liquors. Open that starting gate. Raise a wall of noise like no other in thoroughbred racing.

It’s the idolized Kentucky Derby. With all its patrons. With all its painted on pageantry. With all its semblance of normalcy.