Off to the races, it's... Barbie?

So in case you didn't catch it on Fox News or - no, I guess it wasn't a big enough story for CNN - last week, Barbie is hitting the track. Not track as in track & field. The big track: Churchill Downs.

That's right, Barbie is going to the Derby.

Now I don't know about you, but I was a Barbie girl growing up. And of course, my dolls stayed primly posed in their pretty pink boxes, pristine and perfect - NOT!

Unfortunately for them and whatever future collectability they possessed, my Barbies went spelunking in muddy sand caves down by the river, had their toes and other appendages nibbled by sharp puppy teeth, sailed through the air arms out-stretched like Superman on the end of dog leashes - occasionally biting the dirt or the odd tree limb in passing, and of course, galloped around on spectacularly robed plastic horses. (Of course I had Barbie's horses!)

My Barbies have long since gone to the giant landf- er, toy box in the sky. (Although I have a lot of plastic horses, broken legs & all in a padded box in the closet, much to T's dismay.) And of course I always watch the Derby if I can, so when I heard Barbie & Derby in the same sentence, my ears pricked up. IMHO, it's cool she's going to be making an appearance - it's just too bad she's only a spectator.

Fran Jurga over at the Jurga Report ponders that interesting question - which would you rather see little girls playing with: Kentucky Derby Barbie in all her hatted glory, or Backstrech Barbie sleek & lean on glossy pony? I'm pretty sure I know which one I'd have gravitated to as a kid, and she wouldn't have been wearing high heels and a fru-fru hat - well not for long, anyway! But the mint juleps and sexy heels? Yeah, I'd probably take those, and a Derby ticket, too! :) How about you?