Jill Byrne, director of on-air racing communications at Churchill Downs, has showed horses, raced horses and trained horses. So at Saturday's Kentucky Derby, when she appears before 150,000 spectators on the track's simulcast to share her picks before each race, she's worth listening to (as opposed to that guy behind you in the fedora who's on his fifth mint julep and won't shut up about his cousin's buddy who follows the ponies). Not heading to Louisville to witness the longest-running sporting event in the United States? Byrne, who moved from the stables to the studio in 2000 when she made her debut on the TVG horse racing network, shares her insights on Churchill Downs's websites and in this interview. See her picks after the jump.

Point of origin: My father’s a trainer, and my mother, a very adequate equestrian. I grew up on a 1,000-acre farm, ponies, horses, pretty much outside my door. Every day it was: come home from school and ride. My mom actually said I was riding before I was born because she was riding while pregnant with me. I grew up in the horse show world. But, my dad was a trainer. I went and spent my vacation with him at the racetrack. He put me on my first racehorse when I was 12.

On her Derby week: We go nonstop. We start pretty much at 5 in the morning and go, it can be 8, 9, 10, midnight, 1 in the morning depending on what’s going on. I'll be here at the racetrack watching all the horses train, then I do a video update of that for the website. Then I do my Churchill Downs Today handicapping show. Then I'm in the paddock all day doing the simulcast show. I'll have to handicap the next two days’ races out, type them up for the program. Then sometimes I'll have to go do a handicapping seminar off campus after the races, various events that people want you to be at, celebrity-attended or whatever.

Her early Derby picks: Right now [six days before the race] two of my top horses would be Looking at Lucky and Sidney’s Candy. Of course, we just heard that Eskendereya [the probable favorite who was pulled out of the race Sunday morning]. He wasn’t my top horse all along anyway. Then some others that I really like, I always try to get some long shots in there and I really like Paddy O'Prado this year, just the way he’s training. He’s not good enough right now on paper as far as his performances, but he’s the one that stood out in my visual. Awesome Act is another one because I like his talent and I like the way he’s doing.

On how she makes her Derby picks: With Derby, it’s a lot of prep work following these horses from the time they’re 2 year olds. Obviously, it’s how they perform on the track, how they run, who they run against, how they do. But, for me, when it comes to crunch time, which is right now, it’s watching them in the morning. Because of my extensive background as a horseman, I know what to look for, how the horse is traveling on the ground, how their body looks, how their soundness is, how they’re carrying their weight, how the coat looks.

On how you should make your Derby picks: Go to the experts that are proven, go on KentuckyDerby.com, go to Blood Horse, go to Racing Forum and ask questions. You will get just absolutely inundated with information that even the most neophyte racegoer can understand. We try to simplify it. Because it is a race like no other, you get so many people here that maybe horse racing isn’t something they follow on a year-round basis. But then, at the same time, have fun with it. If you like Calvin Borel as a rider – you remember him?– pick Calvin Borel and [in 2009] you’ll get [Derby winner, 50-to-1 longshot] Mine That Bird because none of us experts picked Mine That Bird. If you like that particular color, if you like the names. Sometimes, you just have to do that because that’s the fun of it.

On Derby betting strategies for very greens: Because you have so many options and because there is so much value in that race, for a first-time or a very green, as we would say, gambler, I would bet horses to win, place and show, which is across the boards. Take a $5 because the payouts are always so much higher in the Derby than any other race because you've got 20 horses and the odds are usually so big on all the horses. Do something just very simple: win, place, show. Or throw a couple horses in. If you like three horses, do something like a trifecta box, which is pick three horses. You box it so those three horses can come in in any order as long as those three are somewhere in the top three, but they don't have to be in exact order. It’ll cost you just a little bit more, but you have some fun to play with there.

Go-to places when traveling to other tracks: New Orleans, Churchill owns the Fair Grounds [Race Course], so I go there quite a bit. We’ll go listen to the locals. We went to a place this year, which would end up probably becoming my regular when I’m down there called, La Boucherie. It’s just an old house that’s turned into a restaurant, kind of off the beaten path, very far away from the French Quarter and just unbelievable, all local food and a really neat bar setup in an old house. That was great. In Miami, there’s a restaurant down on the beach called Las Brisas, and that’s always been a regular place I like, and I go there a lot.