Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a prestigious horse race held annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and is one of the United States' top sporting events. Established in 1875, the Derby is the first leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, which also includes the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. The race was inspired by the English Derby and has evolved into a major cultural event, attracting thousands of spectators and celebrities alike. Initially conceived by Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., the Derby has a rich history marked by milestones, including the first filly to win, Regret, in 1915, and the participation of female trainers and jockeys from the 1970s onward. The race has faced challenges, including the impacts of world events and social issues, but it has remained a continuous tradition, even through the Great Depression and both world wars. Recent developments reflect broader societal changes, with increased international participation and significant purse increases. Despite controversies, such as disqualifications and safety concerns for horses, the Kentucky Derby remains a symbol of equestrian excellence and American sporting culture.
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Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby, first run in 1875, is held every year on the first Saturday of May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, a National Historic Landmark. It derives its name from another well-known horse race, instituted in 1780 by the twelfth earl of Derby and held annually at Epsom Downs near London. The Kentucky Derby ranks as one of the top sporting events in the United States. With the Belmont Stakes (run at the Belmont Park, near New York City) and the Preakness (run at the Pimlico Race Course, near Baltimore, Maryland), the Kentucky Derby is one of horse racing's Triple Crown races. Only a horse that has won all three races in one year, like Secretariat in 1973, can qualify as a Triple Crown winner. By 2024, thirteen horses had won a Triple Crown.
Kentuckians have long been interested in horse racing and breeding. The first horse races in Lexington were staged in 1787, and the first jockey club was organized ten years later. Over two centuries of tradition and experience, as well as ideal natural conditions, have made the Lexington and Louisville area of Kentucky one of the leading centers for the raising of thoroughbred horses. In this area, bluegrass combines with the unusually rich vegetation to produce lush bluegreen meadows. Graceful thoroughbreds on the hundreds of horse farms in the heart of the bluegrass country have become the very symbol of the Blue Grass State.
The inspiration behind the Kentucky Derby came from Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., who developed most of the rules governing the sport of horse racing in the United States. In 1875 Colonel Clark organized Churchill Downs as the Louisville Jockey Club, and he served as president of the track from 1875 to 1894. As part of the Churchill Downs program, he offered the Kentucky Derby. The race was to be for three-year-old horses, which is when horses are in their prime, carrying weight not in excess of 126 pounds.
The first Derby race, on May 17, 1875, was a deliberate attempt by the Louisville aristocracy to transplant the social ambiance of the English Derby. The day after the race, the local press dwelt upon the stylish crowd and ten thousand carriages present at the eighty-acre track and lawn of Churchill Downs before mentioning that a horse named Aristides had won the race. The first running was a memorable one. Aristides, owned by H. Price McGrath, a Kentucky horse breeder and gambler, had been entered as a pacemaker for Chesapeake, also owned by McGrath. Aristides ran so well, however, that when the time came for Chesapeake to pass him, Chesapeake was too far behind to overtake his pacemaker. Seeing what had happened, McGrath signaled Aristides' jockey to go for the finish line. Aristides reached the wire a winner in a little over two and a half minutes, then the fastest on record for a three-year-old at the mile and one-half distance (in 1896, the course was shortened to a mile and one-quarter).
Over the next few years, the Kentucky Derby continued to gain in popularity. A visitor to Derby Day in 1877 described the setting and influx of spectators as follows: “Green fields and woodlands lay on the left, a cottage dotted here and there over the plain. Behind, the Nashville railroad winding its way like a snake through the woodlands. In front there was a vast cloud of dust that indicated the road over which the vast throng was approaching.”
In 1878 the Short Line Railroad added a special nineteen-car train to accommodate Derby fans. For the 1882 running, the seating capacity at Churchill Downs was doubled. Following the death of Colonel Clark in 1899, however, interest in racing at Churchill Downs declined for several seasons. In an attempt to recapture its lost prestige, Colonel Matt J. Winn agreed to become general manager of the track in 1902. He scheduled the race for Saturday rather than a weekday, and he turned the Kentucky Derby from an inbred Louisville social occasion into a nationwide attraction. With his knack for showmanship and promotion, Colonel Winn set the race well on the way to ranking as one of the best-known sporting events in the world.
The twentieth century saw a number of milestone firsts at the Kentucky Derby. The national spotlight from Regret becoming the first filly, or young female horse, to outrun the colts at the derby elevated the event's standing in 1915. Notably, unlike other major sporting events, neither world wars nor the Great Depression interrupted the running of the Kentucky Derby. The race gained broader audiences yet with the advent of broadcasting, making its debuts on network radio in 1925, international radio in 1932, local television in 1949, and national television in 1952.
The Kentucky Derby has evolved socially as well. Although women had owned derby racehorses for decades, Mary Hirsch became the first female trainer to run a horse in the Kentucky Derby and Diane Crump the first female jockey to compete in it in 1970. In the first several decades of the Kentucky Derby, Black jockeys won twenty-eight times; although none won after 1902, the numbers of Black trainers and racehorse owners increased in the century that followed. The race also became increasingly international in the late twentieth century, with competitors and owners coming from as far as Dubai and Japan, and beginning the 1980s, celebrities became more prominent attendees than aristocrats. Thus, many developments in the history of the Kentucky Derby have paralleled those in the country as a whole.
In 2005, the Kentucky Derby changed its purse distribution, adding the fifth-place winner to the recipients of the award money. Starting in 2019, the purse money was increased to $3 million from $2 million. Despite racial justice protests occurring around Churchill Downs due, in part, to the police-involved killing of Breonna Taylor, an unarmed Black woman, in Louisville earlier that year as well as a lack of spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Kentucky Derby, which had been postponed to September, was still held. Controversy then marked the 2021 race after its winning horse and rider were subsequently disqualified following a post-race failed drug test. Two years later, the deaths of twelve horses due to injuries at Churchill Downs in May alone were widely reported.
Bibliography
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Drape, Joe. "Medina Spirit Stripped of 2021 Kentucky Derby Win." The New York Times, 21 Feb. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/sports/horse-racing/medina-spirit-kentucky-derby.html. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.
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Nicholson, James C. The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America's Premier Sporting Event. UP of Kentucky, 2012.
Romero, Dennis. "Churchill Downs, Home of Kentucky Derby, Suspends Racing after 12 Horses Die." NBC News, 2 June 2023, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/churchill-downs-home-kentucky-derby-suspends-racing-12-horse-deaths-rcna87528. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.
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