On May 17, 1875, in front of an estimated crowd
of 10,000 people, a field of 15 three-year-old horses contested the
first Derby. Under African-American jockey Oliver Lewis, a colt named
Aristides, who was trained by future Hall of Famer, Ansel Williamson,
won the inaugural Derby. Later that year, Lewis rode Aristides to a
second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes. Churchill Downs in 1901
Although the first race meet proved a success, the track ran into
financial difficulties and in 1894 the New Louisville Jockey Club was
incorporated with new capitalization and improved facilities. Despite
this, the business floundered until 1902 when Col. Matt Winn of
Louisville put together a syndicate of businessmen to acquire the
facility. Under Winn, Churchill Downs prospered and the Kentucky Derby
became the preeminent thoroughbred horse race in America.
Between 1875 and 1902, African-American jockeys won 15 of the 28
runnings of the Kentucky Derby. On May 11, 1892, African-American jockey
Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton, age 15, became the youngest rider to win the
Derby. The 1904 race was won by Elwood, the first Derby starter and
winner to be owned by a woman, Laska Durnell. In 1915, Regret became the
first filly to win the Kentucky Derby, and in 1917, the English bred
colt “Omar Khayyam” became the first foreign-bred horse to win the race.
Regret in 1915
As part of gaining income, horse owners began sending their
successful Derby horses to compete a few weeks later in the Preakness
Stakes at the Pimlico Race Course, in Baltimore, Maryland, followed by
the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York. The three races offered the
largest purse and in 1919 Sir Barton became the first horse to win all
three races. However, the term Triple Crown didn’t come into use for
another eleven years. In 1930, when Gallant Fox became the second horse
to win all three races, sportswriter Charles Hatton brought the phrase
into American usage. Fueled by the media, public interest in the
possibility of a “superhorse” that could win the Triple Crown began in
the weeks leading up to the Derby. Two years after the term was coined,
the race, which had been run in mid-May since inception, was changed to
the first Saturday in May to allow for a specific schedule for the
Triple Crown races. On May 3, 1952, the first national television
coverage of the Kentucky Derby took place.
In 1954, the purse exceeded $100,000 for the first time. In 1968,
Dancer’s Image became the first—and to this day the only horse—to win
the race and then be disqualified after traces of phenylbutazone were
found in the horse’s urinalysis. The fastest time ever run in the Derby
(at its present distance) is 1 minute 59 2/5 seconds, by Secretariat in
1973
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs grew slowly into the beautiful racetrack that we have today in Louisville, KY
Old Rosebud ~ Kentucky Derby Winner 1914
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