Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby, famous American horse race attended by more than 150,000 spectators and watched on television by millions of people annually. The derby is held at Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky, on the first Saturday in May. Perhaps the most prestigious single event in horse racing, the race brings together the top three-year-old horses in the world, with the winner assured a spot in the sport’s annals. Apart from the race itself, the Kentucky Derby serves as the focal point of a weeklong celebration of Southern culture and the renewal of spring.

The track and race were founded in 1875 by Meriwether Lewis Clark—grandson of explorer William Clark—who wanted to replicate England’s Epsom Derby. The race was 1 ½ mi (about 2.4 km) from 1875 to 1895; since 1896 the distance has been 1 ¼ mi (about 2.2 km). Despite early financial troubles, the race’s promoters—led by Louisville tailor Matt J. Winn, who eventually bought Churchill Downs—succeeded in luring more of the top horses every year. Festivals and celebrations started up around the race as its fame and stature grew, and the Kentucky Derby gradually became a sporting event on par with the Indianapolis 500 or the World Series.

The derby is the first of three races that make up horse racing’s Triple Crown. The other two are the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Belmont Stakes, at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Secretariat, one of the 11 horses that have won the Triple Crown, set the speed record for the Kentucky Derby in 1973 at 1 minute 59 2/5 seconds. Two jockeys, Eddie Arcaro and Bill Hartack, have each ridden five Kentucky Derby winners. Calumet Farm in Kentucky has bred nine of the winning horses. For a list of winners of the Kentucky Derby, and of the Triple Crown, see the accompanying tables.