150th Kentucky Derby: 10 fast facts

The 150th running of the Kentucky Derby will be held on May 4. Race week began on April 27 and ends with Derby Day. The race is called the “Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.”

Here are 10 fast facts about the annual horse race.

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1. The Louisville Jockey Club was formed by Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. in 1874. He also got land for a racetrack from his uncles John and Henry Churchill. The next year the first Kentucky Derby was run. Jockey Oliver Lewis rode Aristides to beat 14 other horses. The crowd boasted 10,000 people.

2. The name Churchill Downs was first used in 1883. Leonatus won the race that year. Less than a decade later, in 1894, the 285-foot grandstand is built to accommodate more spectators.

3. The race was initially one-and-a-half miles long, but in 1896, that was shortened by a quarter mile, because it was thought that the longer race was too long for 3-year-old thoroughbreds in early spring. Ben Brush won the derby and was given the first documented Garland of Roses. The red rose became the official flower of the Kentucky Derby in 1904. The first horse to be draped in a garland of red roses was the 1932 winner Burgoo King.

4. Sir Barton becomes the first winner of what would eventually evolve into the Triple Crown. The horse won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, the Withers Stakes and the Belmont Stakes over 32 days in 1919. The Withers is no longer considered as prestigious as the other three Triple Crown races. Gallant Fox won the Triple Crown when the term was officially adopted in 1930. Secretariat is one of the best-known horses to win the Triple Crown, completing it in 1973. The final horse to win the Triple Crown was Justify in 2018.

5. The term “Run for the Roses” starts in 1925, the same year the race was first broadcast on the radio. Between 5 and 6 million listeners tuned in to listen to Flying Ebony win. The race would be broadcast internationally in 1932, airing on the BBC. It would be televised for the first time in 1949 in the local market. In 1952, the race was televised live nationally to 10 to 15 million viewers.

6. The Kentucky Derby was permanently scheduled for the first Saturday in May, instead of a floating day sometime in May, starting in 1931. The Triple Crown races were set in order of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

7. The Mint Julep became the official drink of the Kentucky Derby in 1939, the same year that spectators could watch the race from the infield.

8. The year 1970 marked the first time a woman jockey rode in the derby. Diane Crump didn’t win and finished 15 out of 18.

9. The Kentucky Derby Museum opened in 1985 The following year, Churchill Downs Racetrack was placed on the register of National Historic Landmarks.

10. For the first time, the derby is run without spectators after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the race from May to September 2020.

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