The History of the Kentucky Derby

If you are alive and live on planet earth, you havecould sit in front of the television at home and watch
heard of the Kentucky Derby. You may not know athe very first televised running of the Kentucky Derby
lot about it, but you have heard about it. It has beenthen a scant two years later in 1954, for the very first
called the most exciting two minutes in sports sincetime in history, the purse at the Kentucky Derby
that is about how long the race lasts.topped one hundred thousand dollars.
It is only natural that the great state of Kentucky holdsThere has been some tarnish marks along the way in
the honor of this auspicious race since thoroughbredthe history of the Kentucky Derby with Dancers Image
horses have been bred and raced in Kentucky sincebecoming the first horse in history - in fact the ONLY
late in the eighteenth century.horse in history - to be disqualified from winning the
For people that are into dates, it was the yearKentucky Derby in 1968 after traces of an
nineteen thirty-seven when Churchill Downs acquiredanti-inflammatory analgesic drug known as
that name after John and Henry Churchill who suppliedphenylbutazone was found in the analysis of the
the land where the track is located. It was on May 17thhorses urine. A few years later the rules at the
in the year eighteen seventy-five when the first officialKentucky Derby were changed to allow horses to run
race was run here featuring a lineup of fifteen threethe race while using phenylbutazone.
year old horses in front a whopping ten thousand raceIn 1973 the horse Secretariat broke the two-minute
fans.mark and came in at one minute and fifty-nine point
The race was financially in bad shape until it wasfive seconds making it the fasted Kentucky Derby
purchased in 1902 by a group of Louisville businessmenever.
and it has flourished ever since that time.In the year 2004, for the first time in history the
To make things more competitive and fair to thejockeys were allowed to sport advertising logos on
horses, jockeys and fans, the Kentucky Derby limitsthe outfits they wore. They won that right through
the participants to three years olds and is officially runlegalities that ended in a court order forcing the
the first Sunday in May.Kentucky Derby to allow it.
Back in 1931 the Kentucky Derby moved into theUp until the year 2005 only the top four horses took
number one spot in the running of the Triple Crownhome a share of the purse. In that year it was
then the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes.changed to include the top five finishers all getting a
In the fifties the Kentucky Derby really began to comeslice of the proverbial winning pie that is known as the
into it's own. In 1952 on May the third, the public at largeKentucky Derby's purse.