Kentucky has been a major center of horse breeding
and racing since the late 1700s due to the Ordovician fields of the
Bluegrass region, which contains higher than average amounts of calcium
and thus produced superior race horses. In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis
Clark, Jr., grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark
expedition, traveled to England, visiting the Epsom Derby, a famous
race that had been running annually since 1780. From there, Clark went
on to Paris, France, where in 1863, a group of racing enthusiasts had
formed the French Jockey Club and had organized the Grand Prix de
Paris, which eventually became the famous Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Returning
home to Kentucky, Clark organized the Louisville Jockey Club for the
purpose of raising money to build quality racing facilities just
outside of the city. The track would soon become known as Churchill
Downs, named for Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr.'s relatives, John and Henry
Churchill, who had provided the land for the racetrack. Officially, the
racetrack was incorporated as Churchill Downs in 1937.
The
Kentucky Derby was first run at 1.5 miles (2.4 km), the same distance
as the Epsom Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris. In 1896, the distance
was changed to its current 1.25 miles (2 km). 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.
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.
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.