Book brings the first Derby — and what it means — to life
The facts are familiar: the first Kentucky Derby came in 1875, barely a decade after the Civil War, when Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. built a new racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky, and inaugurated what would become the country’s signature horse race. In a race contested at a mile-and-a-half, a red chestnut colt named Aristides, ridden by Oliver Lewis, won a purse of $2,850 for owner Henry Price McGrath before a crowd of 10,000 on the new track’s opening day.
A century and a half later, that new feature at an upstart racetrack has evolved into a bucket list event, the most exciting two minutes in sports at the heart of a party. Winning (or losing) the Run for the Roses can define the careers of both the horses and the people behind them. What was it about that first Kentucky Derby that set it up for this longevity? How did Clark’s vision of what racing could be become into this celebration of the sport?…