1. Legend has it that he won a coin flip with Sir Charles Bunbury to decide whose name the race would carry. The Derby Stakes is run at Epsom Downs over one and a half miles and is now internationally known as the Epsom (or English) Derby.
2. John Filson, The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke (New York: Corinth Books, 1962), originally published in 1784 in Wilmington, Delaware.
3. See Maryjean Wall, How Kentucky Became Southern: A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers and Breeders (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010) for an explanation of why Kentucky became a national Thoroughbred center. The term place carries much more meaning than simply geographical location. The identity of a place (a city, state, region, nation, monument, or other site) is shaped both by its own physical characteristics, history, and so on, and the perspectives, values, and expectations of the person visiting, imagining, or referencing that site.
4. Boone was the subject of numerous biographical works in the nineteenth century, becoming one of the first pop culture heroes in the United States, and the archetypical frontiersman. He was lauded by Lord Byron in his epic poem Don Juan, and served as a model for James Fenimore Cooper’s hero Natty Bumppo (Hawkeye) in the Leatherstocking Tales.
5. Given Boone’s significant association with the history and iconography of Kentucky, it is ironic that he was buried in the state capital of Frankfort against his will. Boone had left specific instructions stating he did not wish to be buried in Kentucky because of continued disagreements with the state government. He had not set foot in Kentucky since 1799. He spent the final two decades of his life in Missouri, where he died and was originally buried in 1820. He was reinterred in the Bluegrass State in 1845 after the Kentucky state legislature appropriated funds at the request of a Frankfort cemetery to relocate Boone, with the permission of Boone’s descendants. See John Mack Faragher, The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (New York: Henry Holt, 1992), 356.
6. The fact that slaves in Kentucky were geographically closer to freedom in the North than slaves in the Lower South, and that Kentucky was home to two vocal abolitionists, Cassius M. Clay and John Fee, may also have contributed to this perception.
7. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (New York: Penguin Books, 1966), 21. The book was first published serially in 1851.
8. Vickie Mitchell, “Derby Anthem’s Dark Roots,” Kentucky Derby Souvenir Magazine, May 3, 2003, 66–68.
9. I use the term myth here and throughout this book not to signify untruth, but to refer to the kinds of legends and stories that become part of a cultural fabric without regard to whether they actually occurred.
1. B. G. Bruce, “Derby Day,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 17, 1875.
2. “A Voice from Kentucky,” New York Times, August 12, 1874, 4.
3. The racetrack was called Churchill Downs as early as 1883, and the name entered common parlance a few years later. Over the years the business entity that began as the Louisville Jockey Club and Driving Park Association would have numerous names under numerous ownership umbrellas, including the New Louisville Jockey Club, the Kentucky Jockey Club, and the American Turf Association. It would not officially be called Churchill Downs, Inc. (its current moniker) until well into the twentieth century. For simplicity’s sake I use the name Churchill Downs to describe both the racetrack and the various business entities that conducted race meets at the facility.
4. “Louisville Jockey Club Opens Meeting,” New York Times, May 18, 1875, 5.
5. Nelson Dunstan, “Reflections,” Daily Racing Form, May 3, 1952, 64.
6. “The Kentucky Derby,” New York Times, May 9, 1886, 2.
7. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 14, 1886, in William S. Butt, ed., They’re Off: A Century of Kentucky Derby Coverage by the Courier- Journal and the Louisville Times (Louisville: Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, 1975).
8. This was not the only time that Haggin threatened to take his horses and go home if he did not have his way. According to a July 17, 1890, New York Times article, Haggin pulled a similar stunt after a St. Louis racetrack official banned Haggin’s jockey for impudence. Haggin threatened to remove his horses from the track immediately if he were not reinstated, and the track relented.
9. “A Cake Walk,” Louisville Commercial, May 16, 1894.
10. “Brooklyn Handicap Horses,” New York Times, February 24, 1894, 11.
11. See Wall, How Kentucky Became Southern, 180.
12. “A Very Poor Derby,” Kentucky Leader, May 13, 1891; New York Times, May 14, 1891, 2.
13. “No More American Derby,” New York Times, October 15, 1894, 1.
14. T. J. Jackson Lears, Something for Nothing: Luck in America (New York: Viking, 2003), 152–53.
15. Louisville Courier-Journal, September 2, 1894.
16. Louisville Courier-Journal, September 30, 1879.
17. Louisville Courier-Journal, April 23, 1899.
18. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 6, 1896.
19. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 4, 1895. The twin spires were designed by twenty-four-year-old draftsman Joseph Dominic Baldez, who was working for the Louisville firm D.X. Murphy & Brother. The new grandstand even had “toilet rooms.”
20. “Colonel M. Lewis Clark a Suicide,” New York Times, April 23, 1899, 13.
21. Louisville Courier-Journal, April 23, 1899.
22. Jim Bolus, Kentucky Derby Stories (Gretna, LA: Pelican, 1993), 68.
23. Recipients of the title have included Jimmy Buffet, Ronald Reagan, Hunter S. Thompson, Walt Disney, and “Colonel” Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. In the 1940s Indiana governor Ralph Gates was granted a colonelship in the days leading up to that year’s Derby and decided to create “Sagamore of the Wabash” as an honorary title in his state, but somehow it lacked the majesty of Kentucky’s version.
24. See “Old Kentucky’s Last Stand,” New York Times, May 14, 1927, 18; “Party Lines Waver in Kentucky Campaign,” New York Times, November 6, 1927, N1.
25. In a statement to the Louisville Courier-Journal, leaders of the New Louisville Jockey Club claimed that the track never lost money. Winn stated that he and his partners saved the club from certain financial ruin. The answer lies somewhere in between. But given Winn’s penchant for self-aggrandizing embellishment, it is likely that the situation was not nearly as dire as he would recall four decades later.
26. Matt J. Winn and Frank G. Menke, Down the Stretch: The Story of Colonel Matt J. Winn, as Told to Frank G. Menke (New York: Smith and Durrell, 1944), 1–2.
27. Samuel W. Thomas, Churchill Downs: A Documentary History of America’s Most Legendary Race Track (Louisville: Kentucky Derby Museum, 1995), 110.
28. Joe H. Palmer, This Was Racing (Lexington, KY: Henry Clay, 1973), 75.
29. Louisville Courier-Journal, March 26, 1908; Winn and Menke, Down the Stretch, 72–73. There is some disagreement among racing historians and journalists over the number of machines that were in place for the 1908 race. Winn claims there were six in his autobiography. Other historians, including William H. P. Robertson (The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America [Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964]), have the number at eleven. The precise number is not as significant as is the fact that the machines helped to save the Derby and racing in Louisville in general.
30. “Stone Street Wins Derby: Parimutuel Betting Machines Reinstated Satisfactorily at Louisville,” New York Times, May 6, 1908, 8.
31. Lears, Something for Nothing, 195.
32. Robertson, History of Thoroughbred Racing in America, 214.
33. Bolus, Kentucky Derby Stories, 192.
34. Edward Hotaling, The Great Black Jockeys: The Lives and Times of the Men Who Dominated America’s First National Sport (Rocklin, CA: Prima, 1999), 236.
35. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 17, 1884.
36. “The Colored Archer,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 15, 1890.
37. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 5, 1898.
38. Louisville Courier-Journal, April 30, 1901.
39. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1902.
40. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 3, 1903.
41. See Joe Drape, Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend (New York: HarperCollins, 2006); Edward Hotaling, Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield (Camden, ME: McGraw-Hill, 2004).
42. Hotaling, The Great Black Jockeys, 192.
43. Baltimore Afro-American, May 24, 1930.
44. Ibid.
45. “A Kentucky Pastoral,” New York Times, December 7, 1878, 4.
46. Much of the violence in the region at that time can be attributed to the interaction between forces of modernization, including the invasion of northeastern industrialists, and traditional mountain society. At the heart of many of the mountain feuds was a competition for access to resources in the competitive commercial environment. See Ronald D. Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880–1930 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982). See also Altina Waller, Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860–1900 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988); John Ed Pearce, Days of Darkness: The Feuds of Eastern Kentucky (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994).
47. “A Tale of Savage Personal Warfare Unparalleled in the History of Civilized Communities,” New York Times, July 3, 1904, 9–10.
48. “Breathitt County Again a Battlefield,” New York Times, November 7, 1909, SM9.
49. “Breathitt County to Go,” New York Times, June 18, 1909, 6.
50. See Tracy A. Campbell, The Politics of Despair: Power and Resistance in the Tobacco Wars (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1993).
51. James C. Klotter, Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900–1950 (Frankfort: Kentucky Historical Society, 1996), 50.
1. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 24, 1883. Since blacks were not allowed in the grandstand after the 1890s (until Churchill Downs integrated its facilities in the early 1960s), the variety of people in the free infield helped to create an environment of dangerous excitement at the Derby that contributed to the appeal of the event. Louisville Commercial, May 11, 1893, reported that the infield crowd included “all colors and nationalities.”
2. “Condensed History of the Running of the Kentucky Derby,” Daily Racing Form, April 2, 1912, 1.
3. “Bad Weather for Derby,” Kentucky New Era, May 14, 1912, 1.
4. See Derek Birley, Playing the Game: Sport and British Society, 1910–1945 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), 17.
5. “Old Rosebud Wins Kentucky Derby,” New York Times, May 10, 1914, S2.
6. “Slow Track for Derby,” Daily Racing Form, May 9, 1914, 1.
7. “Regret from End to End,” Daily Racing Form, May 9, 1915, 1.
8. Thoroughbred Record, May 16, 1915.
9. Thoroughbred Record, May 4, 1918.
10. Many records indicate that Exterminator ran exactly one hundred times, but according to the Binghampton Press, September 26, 1945, one of those “races” was an uncontested exhibition that did not add to his win total and should not be counted as an actual start.
11. “Geldings to Be Barred,” Daily Racing Form, August 7, 1918, 1.
12. Rothstein was also the inspiration for the character of Meyer Wolfsheim in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
13. Percy Hammond, “Derby a Sacred Ceremonial for Kentucky Folks,” Chicago Tribune, May 11, 1919. Henry Watterson was the editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal from 1868 to 1919. He was a former Confederate soldier and a leading advocate of a “New South” that would integrate itself into the national industrial economy.
14. Thoroughbred Record, May 17, 1919.
15. “Ral Parr’s Paul Jones Leads Field of Seventeen Fleet Racers,” New York Times, May 9, 1920, S1.
16. Thoroughbred Record, May 16, 1920.
17. “Cox Again Attacks Curris Publication,” New York Times, October 29, 1920, 15.
18. Thoroughbred Record, May 10, 1919.
19. Henry L. Farrew, “Upset Bradley’s Dope,” St. Petersburg Evening Independent, May 18, 1928, 15.
20. Time, May 7, 1934.
21. “All on Bradley Farm Are Richer for Derby Victory,” New York Times, May 11, 1921, 24.
22. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 8, 1921.
23. Henry McLemore, “Roman Soldier and Whiskolo Follow In,” Milwaukee Journal, May 5, 1935, 13.
24. See Mitchell, “Derby Anthem’s Dark Roots,” 66–68.
25. In 1986, Carl Hines, the only black member of Kentucky’s House of Representatives, presented a bill to change the lyrics from “ ’tis summer, the darkies are gay” to “ ’tis summer, the people are gay.” The resolution passed, and today the modified lyrics are sung at the Derby.
26. Time reported on May 16, 1932, that a band had played Stephen Foster’s “Suwannee River (Old Folks at Home)” during that year’s Derby post parade. It seems most likely that the writer was confused because no other report of that occurrence has been found. In either case—a factual report or simple confusion—it demonstrates that much of the significance of “My Old Kentucky Home” lay in its connection to—and evocation of—the Old South.
27. Thoroughbred Record, May 20, 1922.
28. Ibid.
29. “Morvich Wins Kentucky Derby by Two Lengths,” New York Times, May 14, 1922, 1.
30. Ibid.
31. Winn and Menke, Down the Stretch, 135.
32. Ibid., 178.
33. Louisville parks were segregated beginning in the 1920s, much later than in some southern cities.
34. George C. Wright, Life behind a Veil: Blacks in Louisville, Kentucky, 1895–1930 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985), 76.
35. J. Winston Coleman Jr., Lexington during the Civil War (Lexington, KY: Henry Clay, 1968), 52.
36. See “A Dream Realized,” Louisville Courier-Journal, August 2, 1883.
37. See Joseph F. Wall, Henry Watterson, Reconstructed Rebel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956); C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877–1913 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1951); Henry Watterson, Marse Henry: An Autobiography (New York: George H. Doran, 1919).
38. “Going Down to Dixie Land,” New York Times, September 13, 1894, 1.
39. Michael Veach, “Grand Army of the Republic at the Filson,” Filson News Magazine 2, no. 3 (2002).
40. “Ready for the Grand Army Men,” New York Times, September 9, 1895, 8.
41. “The G.A.R. Encampment,” New York Times, June 21, 1882, 5.
42. See David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001).
43. “Amusements,” Nebraska State Journal, December 20, 1894, 3.
44. Silas Bent, “My Old Kentucky Home: In June All the Exiles Are Invited to Return and Taste True Hospitality,” New York Times, April 6, 1924.
45. Genevieve Forbes, “Crowd Goes Mad as Slim Black Beauty Races In,” Chicago Tribune, May 18, 1924.
46. Black Gold, dir. Phil Karlson (Allied Artists Pictures, 1947).
47. J. E. Crown, New Orleans States, February 25, 1923, in Jim Bolus, Derby Magic (Gretna, LA: Pelican, 1997), 205.
48. Bolus, Derby Magic, 205.
49. Jim Bolus, Run for the Roses: 100 Years at the Kentucky Derby (New York: Hawthorne Books, 1974), 42. A WGN broadcast of the 1927 Derby included a “special program to lend atmosphere to the race” (“Devise New System of Broadcasting,” New York Times, May 14, 1927, 24).
50. “Air Description of Race Given,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 20, 1928.
51. “WHAS Gives Race Details from Downs,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 17, 1925. By the late 1920s Derby results were published in newspapers as far away as Austrailia: Melbourne Argus, May 16, 1927; Sydney Mail, June 6, 1928.
52. “Kentucky Derby Booked for WGN,” New York Times, May 8, 1927.
53. Thoroughbred Record, May 20, 1925.
54. Gerold Griffin, “Negroes Offer Prayer for Rain,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 18, 1929.
1. Harvey Woodruff, “Turf Classic Only a Gallop for Favorite,” Chicago Tribune, May 13, 1922; Hugh Fullerton, “Greatest of Crowds Jams Churchill Downs for Derby,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1923.
2. Henry R. Ilsley, “Bubbling Over Wins the Kentucky Derby by a 5-Length Margin,” New York Times, May 16, 1926, S1.
3. Bryan Field, “Gallant Fox Takes Derby as Lord Derby and 60,000 Look On,” New York Times, May 30, 1930, 1.
4. “Great Asset,” Blood-Horse, May 23, 1931, 803.
5. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 17, 1931. Interestingly, within the article that fell beneath the headline “Throng at Race Is Orderly One: Police Fail to Receive Complaint for First Time in Forty-three Years” came the admission that three men, who were “known pickpocket men,” were arrested that day. All were from out of town, and one was a “Negro.” Thirty-three detectives had been placed in the clubhouse, around the betting sheds, and in the crowd.
6. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 17, 1931.
7. “Exams and the Derby,” Blood-Horse, March 12, 1932, 433.
8. The winning colt was named after Jim Mooney, a Lexington grocer whose burgoo had achieved some substantial recognition.
9. Bryan Field, “50,000 to See Race at Churchill Downs,” New York Times, May 7, 1932, 19.
10. Bryan Field, “Burgoo King Wins Kentucky Derby as 50,000 Look On,” New York Times, May 8, 1932, S1.
11. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 6, 1934.
12. Time, May 14, 1934.
13. Dave Brown, “Human Tide Is Thrill at Derby Scene,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 6, 1934.
14. Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1935.
15. “Rain Spoils Parade of Finery at Derby,” Milwaukee Journal, May 5, 1935.
16. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 1, 1936.
17. “Derby Notes,” Blood-Horse, May 11, 1935, 612.
18. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1932.
19. Blood-Horse, May 23, 1936.
20. Marion Porter, “Hotel Expands Facilities for Derby,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 6, 1937; Judy Marchman and Tom Hall, Kentucky Derby Glasses Price Guide: A Comprehensive Guide to Collecting Kentucky Derby Mint Julep Glasses and Shot Glasses (Lexington, KY: Eclipse, 1999).
21. Bryan Field, “Can’t Wait Is Third,” New York Times, May 8, 1938, 75.
22. “Louisville Flood Toll 90,” New York Times, February 28, 1937, 26; “Louisville Flood Loss $52,575,741,” New York Times, March 27, 1937, 30. See also Rick Bell, The Great Flood of 1937: Rising Water, Soaring Spirits (Louisville: Butler Books, 2007).
23. Bryan Field, “Gallant Fox Beats Whichone 4 Lengths in $81,340 Belmont,” New York Times, June 8, 1930, 147.
24. The three tracks had recently been moved under a single ownership and management umbrella called the Kentucky Jockey Club. The group was headed by James Graham Brown, founder of Louisville’s Brown Hotel, among his many other business interests. In 1925 Latonia Racecourse offered a $5,000 bonus to the winner of the Kentucky Derby if he could also win the Latonia Derby.
25. St. Petersburg Times, April 27, 1935.
26. Gerald Carson, The Social History of Bourbon: An Unhurried Account of Our Star-Spangled American Drink (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1963), 60.
27. Joe Nickell, The Kentucky Mint Julep (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003), 67.
28. The Preakness and Belmont Stakes have their own traditional drinks, the “black-eyed Susan” and the “Belmont breeze,” respectively, though neither begins to approach the sales figures of the mint julep at Churchill Downs on Derby weekend.
29. J. Soule Smith, The Mint Julep: The Very Dream of Drinks from the Old Receipt of Soule Smith down in Lexington, Ky. (Lexington, KY: Gravesend, 1949).
30. Thoroughbred Record, May 17, 1919.
31. Milwaukee Journal, May 9, 1920.
32. Louisville Times, May 12, 1923, quoted in Butt, They’re Off.
33. Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1935. The ad also ran in other papers, including the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Washington Post, during the week leading up to the Derby.
34. Time, May 14, 1934.
35. R. L. Duffus, “Kentucky Pays a Debt to Daniel Boone,” New York Times, September 2, 1934, SM7.
36. J. W. Williamson, Hillbillyland: What the Movies Did to the Mountains and What the Mountains Did to the Movies (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995); Anthony Harkins, Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 75–78.
37. See Harkins, Hillbilly, 103–40.
38. Webb’s Mountain Boys drawings often appeared next to essays by Kentucky author Jesse Stuart in Esquire magazine. Stuart described mountaineers in his native state as living in harmony with nature, lacking in formal education, possessing a propensity for violence, and existing in isolation from modern civilization. The subjects of Stuart’s essays and Webb’s cartoons were capable of weathering any storm and could be seen as models for Americans trying to endure economic and social upheaval.
39. Contradictory identities and stereotypes need these dualistic sets of imagery to survive. If only one set were available, it would be too easy to disprove popular perceptions about people or places. Also, changing needs and wants of societies often render one set of stereotypical assumptions unattractive. The longevity of Kentucky’s special place within American culture can be attributed to the fact that, regardless of whether the colonel or the hillbilly image is dominant during a given era, the “recessive” flip side is always present, ready to meet the ever-changing tastes and needs of Americans and Derby fans.
40. James Gosle, “Paddock Show Before Race Offers a Behind-Scenes Thrill,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1939.
1. “Owner Overjoyed by Derby Triumph,” New York Times, May 5, 1940, 94.
2. Milky Way Stables was by no means a small racing operation. In fact, it was one of the largest and most successful in America at the time. But in the spring of 1940, Milky Way had been unable to achieve any measure of success at the Derby, Gallahadion had an unspectacular race record, and Bimelech was a potential superhorse. These elements combined to allow Milky Way and Gallahadion to qualify as underdogs on that day.
3. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 3, 1941.
4. Louisville Courier-Journal, April 30, 1941.
5. Winn and Menke, Down the Stretch, 279.
6. “The Kentucky Derby Runs,” Blood-Horse, February 20, 1943, 278.
7. Winn and Menke, Down the Stretch, 279.
8. In 1951 Count Fleet’s son Count Turf would become the first third-generation Derby winner, joining his sire Count Fleet and grandsire Reigh Count on the Derby champions list.
9. “Count Fleet 1-2 Favorite among Twelve Entries in ‘Street Car’ Derby,” New York Times, May 1, 1943, 19; Matt Winn’s memoirs place the attendance at around sixty-five thousand (Winn and Menke, Down the Stretch, 280).
10. “War Derby,” Blood-Horse, May 8, 1943, 610.
11. Winn and Menke, Down the Stretch, 278.
12. “Stir Up Still Rated as ‘the Horse to Beat’ in Kentucky Derby,” New York Times, May 5, 1944, 23.
13. “Derby Fans Arrive at 4 A.M.,” New York Times, May 7, 1944, 54; “GI Joes in Naples Wager on the Derby,” New York Times, May 7, 1944, S1.
14. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1944.
15. This was a process that worked to the advantage of major league baseball as well. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued a “green light” for baseball to continue during the war at the request of major league team owners, under the theory that it was in the nation’s best interest. Wartime teams were made up of those not fit for military service, including the old, young, and crippled. Despite the reduced quality of play on the field, wartime baseball provided fans a sense of continuity in a world that had dramatically changed. Games took on a patriotic feel as the “Star-Spangled Banner” was played before every game, ticket prices were reduced, servicemen were often let in ballparks for free, and teams regularly conducted drives to sell war bonds as well as to collect blood, rubber, paper, aluminum, and other materials needed for the war effort. Baseball’s survival during World War II demonstrated that it was an important part of American culture before the war. Its survival also helped to reinforce that status. See William Marshall, Baseball’s Pivotal Era, 1945–1951 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 6–7.
16. Robertson, History of Thoroughbred Racing in America, 364. The ban was lifted on V-E Day, May 8, 1945, and racing resumed three days later.
17. Ibid., 365. “Handle” refers to the gross money wagered at a racetrack.
18. “65,000 Jam Downs,” New York Times, June 10, 1945, S1.
19. Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Vintage Books, 2003).
20. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1902.
21. Time, January 22, 1945.
22. Blood-Horse, May 4, 1946.
23. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1950; “Derby Fans Hear 4 Bands,” Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1952.
24. Southern Fried Rabbit (Warner Bros., 1953).
25. “Derby Festival Parade,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 6, 1962.
26. Louisville Times, May 1, 1959.
27. Don Freeman, “Holiday Spirit Prevails,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 3, 1957.
28. The official Web site of the Kentucky Derby Festival, http://www.kdf.org., March 1, 2009. In 1957 festival organizers also added the “They’re off Luncheon” to the festivities. By the late 1960s, organizers regularly invited black entertainers and athletes to host the event, including actor James Earl Jones, baseball legend Hank Aaron, and basketball star Magic Johnson. As a result, the connection between the Derby and the South now includes an element of black triumph instead of (or in addition to) black subservience.
29. Hank Messick, “Tradition as Thick as the Steaks as Colonels Hold Their 24th Dinner: Singing Waiters Bring in Juleps,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1957.
30. John Eisenberg, Native Dancer: The Grey Ghost, Hero of a Golden Age (New York: Warner Books, 2003), 93.
31. Ann Hagedorn Aurbach, Wild Ride: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Calumet Farm, Inc., America’s Premier Racing Dynasty (New York: Henry Holt, 1994), 57.
32. Ibid., 10; generally speaking, the “breeder” of a horse is the person or persons who owned its mother at the time the horse was born.
33. Citation’s jockey, Eddie Arcaro, was the subject of a cover story in Time magazine the week after his Derby victory.
34. The Standardbred is a breed of horse developed in North America that is capable of trotting and “pacing” at high speeds while in harness. The name refers to the original requirement that a horse be able to meet the “standard” time of two and a half minutes for a mile in a trot. In Standardbred races the horses pull a “driver” in a sulky rather than being ridden by a jockey as in Thoroughbred races.
35. Aurbach, Wild Ride, 36.
36. “Devil Red and Plain Ben,” Time, May 30, 1949; Margaret Glass, The Calumet Story (Lexington, KY: Calumet Farm, 1979), 18.
37. Alex Bower, “The 78th Kentucky Derby,” Blood-Horse, May 10, 1952, 880.
38. James Roach, “8-1 Shot Triumphs,” New York Times, May 5, 1957, 217.
39. Time, May 27, 1957.
40. Roach, “8-1 Shot Triumphs,” 217. Bold Ruler would have a greater influence on the Derby as a stallion. The family trees of Triple Crown champions Secretariat and Seattle Slew both include Bold Ruler.
41. The Hall of Fame horses were Gallant Man, Round Table, and Bold Ruler.
42. James Roach, “Hampden Is Third,” New York Times, May 5, 1946, S1; Eva Jolene Boyd, Assault: Thoroughbred Legends (Lexington, KY: Eclipse, 2004), 70, 72.
43. Boyd, Assault, 84.
44. “Two-Race $195,520 Caps Assault Rush,” New York Times, May 13, 1946, 38.
45. See Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic, 6–15.
46. This was the second third-generation winner of the Derby, the first trio being Reigh Count (1928), Count Fleet (1943), and Count Turf (1951).
47. John Steinbeck, Louisville Courier-Journal, May 5, 1956.
48. William Faulkner, “Kentucky: May: Saturday,” Sports Illustrated, May 16, 1955, 22.
49. Ibid.
50. “Air Description of Race Given,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 20, 1928.
51. Arthur Daley, “The Passing of a Legend,” New York Times, October 19, 1949, 42.
52. Winn and Menke, Down the Stretch, 104, 249–56. Winn also spent significant time at Chicago’s Drake Hotel.
53. Arthur Daley, “Disclosing a Secret,” New York Times, June 10, 1948, 35.
54. Time, May 10, 1937.
55. “Derby on Live TV for the First Time,” New York Times, May 4, 1952, S4. There had been limited national television coverage on a delayed basis the two previous years. This was the first live national broadcast.
56. The figure grew to 30 million by 1955, according to Louisville Times, May 7, 1955.
57. Eisenberg, Native Dancer, 149. This is an impressive percentage despite the fact that there were significantly fewer options for television viewers, and fewer televisions, in the 1950s than today.
58. Ibid., x.
59. Ibid.
60. Time, May 31, 1954. Native Dancer appeared on the cover of this issue.
61. Arthur Daley, “A Shattered Romance,” New York Times, May 4, 1953.
62. Time, March 17, 1958.
63. Whitney Tower, “The Hobo and the Gent,” Sports Illustrated, April 28, 1958, 8.
64. “The Fizzle of a Legend,” Time, May 12, 1958.
65. Frank Deford, “The Sun Shines Bright,” Sports Illustrated, April 29, 1974, 86.
66. In some cases, Derby winners are internationally recognized. According to the manufacturer’s Web site, Tim Tam, “Australia’s favourite chocolate biscuit,” is named after Calumet’s Derby-winning colt.
1. James S. Tunnell, “Madras Coasts Home in the Infield Derby,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 2, 1965.
2. David Gordon, “Shades of Huck Finn!” Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1963.
3. Eisenberg, Native Dancer, 132. He is in good company. Broadcasting legend Mel Allen once made the same mistake on the air.
4. Louisville Times, May 7, 1966.
5. Arthur Daley, “A Taste of Mint Julep in Kentucky,” New York Times, May 4, 1966, 56.
6. David Alexander, “The Post Parade,” Thoroughbred Record, May 14, 1966, 1254.
7. “A Tough Act to Follow,” Thoroughbred Record, May 11, 1974, 1202. The anonymous commentator’s choice of language was a reference to John Olin, that year’s Derby-winning owner, who declared after the race, “There were just too damned many [horses].”
8. Deford, “The Sun Shines Bright.”
9. Steve Cady, “Derby Week: When the South Rises,” New York Times, April 25, 1976, 163.
10. Sir Peter Teazle, “Sour Juleps,” Thoroughbred Record, May 16, 1979. Sir Peter Teazle was the name of the horse who in 1787 won the English Derby in his first start for his owner, the twelfth Earl of Derby.
11. W. B. Park, “When the Sun Shines Bright,” Sports Illustrated, May 1, 1972, 37.
12. Ibid., 37–38.
13. Kent Hollingsworth, “What’s Going on Here,” Blood-Horse, May 12, 1975, 1837.
14. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 14, 1911.
15. Hunter S. Thompson, “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” in The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time (Gonzo Papers, vol. 1) (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003).
16. Ibid.
17. Howard Fineman and Jim Adams, “Beer-Drinking, Socializing Are Favored Sports,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 8, 1977, 11.
18. “Only One Horse Could Wear the Roses, but the Derby’s Real Winners Were 130,564 People,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1972, B1.
19. “Jockeys Won’t Swerve to Miss Demonstrators,” Louisville Times, May 3, 1967.
20. “Five Youths Dash in Front of Horses during Race,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 3, 1967, B1.
21. “Remains of Isaac Murphy Are Placed in New Grave,” Daily Racing Form, May 5, 1967, 3.
22. David Alexander, “Delayed Honors,” Thoroughbred Record, May 6, 1967, 1176.
23. “Traditional Security Planned for Derby Day,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 3, 1967, A1.
24. Louisville Times, May 2, 1967.
25. Douglas Robinson, “Louisville Is Shocked at the Canceling of Parade,” New York Times, May 3, 1967, 32.
26. “Louisville Mayor Requests Nat. Guard, State Police,” Daily Racing Form, May 3, 1967, 7.
27. Douglas Robinson, “Protest at Derby Is Reported Off,” New York Times, May 6, 1967, 19.
28. James E. Bassett III and Bill Mooney, Keeneland’s “Ted” Bassett: My Life (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009), 118.
29. “Jockeys Won’t Swerve to Miss Demonstrators.”
30. Douglas Robinson, “Dr. King Presses Louisville Fight,” New York Times, May 4, 1967, 30.
31. Bassett and Mooney, Keeneland’s “Ted” Bassett, 118.
32. Gerald Henry, “Crowd Has Good Time Despite Drizzle,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1967, A4.
33. Ibid.
34. Louisville Times, May 6, 1967.
35. It was the second Derby victory for Darby Dan Farm, which was owned by John W. Galbraith, who was born in Derby, Ohio, and won three World Series as the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
36. Jobie Arnold, “Notes from among the Roses,” Thoroughbred Record, May 11, 1968, 1233.
37. Thoroughbred Record, May 4, 1968.
38. Bob Hohler, “Thorns and Roses,” Boston Globe, May 2, 2008.
39. Thoroughbred Record, May 18, 1968. See also Louie B. Nunn Interview, May 14, 1998, 48, Louie B. Nunn Oral History Project, 980H42 LBN 10, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Special Collections, Collections and Digital Programs, Lexington. Nunn recalls telling Kentucky Racing Commission chairman George Eggers, “Call a press conference as fast as you can, tell everything that you know about it, implicate everybody and everybody that’s involved that you are aware of, and call for a complete and thorough investigation of everything.” Concerned about possible political repercussions over the scandal, Nunn told his children, who had correctly predicted the order of finish at the Derby, “Don’t be bragging about having the winners at the Derby. They were drugged. Somebody may think [chuckle] your father knew about it” (49).
40. William Robertson, “Pick Up the Pieces, and Hold Up Your Head,” Thoroughbred Record, May 18, 1968, 1296.
41. Ibid.
42. Hohler, “Thorns and Roses.”
43. See Curt Sampson, The Lost Masters: Grace and Disgrace in ’68 (New York: Atria Books, 2005).
44. Whitney Tower, “It Was a Bitter Pill,” Sports Illustrated, May 20, 1968.
45. Robertson, “Pick Up the Pieces.”
46. “Rehearsal for Busing,” Time, September 8, 1975; “Busing and Strikes,” Time, September 15, 1975.
47. Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1976.
48. Whitney Tower, “Missing Data Not Available,” Sports Illustrated, May 10, 1971, 20–21.
49. Whitney Tower, “History in the Making,” Sports Illustrated, June 18, 1973, 16.
50. Frank Deford, “Adieu, Adieu, Kind Friends,” Sports Illustrated, November 5, 1973, 28.
51. Arnold Kirkpatrick, “Secretariat,” Thoroughbred Record, June 16, 1973, 1439.
52. M. A. Simmons, “A Tradition Enters Its Second Century,” Louisville Times, May 2, 1975.
53. Kent Hollingsworth, “What’s Going On Here,” Blood-Horse, May 14, 1973, 1659.
54. Deford, “The Sun Shines Bright,” 80.
55. Joe Nichols, “Kentucky Derby: A Rousing Event!” New York Times, May 5, 1974, S2. While longevity can be an indication of a sporting event’s success, popularity, and cultural relevance, the longevity of few events is publicized like that of the Derby. For example, even diehard baseball fans would have a difficult time guessing how many World Series have been played. The Super Bowl is a notable exception, though the roman numerals that purport to distinguish each subsequent edition of the game became difficult to decipher for non-“Romaphiles” after the third Super Bowl.
56. Haden Kirkpatrick, “A Significance Far More Important than the Mere Venerability,” Thoroughbred Record, April 27, 1974, 1068.
57. Steve Cady, “All Eyes Turn to Kentucky on Saturday,” New York Times, April 28, 1974, 241.
58. Deford, “The Sun Shines Bright,” 82.
59. Joseph Durso, “Princess Margaret Adds Royal Flair to Kentucky Derby Centennial Party,” New York Times, May 5, 1974, 53.
60. “Flock Battles the Elements,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1961, 9.
61. Whitney Tower, “Two Take Dead Aim at Candy,” Sports Illustrated, May 6, 1963, 21.
62. Robert G. Trautman, “Color—It Abounds at the Downs,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 2, 1965, 36.
63. Cady, “Derby Week: When the South Rises,” 163.
64. Bill Peterson, “People Watching 2nd Only to Sport of Kings at Derby,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1969, A2.
65. Blood-Horse, May 10, 1969.
66. Louie B. Nunn Interview, May 14, 1998, 78.
67. James S. Tunnel, “Nixon Mixes Politics with a Visit to Derby,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1969.
68. Terry Frei, Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming: Texas vs. Arkansas in Dixie’s Last Stand (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002).
69. Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1978.
70. Louisville Times, May 3, 1974.
71. Bill Doolittle, The Kentucky Derby: The Run for the Roses (Del Mar, CA: Tehabi Books, 1998), 53.
72. Clarence L. Matthews, “Few Blacks Join in Derby Festivities,” Louisville Times, May 3, 1971.
1. John C. Long, “Governor Salutes Harland Sanders at Colonels’ Fete,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 2, 1981, B4.
2. Eve Hutcherson and Milton C. Toby, “Derby Notes,” Blood-Horse, May 10, 1980, 2532.
3. David Fleischaker, “Derbying,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 2, 1985, A11.
4. Kevin Nance, “Whitney Scene ‘Fabulous,’ Leach Pronounces,” Lexington Herald-Leader, May 5, 1990, C1.
5. Rick Bozich, “Foreign Intrigue Comes to Churchill,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 5, 1995.
6. William Orme Jr., “Far From Bluegrass, Dubai Runs Stealthily for the Roses,” New York Times, April 19, 1999, A1.
7. Jason Levin, From the Desert to the Derby: The Ruling Family of Dubai’s Billion-Dollar Quest to Win America’s Greatest Horse Race (New York: Daily Racing Form Press, 2002), 18.
8. Dave Koerner, “Radical Sheikh: Godolphin Follows Own Path,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 5, 2000, F11.
9. Joseph Durso, “In a Crowed Field, Fusaichi Pegasus Stands Out,” New York Times, May 6, 2000, D2.
10. Joseph Durso, “Fusaichi Pegasus Ends Favorites’ Drought,” New York Times, May 7, 2000, SP1.
11. Eric Prideaux, “Japan Welcomes First-Time Derby Win by Japanese-Owned Horse,” London Independent, May 8, 2000.
12. William C. Rhoden, “Winning Formula? This Year It Was Money,” New York Times, May 5, 2002, G7.
13. “Baffert’s a Genius, Says War Emblem’s Owner,” Waikato (New Zealand) Times, May 6, 2002, 16.
14. Steve Haskin, Horse Racing’s Holy Grail: The Epic Quest for the Kentucky Derby (Lexington, KY: Eclipse, 2002), 40.
15. Levin, From the Desert to the Derby, 91.
16. Tim Layden, “Triple Threat,” Sports Illustrated, May 27, 2002.
17. Levin, From the Desert to the Derby, 136.
18. Daniel Roth, “The Sheikh Who Would Be King of Horse Racing,” Conde Nast Portfolio, April 16, 2007.
19. The Derby field is limited to twenty starters, with preference given to the horses with the highest amount of graded stakes earnings in their careers. This puts European horses at a disadvantage because their racing season starts later than in the United States.
20. Janet Patton, “Derby Adding Foreign Flavor,” Lexington Herald-Leader, September 18, 2008, B1.
21. Toby Keith, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American),” Unleashed (DreamWorks Nashville, 2002).
22. Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (New York: Random House, 2001).
23. Tim Layden, “Smart Money,” Sports Illustrated, May 10, 2004.
24. See Steven A. Reiss, “Sport and the American Dream,” Journal of Social History 14, no. 2 (1980): 298, in which he describes the connection between the idea of social mobility in American society and American athletics. For a historical overview of the idea of the “American Dream,” see Jim Cullen, The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
25. Dick Young, quoted in “The Press,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 4, 1980, 7.
26. Dave Anderson, “Four Men on a Filly at the Kentucky Derby,” New York Times, May 8, 1988, S6.
27. Ibid. In 2008 the on-track death of the filly Eight Belles immediately after she finished second to Big Brown was widely covered by national media. Some looking for an explanation for her death felt that the filly should not have been competing against males.
28. Jay Hovdey, Whittingham: The Story of a Thoroughbred Racing Legend (Lexington, KY: Blood-Horse, 1993), 164.
29. Michael Goodwin, “TV Sports: On Target with Ferdinand,” New York Times, May 5, 1986, C7.
30. See William Nack, “Bound for Glory,” Sports Illustrated, May 14, 1990, 20–27.
31. Jerry Bailey and Tom Pedulla, Against the Odds: Riding for My Life (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2005), 132.
32. George Vecsey, “A Popular Victory by Old Guard,” New York Times, May 2, 1993.
33. Bob Baffert and Steve Haskin, Baffert: Dirt Road to the Derby (Lexington, KY: Blood-Horse, 1999), 18–19.
34. Jay Privman, “Baffert Makes Good on Second Chance,” New York Times, May 4, 1997, S4.
35. Ibid. Baffert, Lukas, and Nick Zito constituted a training triumvirate in the 1990s. One or another won seven of the ten Derbies run in that decade.
36. Maryjean Wall, “Quiet but Quick,” Lexington Herald-Leader, May 3, 1998; William Nack, “Coming up Roses: Jockey Kent Desormeaux Capped a Comeback, and Long Shot Real Quiet Made a Lot of Noise with a Victory in the Kentucky Derby,” Sports Illustrated, May 11, 1998.
37. Maryjean Wall, “Charismagic: 30-1 Shot Gives Trainer Lukas His Fourth Derby Victory,” Lexington Herald-Leader, May 2, 1999, AA1.
38. Joe Drape, The Race for the Triple Crown: Horses, High Stakes, and Eternal Hope (New York: Grove, 2001), 84.
39. William Nack, “A Sunday Stroll,” Sports Illustrated, May 15, 1989, 23–24.
40. A longtime horse owner and racing enthusiast, the queen had often visited Kentucky horse farms in the past but had never been to Kentucky’s signature event.
41. Rick Maese, “Borel a Face for Horse Racing,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, May 17, 2007, 1C.
42. Malcolm C. Knox, “Borel Inducted into Shrine,” Kentucky Post, May 24, 2007, C8; Jennie Rees, “Street Sense Beats Long-Term Trends,” Seattle Times, May 6, 2007, C1.
43. In 2010 Borel would add an unprecedented third win in four years to his impressive Derby résumé aboard WinStar Farm’s Supersaver. The win also marked the first Derby score for trainer Todd Pletcher, one of the world’s top trainers, who for years suffered a well-documented losing streak at the Derby. The following year top jockey John Velasquez won the Derby for the first time. He had endured a stretch of three straight years in which his Derby horses (each a legitimate contender) were scratched days before the race due to injury or illness. Fans and journalists alike were drawn to this latest version of “redemption” at the Derby.
44. Alicia Wincze, “Rail Bird,” Lexington Herald Leader, May 3, 2009, AA1.
45. Ed Gray, “135th Kentucky Derby Racing Beat,” Boston Herald, May 3, 2009, 619.
46. Paul Shockley, “Ex–Grand Junction Resident Eyes Preakness Win on Heels of Kentucky Derby,” Grand Junction (CO) Daily Sentinel, May 14, 2009, A1.
47. Barbaro’s ashes are buried beneath the statue.
48. Lewis Lazare, “Finger-lickin’ Deal for Yum!” Chicago Sun-Times, February 6, 2006, 61.
49. Walter Cronkite, introduction to Doolittle, The Kentucky Derby, 19–20.