From under the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs comes a spectacle as old as it is exciting – the Kentucky Derby. Often called “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” its thunderous pace lasts mere moments, yet it carries the weight of more than 150 years of history. Each spring the Derby brings a flush of springtime pageantry: the mint juleps clinking in crystal cups, the ribbon-hued hats blooming like rare flowers in a garden, and the crowd humming along to a sentimental anthem. It is America’s longest-continuously run sporting event, and its magic lies in a blend of tradition and legends that began long before that first starter’s pistol cracked on a sunny day in 1875.

Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. – grandson of explorer William Clark – gave the Derby its start. Returning from trips to Europe (the glittering Epsom Derby in England, the grand Parisian tracks) with stars in his eyes, Clark resolved to make Kentucky racing world-class. He and his uncles John and Henry Churchill, on whose land outside Louisville he was raised, laid plans to build a permanent track just south of town. In 1874 they formed the Louisville Jockey Club and broke ground. By spring 1875 a graceful grandstand crowned the course, and Clark’s dream had taken shape on those quiet bluegrass fields.

When race day arrived on May 17, 1875, Churchill Downs buzzed with the unfamiliar thrill of a new tradition. A field of fifteen three-year-olds lined up for the inaugural 1¼-mile run, and roughly 10,000 spectators filled the stands. Riding Aristides for owner H.P. McGrath, jockey Oliver Lewis swept to the lead. As the early sun glinted off the track, Aristides won by several lengths – a runaway victory that crowned Lewis and his jockey with the first garland of roses in Derby lore. They took home $2,850 of the modest $3,050 purse (second place earned a mere $200). That day’s atmosphere was a heady mix of pageantry and pioneering spirit: horses nosing at the tape, Victorian-clad ladies waving fans and men tipping their stovepipes, and a crowd buzzing at the birth of something larger than sport.

The years since have only magnified those stakes. Today a green sign beneath the Derby’s iconic spire solemnly reads “First Derby 1875 – 150th Derby 2024,” a reminder of how far the event has come. That inaugural $2,850 winner’s prize has swelled into a multimillion-dollar pot – by 2024 the total purse hit a record $5,000,000. Roughly $3.1 million of that went to the winning connections (about 80% to the owner, with 10% apiece to jockey and trainer). If Aristides raced for honor and two silver cups in 1875, today’s Derby winner gallops home with a chest full of money, a solid gold trophy and the weight of 1,500 roses – the famed winner’s wreath that gave rise to the Derby’s nickname, “The Run for the Roses”.

In the century and a half since Clark first raised the silks, Churchill Downs has produced countless legends. A few names loom as large as the spring sky. No story is told without Secretariat, the fiery chestnut whose 1973 Derby trip of 1:59 2/5 still stands as the fastest in history. Called “Big Red,” Secretariat shattered expectations at every turn, going on to sweep the Triple Crown by dizzying margins. Jockeys, too, etched their names in lore. Tiny Texan Bill (Willie) Shoemaker won four Derbies across three decades, the last in 1986 on longshot Ferdinand, and at age 54 became the oldest rider ever to triumph at Churchill Downs. Earlier champions like Eddie Arcaro rode five winners (a record later tied by Bill Hartack). Each Derby adds new heroes – American Pharoah, Justify, Funny Cide, or the surprise winners with unfancied long shots – but each pays homage to those spirit-stirring victories of the past.

But of course the Kentucky Derby is about much more than speed and silver. It is the tapestry of traditions that turns a race into a rite of spring. Chief among these is the mint julep, a bourbon cocktail stirred with mint and sugar over crushed ice. Called the Derby’s official drink, the julep links the modern crowd to antebellum Kentucky hospitality. Since the 1820s mint juleps – once served in gleaming silver cups – have been entwined with the race; today the cups themselves are sold as souvenirs. Amid the bustle of opening odds and paddock parades, you can almost taste that mint-and-sweet spirit in the air as fans raise their frosty glasses to toast the winner.

Equally emblematic are the southern bonnets and fedoras adorning Churchill’s infield and stands. Derby hats range from demure straw boaters to towering plumes of silk and feathers – each one as carefully judged as the horses themselves. Walking through the grandstand is like passing through a garden of spring pastels and feathers: women in big-brimmed hats with silk flowers, men in seersucker suits topped with Panamas. This parade of millinery is such a fixture that writers have noted the race is as much about “sipping a mint julep, donning a beautiful hat, and singing ‘My Old Kentucky Home’” as it is about the horses. In this sense, the Derby has become not just a sporting event but a celebration of Southern culture and style.

Long before the horses can break from the gate, Churchill Downs observes a solemn custom: the strains of “My Old Kentucky Home.” Since the 1920s every Derby morning the University of Louisville band plays this Stephen Foster ballad as the horses file to the post. Thousands in the stands join in; hats are removed and voices unite in reverent song as if to honor ancestors whose lives began in Kentucky’s bluegrass hills. It is a moving moment of communal pride and reflection – a brief hush that reminds everyone that these two minutes of racing carry echoes from American history.

And then there is the infield – the untamed heart of Derby Day. Here the genteel pageantry gives way to a different sort of revelry. Fans slip through the tunnel to a carnival of costumes and antics: mud-wrestling in the rain, impromptu baseball games on the lawn, even the infamous “porta-potty dash” (try jumping a row of portable bathrooms to cheers and boos). Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson quipped that at the Derby “the only thing more important than the race itself is the sport of people-watching” – and nowhere is that truer than in the infield. Under the glare of floodlights, amid discarded cups and confetti, the Derby’s wild side reminds us that beneath the tradition there’s still a joyful chaos to the day.

Above all, the Kentucky Derby is a story woven from many threads: the dream of one man, the thunder of hoofbeats, the flutter of a thousand hats, and the traditions handed down through generations. From Clark’s vision on the grassy knolls in 1875 to every cheering present day, the Derby’s spirit runs unbroken. On the first Saturday in May, the past and present collide – old and young, horses and people, Southern gentility and wild abandon – to race together “for the roses.” As one Louisville historian observed, Kentucky Derby history is American history. When the gates fly open this Saturday and the trumpet sounds, two minutes later a new star will be crowned in red roses, and the world will watch with hearts pounding anew.

Sources: Official Derby history and archives; Churchill Downs publications; TwinSpires and other racing analyses; Hall of Fame and ESPN jockey biographies; contemporary reporting; regional culture journals.

 -May 3rd, 2025