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Kentucky Derby
Summary
The Kentucky Derby (ˈdɜrbi) is an American Grade I stakes race run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The race is run by three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of , the first time horses in the field race that distance. Colts and geldings carry and fillies .
Held annually on the first Saturday in May, the race is the first leg of the Triple Crown. The Derby is known as "The Run for the Roses," as the winning horse is draped in a blanket of roses. Lasting approximately two minutes, the race has also been called "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" or "The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports." It is preceded by the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival.
The race was first run in 1875. Unlike the other races of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, the Derby has been run annually since its first edition. The race was rescheduled to later in the year due to World War II in 1945 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Derby is the most-watched and most-attended horse race in the United States.
In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, traveled to England, visiting Epsom in Surrey where The Derby had been running annually since 1780. From there, Clark went on to Paris, France, where a group of racing enthusiasts had formed the French Jockey Club in 1863. They had organized the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp, which at the time was the greatest race in France. Returning home to Kentucky, Clark organized the Louisville Jockey Club to raise money for building quality racing facilities just outside the city. The track would soon become known as Churchill Downs, named for John and Henry Churchill, who provided the land for the racetrack. The naming went official in 1937.
The Kentucky Derby was first run at miles (12 furlongs; 2.4 km) the same distance as the Epsom Derby, before changing lengths in 1896 to its current miles (10 furlongs; 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.
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