The Kentucky Derby: Saved From Bankruptcy

• In Kentucky, horses flourished on the bluegrass pastures and Kentucky became an important thoroughbred breeding center. Inevitably, horse racing became a popular sport. In 1832, town fathers in Louisville, Kentucky bought land from the Churchill family and built a racetrack. Built too far from town to attract crowds, and competing against more popular tracks, horse racing in Louisville floundered -- until the arrival of Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr.

• Meriwether Clark was the grandson of explorer William Clark. He was the great-nephew of the founder of Louisville, George Clark, and his mother was Abigail Churchill, of the Churchill family who owned the property where the racetrack was built.

• Meriwether Clark grew up with horseracing. After a trip to Europe in 1873 where he studied the layout of the Epsom Derby, he returned full of ideas of how to improve racing in Louisville.

• With financial backing from the wealthy Churchill family, Clark built a new track on Churchill property. He leased 80 acres from his Churchill uncles, built a grandstand and track, sold stock, and organized betting. The track, dubbed the Louisville Jockey Club Course, opened on May 17, 1875. Although there were more important races being run in Kentucky that day, the success and fame of the new track was assured when a spirited horse set a new world record for the mile-and-a-half run and the crowd went wild. The news spread fast, and the concept of the Kentucky Derby was born.

Horseracing enthusiasts fill the grounds of the Louisville Jockey Club during its heyday in the late 1870s.

• Unfortunately, Clark himself was a difficult man to get along with and had few friends. His wife could no longer stand his abrasive temperament and left him. The Churchill family cut him out of the family will, leaving him only a few acres of Churchill property, and demoted him to the junior position of overseer of the racetrack. Townfolk stopped calling it the Louisville Jockey Club and instead referred to it as Churchill Downs, an insulting slur against Clark, stating just who it was that still held the purse strings.

• Things rapidly spiraled downward for Clark, sadly resulting in his suicide in 1899. This also came very close to marking the death of the Kentucky Derby itself, which was then on the ragged edge of bankruptcy.

• But in 1902, Louisville businessman Col. Matt Winn took over operations as manager. Winn had a flair for publicity and promotion, and almost singlehandedly rebuilt the Churchill Downs legacy. He had a clubhouse built so patrons would feel more welcome and relaxed. He hired famous bandleader John Phillip Sousa to entertain, and wowed audiences by having two airplanes shipped in to perform aerobatic flyovers before the races began. They were an exciting new attraction and the first recorded airplane flights in Kentucky state history.

• During World War I, Winn pledged ten percent of the track profits to the Red Cross. During the potato shortage of 1918, he turned the entire infield into a huge potato patch. He courted the press, the radio broadcasters, the movie makers, and the rich owners of the best horses. He invited the New York City mayor to present the winning trophy. He improved the seating, and business increased. Winn's favorable public opinion was high, and revenues skyrocketed.

Col. Matt Winn used his panache for promotion and publicity to revive the floundering Churchill Downs legacy.

• The Derby suffered through the Depression years with a severe drop in turnout. When World War II resulted in an order for the racetrack to be shut down for the duration, Winn responded by asking wealthy patrons to purchase their tickets as usual and then donate them for the free use of servicemen. For the next three years the grounds were converged upon by U.S. Army personnel.He invited the Army to use the infield for public demonstrations of their new Sherman tanks, and invited the Kentucky State Fair to hold the event on the grounds. Because of Matt Winn, the Kentucky Derby became an international event and he ran it successfully until his death in 1949.

• Today, the Kentucky Derby is an institution and ranks as one of the world’s best known racing events. It’s been run every May since its inception in 1875. Over 100,000 people come to Churchill Downs to view the race, and millions more watch its coverage on network TV. 

Thoroughbreds thunder around the bend at world-famous Kentucky Derby.