Some Kentucky Derby Trivia to Amuse Your Friends
April 27th, 2010By Jude T. Feld
The Kentucky Derby roses – Who will wear them this year? To access our facebook page, click here.
With the legendary long stretch at Churchill Downs, most racing fans think closers are the best Kentucky Derby bets. You might be surprised to know that in 52 of the last 55 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, the winner was either on the lead with an eighth of a mile to go in the race, within a length of the lead, or running second although no more than a length off the leader at that point. In all, 41 of the last 55 winners, or 75%, were on the lead at the eighth pole.
The Derby is frequently referred to as “The Run for the Roses,” because a lush blanket of 554 red roses is awarded to the winner each year. The tradition originated in 1883 when New York socialite E. Berry Wall presented roses to the ladies at a post-Derby party that was attended by Churchill Downs founder and president, Col. M. Lewis Clark. This gesture is believed to have eventually led Clark to the idea of making the rose the race’s official flower. However, it was not until 1896 that any recorded account referred to roses being draped on the Derby winner.
Dublin is the most expensive horse sold at public auction among the candidates for this year’s Derby. The chestnut son of Afleet Alex brought $525,000 from Robert Baker and William Mack when he was consigned by Gerry Dilger’s Dromoland Farm, agent, to the 2008 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Noble’s Promise is the least expensive 2010 entrant sold at auction. He brought only $10,000 from Southcoast Bloodstock, agent for Wild as Elle, when offered as a weanling by Gainesway, agent, at the 2007 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The son of Cuvee was a $25,000 buy-back the following year at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. August yearling auction.
The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continually held sports event in the United States (1875); the second oldest is the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (1876).
The first grey horse to win the Run for the Roses was Determine in 1954. He was a very small horse, estimated to weigh less than a thousand pounds, yet he managed to win several prep races in California including the Santa Anita Derby. Coincidently, the second grey horse to win the Derby was his son, Decidedly, who broke Whirlaway’s record time in the 1962 Run for the Roses.
Between 1875 and 1902, African-American jockeys won 15 of the 28 runnings of the Kentucky Derby.
If Devil May Care starts in this year’s Derby, she will be the 40th filly to compete in the race which will have been run 136 times. Regret, Genuine Risk and Winning Colors are the only three fillies to have won the prestigious race and all three are in the Hall of Fame.
D. Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert, Nick Zito and Todd Pletcher have run a combined 107 horses in the Derby. They account for 30% of the Derby starters in the last 14 years. The profit on a $2.00 “win†wager on all the horses entered by these four trainers is $61.80. (A $2.00 across-the-board wager would have shown a profit of $107.20.)
