1.
Kentucky Derby
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The Kentucky Derby /ˈdɜːrbi/ is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one, colts and geldings carry 126 pounds and fillies 121 pounds. It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown and is followed by the Preakness Stakes, unlike the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, which took hiatuses in 1891–1893 and 1911–1912, respectively, the Kentucky Derby has been run every consecutive year since 1875. A horse must win all three races to win the Triple Crown, the attendance at the Kentucky Derby ranks first in North America and usually surpasses the attendance of all other stakes races including the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, and the Breeders Cup. The 2017 Kentucky Derby will be the 143rd running, and is set for Saturday, May 6,2017 with a $2 million guaranteed purse. In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, traveled to England, visiting the Derby, a famous race that had been running annually since 1780. Returning home to Kentucky, Clark organized the Louisville Jockey Club for the purpose of raising money to build 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. Officially, the racetrack was incorporated as Churchill Downs in 1937, the Kentucky Derby was first run at 1 1⁄2 miles, the same distance as the Epsom Derby. The distance was changed in 1896 to its current 1 1⁄4 miles, 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. Under jockey Oliver Lewis, a colt named Aristides, who was trained by future Hall of Famer Ansel Williamson, won the inaugural Derby, later that year, Lewis rode Aristides to a second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes. Despite this, the business foundered until 1902 when Col. Matt Winn of Louisville put together a syndicate of businessmen to acquire the facility, under Winn, Churchill Downs prospered and the Kentucky Derby then became the preeminent stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses in North America. Derby participants are limited to three-year-old horses, no horse since Apollo in 1882 has won the Derby without having raced at age two. The three races offered the largest purse and in 1919 Sir Barton became the first horse to win all three races, however, the term Triple Crown didnt come into use for another eleven years. In 1930, when Gallant Fox became the horse to win all three races, sportswriter Charles Hatton brought the phrase into American usage. Fueled by the media, public interest in the possibility of a superhorse that could win the Triple Crown began in the leading up to the derby. Two years after the term was coined, the race, which had run in mid-May since inception, was changed to the first Saturday in May to allow for a specific schedule for the Triple Crown races. Since 1931, the order of Triple Crown races has been the Kentucky Derby first, followed by the Preakness Stakes, prior to 1931, eleven times the Preakness was run before the Derby. On May 12,1917 and again on May 13,1922, the Preakness, on eleven occasions the Belmont Stakes was run before the Preakness Stakes
2.
Churchill Downs
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Churchill Downs, located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, is a Thoroughbred racetrack most famous for hosting the Kentucky Derby annually. It officially opened in 1875, and held the first Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs has also hosted the renowned Breeders Cup on eight occasions, most recently in 2011. It is next scheduled to host the Breeders Cup in 2018, Churchill Downs Incorporated owns and operates the racetrack. With the infield open for the Kentucky Derby, the capacity of Churchill Downs is roughly 170,000, in 2009, the Horseplayers Association of North America introduced a rating system for 65 Thoroughbred racetracks in North America. Churchill Downs was ranked number 5 on this list, in 2014, prior to the start of their spring meet, Churchill Downs announced an increase in parimutuel takeout rates. As a result of the increase, Churchill Downs was ranked number 22 in the 2014 Horseplayers Association of North America Track Ratings. His father-in-law, Richard Ten Broeck, was a horse breeder and trainer. Churchill Downs filled a void in Louisville left by the closing of Oakland and Woodlawn, the then-rural location was along Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks, allowing for easy transport of horses. Clark, who preferred longer races to the short ones that had become popular by the 1890s, was running short of funds. Among the new people Applegate brought on board to help him run the rack was Col. Matt Winn of Louisville, Churchill Downs prospered and the Kentucky Derby then became the preeminent stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses in North America. During that early period, a new clubhouse was built in order to promote interaction, and new events such as steeplechases, automobile races. The State Fair was held on the grounds, featuring the odd spectacle of two locomotives being intentionally crashed head-on in the infield. On June 5,1907, African American jockey James Lee set a record that has never beaten when he won the entire six-race card at Churchill Downs. In 1908, parimutuel betting machines were introduced as gambling began to be less controversial again, Churchill Downs was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. On Friday, June 19,2009, Churchill Downs hosted its first-ever night race with an attendance of over 27,000, Churchill Downs ventured into the music business, organizing the inaugural HullabaLOU Music Festival, held on the weekend of July 23–25,2010. The track had planned to make this an event to compete with other summer music festivals. HullabaLOU attracted 78,000 people but that short of the more than 100,000 expected by the company. The company attributed this to the heat, but others cited high ticket prices in a poor economy
3.
Typhoon II
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Typhoon II was an American thoroughbred racehorse that was bred in Tennessee and was the winner of the 1897 Kentucky Derby. Typhoon won the Derby at 11-5 odds against the favored Ornament on a muddy track. After his Derby win, Typhoon II was sold to A. Featherstone, owner of Bromley and Company of Chicago and he followed his Derby win by winning the Club Members Handicap in St. Louis, Missouri but lost many races after his three-year-old season. The stallions career declined in his season, when he lost a race at Sheepshead Bay Race Track against only one other competitor. Typhoon II was gelded in 1899 and was stabled at the Kenmore Farm in Lexington. By 1903, Featherstone ordered his trainer, Julius Bauer, to dispose of Typhoon II, Bauer gave the horse to a friend in Lexington, who put him to work as a cart horse hauling hay for livestock
4.
Jockey
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A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing, the word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for boy, or fellow, at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in Jockey of Norfolk in Shakespeares Richard III. v.3,304, the current usage which means a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670. Another possible origin is the Gaelic word eachaidhe, a horseman, the Irish name Eochaid is related to each, horse, and is usually translated as horse rider. This is phonetically similar to jockey Jockeys must be light to ride at the weights which are assigned to their mounts. There are horse carrying weight limits, that are set by racing authorities, the Kentucky Derby, for example, has a weight limit of 126 lb including the jockeys equipment. The weight of a jockey usually ranges from 108 to 118 lb, despite their light weight, they must be able to control a horse that is moving at 40 mph and weighs 1,200 lb. Though there is no limit for jockeys, they are usually fairly short due to the weight limits. Jockeys typically stand around 4 ft 10 in to 5 ft 6 in, Jockeys are normally self employed, nominated by horse trainers to ride their horses in races, for a fee and a percentage of the purse winnings. In Australia, employment of apprentice jockeys is in terms of indenture to a master, Jockeys often cease their riding careers to take up other employment in racing, usually as trainers. In this way the system serves to induct young people into racing employment. Jockeys usually start out when they are young, riding work in the morning for trainers and it is normally necessary for an apprentice jockey to ride a minimum of about 20 barrier trials successfully before being permitted to ride in races. An apprentice jockey is known as a bug boy because the asterisk that follows the name in the program looks like a bug, all jockeys must be licensed and usually are not permitted to bet on a race. An apprentice jockey has a master, who is a horse trainer and this allowance is adjusted according to the number of winners that the apprentice has ridden. After a four-year indentured apprenticeship, the apprentice becomes a jockey and usually develops relationships with trainers. Sometimes senior jockeys are paid a retainer by an owner gives the owner the right to insist the jockey ride their horses in races. Racing modeled on the English Jockey Club spread throughout the world with colonial expansion, the colors worn by jockeys in races are the registered colors of the owner or trainer who employs them. The practice of riders wearing colors probably stems from medieval times when jousts were held between knights, however, the origins of racing colors of various patterns may have been influenced by racing held in Italian city communities since medieval times
5.
1896 Kentucky Derby
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The 1896 Kentucky Derby was the 22nd running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on May 6,1896 and this was the first Derby held at the current distance of 1 1⁄4 miles. Accordingly, the winning horse Ben Brush set the Derby record at that distance with a time of 2,07.75, the winner received a purse of $4,850
6.
Alonzo Clayton
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An African American, Lonnie Clayton was born in Kansas City, Missouri on March 27,1876, one of the nine children of Robert and Evaline Clayton. At age ten, his family moved to North Little Rock, Arkansas where he attended school and worked as a gofer for a hotel and as a shoeshine boy to help support his family. Immediately successful, in 1891 at Morris Park Racetrack in The Bronx, New York, Clayton won the important Champagne Stakes aboard Bashford Manor Stables two-year-old colt, Azra. On May 11,1892 he rode Azra to victory in the Kentucky Derby which at age fifteen made him the youngest jockey in history to win the Derby. Clayton and Azra followed up their Derby success with victories in the Clark Handicap, at Monmouth Park in New Jersey Clayton won the 1893 Monmouth Handicap and went on to win the fall riding title at Churchill Downs. One of the leading winners on the East Coast racing circuit during the 1890s. He captured back-to-back runnings of the Kentucky Oaks in 1894 and 1895, in 1895 he won the Arkansas Derby and in 1896 finished third in the Preakness Stakes aboard the filly, Intermission. However, by the start of the 20th century, racism began to raise its ugly head, since 1909, no African-American jockey has ridden a winner in any major American Graded stakes race. An 1896 report and a 1900 report in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle stated that Clayton planned to other black jockeys riding in Europe. Lonnie Claytons success had allowed him to acquire a property in Little Rock, described by the Arkansas Gazette as the finest house on the North Side, it was designed in the fashion of Queen Anne Style architecture. An astute businessman, in 1897 Clayton also built a building at 617-619 Main Street in Little Rock. However, denied the right to earn a living in racing, he was forced to sell his investment property and his residence is today known as Engelberger House and since 1990 has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Clayton lived his last few years in California where he worked as a hotel bellhop and he died at age forty on March 17,1917 of chronic pulmonary tuberculosis. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles
