Welcome to day one of The Derby Week Event. This week The 2 Seasons, along with our fellow Kentucky bloggers, Our Fifth House, Thistlewood Farms, and At the Picket Fence are joining up to write a daily Derby or horse related post. We are all so proud of our state, and it doesn’t get much better than living here during Derby Week. So, please join us each day to share in some of the excitement with us.
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We’re kicking the event off here with a little background on the world of thoroughbred horses and some history of the Derby.
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The Kentucky Derby is held every year on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY.
Here in Lexington, we have Keeneland, which was just voted the most beautiful race track in the country. We don’t mind giving Churchill Downs, which is 70 miles away, its day in the spotlight once a year.
Before a horse can get to this point, it has been through many hours of training and receiving the best care that any animal can stand. Each year over 30,000 thoroughbred foals are born, but only one-third of them will ever run in a race. To make it to the Derby, a horse must have the build, the stamina, the personality, and the desire. Just because a horse has the best winning ancestors that money can buy doesn’t insure it will be a racer. It must love to run.
Lots of people don’t realize that no matter when a horse is born during the year, they all officially turn one on January 1 of the following year. So, if a horse is born early in the year, it will have more time to mature. The Kentucky Derby is made up of three-year-olds. On paper, they are all the same age, but one might actually be six to eight months older than the others. That horse should have the advantage. That’s why every breeder’s goal is to have his foals born early each year. They actually call it foaling season.
There’s a reason why Lexington is the Thoroughbred Capital of the World. It’s also the reason why 90 per cent of the world’s bourbon is made within a 50 mile radius of here. It’s limestone. Under our beautiful blue grass, there is a layer of limestone that leaches calcium into the water. That calcium makes the horses’ bones stronger, and it makes the bourbon taste the way it does.
Horses are walked in a paddock before each race. This gives the owners, trainers, jockeys, and bettors one last look before the horses are saddled up. This year will be the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby. The race is one and a quarter miles long, and it has only been won by three females (fillies). However, it is the only event where female viewers outrank male viewers.
In the past 25 years, the predicted favorite has only won three times. The Derby is the first of three races, known as The Triple Crown. (The other two are the Preakness and the Belmont). And to show how difficult the winning the Triple Crown is, only 11 horses have ever won it. The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978. Even though it is the second oldest continually held sporting even in the country (the Westminster dog show is first), there have only been five female jockeys to ride in the Derby.
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The rose garland first appeared in 1896, when the rose became the official flower. It was dubbed the “Run for the Roses” by a sportscaster in 1925. Kroger makes the rose garland at one of its Louisville stores every year so that the public can watch. The garland is made of of 400 red roses sewn in a green satin backing. It is adorned with a “crown” which symbolizes the struggle and heart necessary to reach the winners’ circle.
Every farm involved in the racing industry has its own silks. The jockeys wear white pants and turtlenecks but change their silks for each race, depending on the farm they are riding for. It’s just the same as a sports team having its own colors and uniforms. The farms are often known by their silks. My favorite silks are always the ones with polka dots, and it doesn’t matter which color they are.
The money that is awarded to the race winners is known as the purse. In the early days of horse racing, someone literally put the winnings in a purse and hung it on a post at the finish line. The first jockey to grab the purse was on the winning horse. Jockeys work pretty much on a free-lance basis. Their earnings are a percentage of the purse that their mounts win. In other words, a jockey’s wages are based on his wins. The more wins a jockey has help him to get more and better races.
The best horses run in the races with the largest purses. For instance, the owner of the 2010 Kentucky Derby winner won $1,425,000. That’s a lot of money. However, the owner of the winner of a claims race might only make $15,000. It’s all about the quality of the horse.
Only 20 or so horses will make it to the Kentucky Derby, and only one of them will make it to the winners’ circle. I hope our little blog gave you some more understanding of how it all goes down.
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One more fact that I think is interesting is that when most great horses die, the hooves, heart, and head are the only things buried in their graves. Those parts are considered the real soul of the horse.
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Do you like equine decorating? Tomorrow Carmel at Our Fifth House will be showing how the horse motif can be used in home decor. Be sure to come back.
Click here to like The 2 Seasons on Facebook.
Take care.
Some facts taken from www.horseracing.about.com and www.guysgirl.com
Thank you so much for all these interesting facts! I am going to love this series. Thank you all so much!
Debbie
Oh my goodness! Debbie (Refresh Restyle) posted something about the Derby on fb and I clicked over here! I am in Lexington too, and love Keeneland! So glad to see another KY gal on here. Can’t wait to read more!
Jessica @ Mom 4 Real
http://mom4realky.blogspot.com
Very interesting. I did not know a lot of that info. Did not know about the limestone.
yeah! So excited to be kicking off a great week here in the state of Kentucky. What a great post, with lots if information I didn’t know. One of my favorite memories ever, was attending the opening day at Turfway Park, it was so much fun and we even got to go out to the winners circle. My best friend is going to the Derby this year and I am just a tad jealous! 😉 Can’t wait to celebrate Derby Week with you fabulous ladies!
Heather
Love this – I feel like donning a huge hat, sipping a mint julep and cheering for a female horse to win (with a female jockey)! It’s our year, I can feel it!
Kelly
Wow this is such an interesting post! We live in Tennessee and have always enjoyed watching the derby on television but it would be awesome to get to be there
As an avid horseracing fan who follows the sport quite extensively, I’m happy and proud that you’re paying tribute to one of the most interesting of sports. There are so many facets to it, the average fan is not aware….it’s far more than Churchill, big hats and mint juleps, although that’s all fun too, so thank you for helping to spread the word!!!!! I look forward to your blog this week as you highlight the Sport of Kings!
What a great post! You really explained the whole thing so well. So excited to be participating in this fun blog series!
I enjoyed this post very much. I didn’t know about the calcium and the connection between the horses’ bones. My sister-in-law makes a hat each year to wear while watching the Derby. I plan to do a post this week about her hats.
I so loved reading this post and learning about “The Run For The Roses”….
Before relocating to N.C., we lived in Ocala, Florida, where they claimed it was the “Horse Capital of the World”….yes, they had the most gorgeous horse farms there…I learned about the “silks” there and there were always beautifully art adorned horses everywhere in the town…But Kentucky, oh that IS the THE horse country of the world…beautiful state…I always love it when driving through the area…cannot take my eyes off the beautiful farms….
I am so looking forward to this series this week….What a great idea…Thanks for presenting this series!
ocala, fl boasts the title “horse capital of the world” because of the dollar amount the horse industry generates there. it also is home to a couple of derby winners and a triple crown winner. however, lexington has the most thoroughbreds, but ranks fifth in the amount of other horses. other places with large horse populations are texas and california. 😉
Oh I forgot to say that Affirmed was bred in Ocala, Florida..I guess that was their “claim to fame”…..One of my “bucket list” things is to go to the Kentucky Derby with a “great hat”…I have friends from Ocala that go every year…never made it there…but hope to one day…!!!….
Again, love this series…a tribute to a one of the most honorable sporting events ever!!!
What a great series! Go Kentudky! I know it’s going to be an incredible year! I live in Kentucky and I didn’t know about the limestone!
Can’t wait for Carmel’s post tomorrow!
blessings,
karianne
Love this post. It brought back so many fond memories. I have never been to The Kentucky Derby, but my family used to go to the Kenneland races in the spring and fall. I would spend the day running from the paddock to our table and then outside to watch the races. The times we spent at the races are some of my favorite memories. Thank you for sharing !
Couple corrections:
Not all horses have a birthday on Jan1, just Jockey Club registered Thoroughbreds.
most great horses, alas, do not get buried… the big studs at the big farms do [and yes head, heart and hooves, and in rarer cases the whole horse], but many if not most end up in much less nice places [the dump or slaughter- Ferdinand was slaughtered for human consumption in Japan when he started to shoot blanks in the breeding shed].
And while you’re right, the Derby is the pinnacle of the sport, the bottom of the barrel is not $15,000 claimers, but races with far slimmer purses… the majority of those 30,000 TBs born in the US each year race at small tracks with small purses. When tehy are done some get to go on to second careers as sport horses, but too many ship off, sometimes injured, to slaughter [in Canada or Mexico] for human consumption in Europe.
The Sport of Kings has it’s pretty side, and it’s very, very ugly side.
Yes, I was referring the the Thoroughbreds who have a birthday on Jan. 1 since they are the horses that do the racing. I understand where you are coming from. I had an adopted greyhound that lived with us for ten years. I wanted to her to become our pet because of the deplorable conditions that race dogs live under. However, the focus of this blog entry was on the Derby and the horses who do actually race.
I gotcha’… what’s interesting is when I was researching how to ID horses [I am involved in horse rescue] I learned that there are so many other breeds who do race- TB, STBs and QHs of course, but also Arabs and Appaloosas, and they all have tattoos or other Identifications that can be traced. Who knew, right?
I went to the Derby many years ago in my 20’s and sat in the infield. I’d like to go again but not in the cheap seats. Dressed up and with a hat would be so much better!!! Thanks for stopping by, Laura