Sepia Saturday #73- First Kentucky Derby Winner

Sepia Saturday

Aristrides    May 17 1875

Owner H.P. McGrath rests on the rail as Aristides and jockey Oliver Lewis go to the post.

The original grandstand is in the background with the clubhouse at the far left.

The first Kentucky Derby drew 42 nominations and 15 entries. The stakes were $50.00 from each entry with $1000.00 added by the Louisville Racing Association, as it was then called. The trophy was a magnificent 300-ounce silver punch bowl valued at $1,000.00.

Ten thousand racing fans streamed out to Churchil Downs on this warm spring day. Many headed for the infield in horse-drawn wagons, buggies, carts and carriages. The clubhouse was a different scene. Ladies were dressed fashionably in long organdy gowns, ten-button gloves and large, elaborate hats. Betters favored the traditional auctions pools over the newly introduced pari-mutual system from

France and bookies took bets as low as a nickel.Under the stands elderly black women fried fish and chicken, while on the track 14 of the 15 jockeys going to the post were black.

The flag fell, the drum rolled, and they were off. Volcano took the lead, then eased back. McGrath's second horse, Chesapeake, broke last. At the half-mile pole McCreery led but soon fell behind Aristides and Ten Broeck. Aristides held the lead at the mile and McGrath, seeing his Chesapeake out of the money, signaled jockey Oliver Lewis to take Aristides in for the win.

Aristides won with Volcano second and late charger Verdigris third. The time of 2:373/4 set an American record for three-year0olds, with 100 pounds up, over one-and-a-half miles. The "Little Red Horse," as McGrath referred to his 15-hands-high colt, had won $2,850.00 for him,a rich purse for the day.

Price McGrath was a noted horse breeder and had earned for himself a colorful reputation. He had heeded the call to "go west young man," then settled in New York where he operated a gambling house. Returning to Kentucky, he established McGrathiana Stud. His white mansion became famous for burgoo feasts (a local stew, still made around here) and he frequently opened his doors to the public.

Courtsy of the Web 

Horse racing and photos.

For years the Kentucky Colonels of Kentucky held a huge feast in Bardstown at Wickland Home of three govenors on the Sunday after the Derby with burgoo as the main draw.

Just about three years ago that festival was discontinued as it had become a political mess and the crowds had began to diminish.

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Folks every where will be gathered tomorrow for the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby.

I went to the derby one time when I was about 19 to the infield. 

What a mess.

I have never been again.

But I love the hoopla of the entire Derby week.

Most folks around here go on Friday for the

Oaks.

Sepia Saturday Week# 47 Churchill Downs

Sepia Saturday Number # 47
Churchill Downs

In 1955 Sports Illustrated was first published and, wanting their magazine to stand out from the rest of the sports oriented magazines, hired Nobel prize winner William Faulkner to come to Louisville to watch and write about the Derby. What better way was there to set Sports Illustrated apart from the rest of the sports rags?

Faulkner always painted scenes with a broad brush and opened his piece by writing about Daniel Boone’s exploration and opening of Kentucky to people wanting to settle here. He ended his narrative without bothering to mention the name of the horse who won the Derby that year.

It was Swaps ridden by Willie Shewmaker.

“Only a little over two minutes: one simultaneous metallic clash as the gates spring. Though you do not really know what it was you hear: whether it was that metallic crash, or the simultaneous thunder of the hooves in that first leap or the massed voices, the gasp, the exhalation--whatever it was, the clump of horses indistinguishable yet, like a brown wave dotted with the bright silks of the riders like chips flowing toward us along the rail until, approaching, we can begin to distinguish individuals, streaming past us now as individual horses--horses which (including the rider) once stood about eight feet tall and 10 feet long, now look like arrows twice that length and less than half that thickness, shooting past and bunching again as perspective diminishes, then becoming individual horses once more about the turn into the backstretch, streaming on, to bunch for the last time into the homestretch itself, then again individuals, individual horses, the individual horse, the Horse: 2:01 4/5 minutes."



Lots of things have changed at Churchill Downs but the 
Twin Spires will stand til the LAST horse is run.


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Day 6 grateful for the wonderful woman Madonna who teaches me basket making.
I am so blessed to have her for my friend now.
Grateful for all my artistic friends who help make my life so full of joy.
Thank dear God for friends.