Kentucky Derby 2024

Racehorses Have No Idea What’s Going On
If you give a horse a trophy, will he even know he raced?
By Haley Weiss
(The Atlantic) The Derby and the two subsequent races that make up the U.S. Triple Crown are normally the year’s highlights for American enthusiasts, but this season will be even more packed with equestrian sports. The Paris Olympics this summer will feature international riders in dressage, show jumping, and the hybridized “eventing” discipline, and these competitions may generate more interest than usual because France is, as the Fédération Equestre Internationale puts it, “heaven for horse lovers.” Equestrian sports first made their Olympic debut in Paris more than 100 years ago.
Equestrian activities such as racing, show jumping, dressage, and eventing are the only elite sports that feature pairs of athletes that are fundamentally unknowable to each other. No one can doubt that the horses are trained specialists. But it’s difficult not to wonder if they have any idea what’s going on.

They were born into slavery. Then they won the first Kentucky Derby.
Oliver Lewis and Ansel Williamson were among the Black turfmen who dominated the early days of the Derby, before Jim Crow changed everything.
The track was fast and the weather clear on that spring day in Louisville, nearly 150 years ago. As the inaugural Kentucky Derby was about to start on May 17, 1875, Oliver Lewis and Ansel Williamson stood on the cusp of history, though they didn’t know it at the time.
Lewis, a jockey, and Williamson, a trainer — both born into slavery — would celebrate victory at the end of that very first race, then continue to leave a mark in the annals of horse racing. But 25 years later, their accomplishments — as well as those of other African American turfmen — would be all but erased as the injustice of Jim Crow descended upon racetracks across the South.
“Racing’s Black workforce experienced the same mounting systemic discrimination that targeted all African Americans,” Roda Ferraro, director of the Keeneland Library, the world’s largest repository of the thoroughbred industry, said in an email. “Within two decades, opportunities for African Americans working in the industry’s most visible and potentially high-earning roles as owners, breeders, trainers and jockeys regressed significantly.”
As the 150th Kentucky Derby kicks off Saturday, that legacy continues to linger. The Kentucky state song “My Old Kentucky Home” — which included racist lyrics until they were changed in 1986 — has been sung before each Derby since 1921. No Black jockey has won the Derby in more than 120 years.
…at the very first Kentucky Derby, America’s longest continually running sporting event, African American horsemen were still free to race — and would quickly come to dominate. In that first race, 13 of the 15 horses were ridden by Black jockeys, who also won 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbies.

11 May
Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan is heading to the Preakness after all
(AP) Mystik Dan, the horse who won the Kentucky Derby by a nose in the race’s closest finish in more than a half-century, is heading to the Preakness next weekend after all, keeping alive the chance of another Triple Crown winner.
Trainer Kenny McPeek announced the decision Saturday after speaking with owners and weighing the pros and cons of racing his horse again on a short, two-week turnaround. He initially expressed concern about that timeframe after Mystik Dan ran poorly under the same circumstances in November.

5 May
51 years ago, on May 5, 1973, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby in the record time of 1 minute, 59 2/5 seconds, a record that still stands. He would also go on to win the Triple Crown and set records in the other 2 races. Records which still stand.
We love Secretariat Facebook page
In his famous Kentucky Derby win, Secretariat ran faster every ¼ mile down the track. This is actually a bit unusual as most horses run fastest at the beginning, then slow as they tire throughout the race. His Derby time is still the fastest time on record at Churchill Downs at a smoking 1:59.2/5

4 May
Kentucky Derby 2024 (FULL RACE) | NBC Sports (YouTube)

Mystik Dan wins 150th Kentucky Derby by a nose in the closest 3-horse photo finish since 1947

Mystik Dan wins 150th Kentucky Derby by a nose in the closest 3-horse photo finish since 1947
The 150th Kentucky Derby produced one of the most dramatic finishes in its storied history — three noses at the wire.
Kentucky Derby Results 2024: Mystik Dan Beats Sierra Leone in Epic Photo Finish
One of the greatest finishes in Kentucky Derby history resulted in an 18-1 longshot taking the Triple Crown’s first leg.
Trained by Kenny McPeek and ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., Mystik Dan took control of the inside rail down the stretch. But a hard charge from Sierra Leone and Forever Young led to a remarkable end to the race.
Kentucky Derby victory aboard Mystik Dan provides signature win for jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.
(AP) — Brian Hernandez Jr. will need a minute to digest his signature victory in the 150th Kentucky Derby.
Maybe even more time since the milestone derby capped the best weekend of a jockey career spent mostly under the radar.
The Louisiana native rode Mystik Dan to an epic win Saturday at Churchill Downs, sliding past favorite Fierceness along the rail at the final turn and holding off Sierra Leone and Forever Young by a nose in an epic three-horse photo finish.
Hernandez’s derby victory aboard Mystik Dan at 18-1 odds came a day after he rode filly Thorpedo Anna to a wire-to-wire rout by 4 3/4 lengths in the 150th Kentucky Oaks. That made him the first jockey to complete the Derby/Oaks double since Hall of Famer Calvin Borel achieved the feat aboard Mine That Bird and filly Rachel Alexandra, respectively, in 2009. Kenny McPeek became the first trainer to earn the double since Ben Jones in 1952.

Kentucky Derby’s thrilling finish draws 16.7 million viewers. It’s the biggest audience since 1989
(AP) — Mystik Dan’s nose victory in the 150th Kentucky Derby drew 16.7 million viewers, the biggest audience for the race since 1989.
Viewership peaked at 20.1 million from 7 to 7:15 p.m. EDT on Saturday, when 18-1 shot Mystik Dan, Sierra Leone and Forever Young hit the wire together in the Derby’s first three-horse photo finish since 1947. That marked the biggest peak audience ever for the Derby on NBC.

Heather Cox Richardson May 3, 2024
Tomorrow is the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby, and in its honor, I’m posting a piece my friend Michael S. Green and I wrote together a number of years ago on Ten Famous American Horses. It has no deep meaning…it’s just fun. And it was totally fun to research, too: I watched hours and hours of Mr. Ed and read television history to try to figure out what made it such a popular show. This remains one of my favorite things I ever had a hand in writing.
1) Traveller General Robert E. Lee rode Traveller (spelled with two Ls, in the British style) from February 1862 until the general’s death in 1870.
2) Comanche was attached to General Custer’s detachment of the 7th Cavalry…in 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The troops in the detachment were all killed in the engagement, but soldiers found Comanche, badly wounded, two days later. They nursed him back to health, and he became the 7th Cavalry’s mascot. … When Comanche died of colic in 1891, he was given a full military funeral (the only other horse so honored was Black Jack
4) Man o’ War Named for his owner, August Belmont, Jr., who was overseas in World War I, Man o’ War is widely regarded as the top Thoroughbred racehorse of all time. … Man o’ War sired many of America’s famous racehorses, including Hard Tack, which in turn sired Seabiscuit, the small horse that came to symbolize hope during the Great Depression.