The 145th running of the historic Kentucky Derby takes place today, Saturday, May 4th at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
The above hat is the one you chose for Hattingdon to wear to this year’s ‘Run for the Roses’. Thank you for your votes and input! Some Fun Facts follow after the hat.
12 Fun Facts about the Kentucky Derby
1. Nineteen winning horses have had names beginning with the letter “S,” including Secretariat, the fastest horse in Kentucky Derby history, who completed the 1973 race in just under two minutes.
2. Only three horses raced in the 1892 Kentucky Derby.
3. The Derby is also referred to as ‘The Run for the Roses’ because the winner is awarded a blanket sewn with over 400 roses post-race. This blanket weighs about 40 lbs.
4. The Kentucky Derby was started by Lewis Clark Jr.—grandson of William Clark, half of the famous explorer duo Lewis and Clark—after he saw England’s Epsom Derby.
5. Legend is that Churchill Downs founder and president Col. M. Lewis Clark made the rose the official flower of the race after attending an 1883 post-derby party where socialite E. Berry Wall was handing the flower out to the ladies in attendance.
6. The Kentucky Derby trophy only weighs 3½ lbs.
7. The traditional drink of the Derby is the mint julep, and over 120,000 are said to be consumed at the race each year.
8. The record low temperature at the race (held on the first week of May every year) was 47 degrees in 1935 and 1957. The record high was 94 degrees in 1959.
9. Only three fillies (female horses) have won the Derby: Regret in 1915, Genuine Risk in 1980, and Winning Colors in 1988.
10. Diane Crump was the first woman jockey to ever ride in the Derby; there has yet to be a female winner, but Shelley Riley came the closest in 1992 when she came in second.
11. The youngest jockey to win the esteemed race, Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton, was just 15 come derby day in 1892. Bill Shoemaker continues to hold the title as the oldest winner; he was 54 when he took home the 1986 title.
12. Bill Shoemaker has ridden the most Kentucky Derby horses (26) in history.
Hugs and kisses, and millinery blisses, love, Hattingdon.
© Vivian J. Grant
Hattingdon 