'The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports’, ‘The Running for the Roses” has been held annually on the first Saturday in May every year since 1870. The Kentucky Derby is the first of the three races in the ‘Triple Crown’ and is the oldest major sporting events in the US held annually since their beginning, having only been rescheduled twice (but still in the same year) due to World War II and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The First Saturday in May

Journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson wrote a famed article titled “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” In this work, Thompson chronicled the revelry surrounding the Kentucky Derby in a first-person, subjective narrative that focused less on the race. Generally speaking, this focus on the revelry rings true for many attendees experience of the Derby.

The Kentucky Derby is whirlwind clash of contradictions and opposites. At Churchill Downs modern values clash with history and tradition, fashion and class collide with those who seek only a good time. Attended by those who lives are intertwined with the thoroughbred industry alongside those who know nothing about horses.