The Kentucky Derby is an annual horse race held in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May. This Grade 1 stakes race is for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, and it caps the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The total length of the race is one and a quarter miles and it is ran at Churchill Downs.

In the U.S.A., the Derby is coined “The most exciting two minutes in sports,” and it often considered being the primary horse race in the world. The Kentucky Derby, like so many other races, didn't start out as prestigious. Although today the Derby is the first leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, it has rather humble beginnings.

The region of Kentucky slowly climbed to horse racing prominence in the 18th century. The Bluegrass Region was considered a breeding ground for great thoroughbred horses. In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. traveled to England and visited the Epsom Derby, a famous annual horse race.

After that, Clark went on to Paris and witnessed another great horse race called the Grand Prix de Paris. Upon returning home to Kentucky, Clark was now a horse racing enthusiast. He promptly formed the Louisville Jockey Club for the purposes of raising enough money to build a quality racing ground outside of the city. Soon after, the track Clark helped to build was named Churchill Downs.

The first Kentucky Derby was run at 1.5 miles, which happened to be the same distance as the Epsom Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris. But in 1896, the distance was shortened to its current 1.25 miles. The inaugural Kentucky Derby was run on May 17, 1875, in front of a crowd of 10,000 spectators. The field consisted of 15 horses and was won by a colt named Aristides.

The track would fall into financial ruin despite the race being a success with the local race enthusiasts, and in 1894, the Louisville Jockey Club was incorporated with new capitalization and improved facilities. Even with the improvements, business floundered until 1902 when Col. Matt Winn put together a syndicate of business to purchase the facility. With Winn's help, the Kentucky Derby became the preeminent thoroughbred race in America.

The Kentucky Derby is also known to have helped start the Triple Crown. After the Derby was over, owners would take their horses to compete at Pimlico Race Course two weeks later in the Preakness Stakes.

After that, they would journey to New York to compete in the Belmont. At the time, the races weren't referred to as the Triple Crown. Owners wanted to compete in these races because they offered the largest purse. It was only some years later, in 1930, that the trio of races began to go by the name of Triple Crown.