Overview

Today’s Kentucky Derby is a multi-million-dollar spectacle incorporating corporate sponsorship, worldwide media coverage, and an annual citywide festival in Louisville, Kentucky. Over its nearly century-and-a-half, the Kentucky Derby has grown to be one of the biggest sporting events of the year, attracting 150,000 spectators at the track and nearly 15 million television viewers on the first Saturday each May. But 1875, the year of the first Derby, was a different time. The Louisville Jockey Club, which would one day bear the name “Churchill Downs,” was a small structure that might, on its best day, provide seating and standing room for 12,000 spectators. The grandstand was plain and functional, and included a section reserved for bookmakers, whose trade was legal, and who operated in the open. Perhaps most significantly, the majority of jockeys in the race were Black, in stark contrast to the present-day Derby, where participation by African-Americans is rare. In The First Kentucky Derby, racing historian Mark Shrager examines the events leading up to the first “Run for the Roses,” the unsuccessful plot hatched by the winning horse’s owner to fix the race, and the prominent role played by African-Americans in Gilded Age racing culture—a holdover from pre-emancipation days, when slaves would be trained from birth to ride for their wealthy owners, and would grow up surrounded by the horses that would be their life’s work.

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9781493073344

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From Aristides to Lewis, from Clark to McGrath, Mark Shrager enthralls the reader with the particulars of that inaugural Kentucky Derby, the inspiration for a century and a half of memorable contests. Within these pages, he weaves the sights and the sounds of that iconic day with the context that gave rise to it, including the societal changes that essentially eliminated an entire race of Americans from the sport. Come for the story and stay for this finely drawn portrait of American horse racing in the era that formed the foundation for the sport as modern fans know it. --Jennifer S. Kelly, author of Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown and The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown; Secretary, National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Mark Shrager has found the winner's circle once again! The Kentucky Derby is an American institution, but its foundational running has never been examined in such depth prior to this important and entertaining work. A master storyteller who presents history from previously neglected perspectives, Shrager has delivered the first truly comprehensive account of the inaugural Run for the Roses. It is essential reading for any fan of Thoroughbred racing and American history. --Brien Bouyea, Communications Director, National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame; author of The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga's Greatest Race

Mark Shrager has found the winner's circle once again! The Kentucky Derby is an American institution, but its foundational running has never been examined in such depth prior to this important and entertaining work. A master storyteller who presents history from previously neglected perspectives, Shrager has delivered the first truly comprehensive account of the inaugural Run for the Roses. It is essential reading for any fan of Thoroughbred racing and American history. --Brien Bouyea, Communications Director, National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and author of The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga's Greatest Race

From Aristides to Lewis, from Clark to McGrath, Mark Shrager enthralls the reader with the particulars of that inaugural Kentucky Derby, the inspiration for a century and a half of memorable contests. Within these pages, he weaves the sights and the sounds of that iconic day with the context that gave rise to it, including the societal changes that essentially eliminated an entire race of Americans from the sport. Come for the story and stay for this finely drawn portrait of American horse racing in the era that formed the foundation for the sport as modern fans know it. --Jennifer S. Kelly, author of Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown and The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown; secretary, National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Mark Shrager has found the winner's circle once again! The Kentucky Derby is an American institution, but its foundational running has never been examined in such depth prior to this important and entertaining work. A master storyteller who presents history from previously neglected perspectives, Shrager has delivered the first truly comprehensive account of the inaugural Run for the Roses. It is essential reading for any fan of Thoroughbred racing and American history. --Brien Bouyea, communications director, National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame; author of The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga's Greatest Race A wealth of information on the roots of the Kentucky Derby.--Mark Paul, author of The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told

Mark Shrager has found the winner's circle once again! The Kentucky Derby is an American institution, but its foundational running has never been examined in such depth prior to this important and entertaining work. A master storyteller who presents history from previously neglected perspectives, Shrager has delivered the first truly comprehensive account of the inaugural Run for the Roses. It is essential reading for any fan of Thoroughbred racing and American history. --Brien Bouyea, Communications Director, National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame; author of The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga's Greatest Race From Aristides to Lewis, from Clark to McGrath, Mark Shrager enthralls the reader with the particulars of that inaugural Kentucky Derby, the inspiration for a century and a half of memorable contests. Within these pages, he weaves the sights and the sounds of that iconic day with the context that gave rise to it, including the societal changes that essentially eliminated an entire race of Americans from the sport. Come for the story and stay for this finely drawn portrait of American horse racing in the era that formed the foundation for the sport as modern fans know it. --Jennifer S. Kelly, author of Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown and The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown; Secretary, National Turf Writers and Broadcasters

Author Information

Mark Shrager has published some 300 articles about every aspect of horse racing in magazines such as Turf & Sport Digest, American Turf Monthly and others. His 1974 Turf & Sport Digest article, “1,001 Surefire Ways to Lose a Horse Race,” was published in the annual Best Sports Stories anthology. He is the author of The Great Sweepstakes of 1877: A True Story of Southern Grit, Gilded Age Tycoons, and a Race That Galvanized the Nation and Diane Crump: A Horse-Racing Pioneer’s Life in the Saddle, which won the 2020 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for the best book on Thoroughbred racing.

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