The Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve is not only the most anticipated, most watched Thoroughbred race in the world but an essential part of American sports culture.
Memories are made with each run for the roses that over the passage of time become legend, not only to day-to-day followers of horse racing but to the general public.
The Kentucky Oaks began as a companion to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, much as the English Oaks at Epsom serves as the female version of the prestigious Derby.
There should be no mention of the mighty Triple Crown champion Secretariat without pointing to jockey Ron Turcotte as an integral member of a dynamite team.
It might appear from watching replays of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes in 1973 as if Turcotte was merely a passenger taken for a wonderful ride by the gleaming colt they called “Big Red.” But Penny Chenery, Secretariat’s owner, knew better.
Few breeders and owners have defined an era as Calumet Farm did in the 1940s. What started as a Standardbred farm in the 1920s transitioned into a nursery for a long list of racing immortals in the 1930s.
