The Kentucky Derby debuted in 1875, the horse race a vision of Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., grandson of American explorer William Clark in hopes of reviving commonwealth's economy.
Aristides, a majestic chestnut colt, galloped to victory against a field of 14 other thoroughbreds"in the fastest time ever made by a three-year-old," according to another contemporary account.Aristides was owned by H. Price McGrath; jockeyed by Oliver Lewis, a 19-year-old African American ; and trained by Ansel Williamson, a former slave and legendary American horseman.
It was there that Williamson heroically saved Asteroid, Kentucky’s most famous thoroughbred of the era, from Quantrill’s Raiders, a notorious band of Confederate horsemen that included among its members Frank and Jesse James. "At the stable one of the guerrillas asked for Asteroid by name," author William P. Magnum II wrote for The Filson Club Historical Quarterly in 1996.
Williamson had"saved the best horse in the stable," Woodburn Stud owner Robert A. Alexander reportedly said. Clark Jr. was reportedly suffering great financial hardship, spurred by massive losses in the stock market crash and the Panic of 1893. The Derby itself has suffered lean years after the promise of 1875.
The traditional song"My Old Kentucky Home," which was written in 1852, only slowly became a part of the lore of the Kentucky Derby. Its first confirmed appearance was at the 47th race in 1921.
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