Each year on the first Saturday in May, the world turns its attention to the twin spires of Churchill Downs for the high-stakes excitement of the "greatest two minutes in sports," the Kentucky Derby. No American sporting event can claim the history, tradition, or pageantry that the Kentucky Derby holds. For more than 130 years, spectators have been fascinated by the magnificent horses that run the Louisville track. Thoroughbreds such as Secretariat and Barbaro have earned instant international fame, along with jockeys such as Isaac Murphy, Ron Turcotte, and Calvin Borel. The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America's Premier Sporting Event calls this great tradition to post and illuminates its history and culture.

Rising from its humble beginnings as an American variation of England's Epsom Derby, the Kentucky Derby became a centerpiece of American sports and the racing industry, confirming Kentucky's status as the Horse Capital of the World. James C. Nicholson argues that the Derby, at its essence, is a celebration of a place, existing as a connection between Kentucky's mythic past and modern society. The Derby is more than just a horse race -- it is an experience enhanced by familiar traditions, icons, and images that help Derby fans to understand Kentucky and define themselves as Americans. Today the Kentucky Derby continues to attract international attention from royalty, celebrities, racing fans, and those who simply enjoy an icy mint julep, a fabulous hat, and a wager on who will make it to the winner's circle.

Nicholson provides an intriguing and thorough history of the Kentucky Derby, examining the tradition, spectacle, culture, and evolution of the Kentucky Derby -- the brightest jewel of the Triple Crown.

Why I wrote The Kentucky Derby

Toward the end of my first year in graduate school at the University of Kentucky, I didn’t have a topic for a research seminar. The professor suggested that I look at something concerning the UK men’s basketball team. I liked the sports angle but not his specific recommendation that I try to figure out to what extent coach Adolph Rupp was a racist. I decided to explore the question of how and why the Kentucky Derby gained its reputation as America’s greatest horse race and its status as a culturally significant piece of Americana. I had watched the race on television every year for as long as I could remember, and all the attendant hoopla had always fascinated me. It seemed to have little to do with the business of horse racing as I had known it, growing up in a family whose livelihood depended on the equine industry. As preserved in various coffee table books about the Derby, conventional wisdom tended to credit the promotional abilities of longtime Churchill Downs manager “Colonel” Matt Winn for the event’s ascendance in the first half of the twentieth century. I suspected that the story was more complicated. The seminar paper eventually became a PhD dissertation and the foundation for my first book.