Online Gambling - Horse Racing

The Kentucky Derby is up there with the most important horse racing events in the world and it is hands-down the biggest event in US horse racing. With a history going back to 1975, the Kentucky Derby is a tradition that has kept running even through the darker days of US horse racing.

For such an incredible horse racing event, the Kentucky Derby is surprisingly short. As it is only 1 and a quarter miles long, the race has become known as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports”. This may be somewhat boastful of the speed of the competitors, however – the Kentucky Derby has only been run in less than two minutes a handful of times, though the time is often quite close.

The Kentucky Derby has a very long history and its format has changed throughout the years. It is closely tied to the racecourse that holds the carnoval dedicated to it, Churchill Downs. Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. founded Churchill Downs in 1875, though this name was not applied to the course at first, but instead adopted over time. The Kentucky Derby was somewhat inspired by other great races of the period in which it began, such as the Epsom Derby in Britain and the Grand Prix de Paris in France. Both of these races ran for 1 and a half miles, and so the first Kentucky Derby followed suit in something of an emulation of these legendary races.

The Churchill Downs course weathered a difficult period of time before the Kentucky Derby arose as the premier horse racing event in the US. Eventually, owners began entering horses that raced in the Kentucky Derby into other large events that followed closely. This led to a series of races in a short period of time that were seeing some of the strongest competition available. When a couple of horses won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, the concept of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in the US developed. Nowadays, these races are closely related, with the Kentucky Derby being the first major race for any would-be champions to contend.

In 2009, the Kentucky Derby will be run on 2 May at the end of the Kentucky Derby Festival. The festival draws massive crowds with people coming to watch such exciting races as the Kentucky Oaks in addition to the hundreds of thousands who come to see the Kentucky Derby. Be sure to plan what kind of seating you want well in advance, and be warned that the infield tickets will often not allow for a decent view of the race.