Churchill Downs Racetrack and the Kentucky Derby grew out of an 1872 European trip by Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. After attending the Epsom Derby in England and visiting France, home of the Grand Prix de Paris, Clark returned to Kentucky determined to create a premier horse race in the United States. Building on Kentucky’s racing history, which reached back to the first official Thoroughbred race in Lexington in 1828, he chose Louisville for the project and hired architect John Andrewartha to design the racetrack’s distinctive structures. The track was later named Churchill Downs for Jon and Henry Churchill, Clark’s uncles, from whom he leased the 60-acre site. In 1895, 24-year-old draftsman Joseph Dominic Baldez designed the iconic Twin Spires. The first Kentucky Derby was run there in 1875 at a distance of 1½ miles, matching the Epsom Derby, before being shortened to 1¼ miles in 1896, and about 10,000 people attended that inaugural race. The Kentucky Derby became America’s longest continually held sporting event, drew upwards of 150,000 spectators, became one of the most watched sports broadcasts on television each year, and ranked among the world’s most prestigious horse races.
