The Exciting History of the Kentucky Derby Quiz - Test Your Knowledge

racehorse Clyde Van Dusen, winner of the 1929 Kentucky Derby, was named after his trainer.

the American thoroughbred racehorse Meridian won the Kentucky Derby in 1911, establishing a new record time.

the average speed of the contestants in the Great Steamboat Race, held each year before the Kentucky Derby, is only 7 miles per hour.

the last African American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby was James Winkfield in 1902.

Winning Colors is one of only three fillies to have won the Kentucky Derby.

Michael Matz, who trained the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, saved the lives of four children on the ill-fated United Airlines Flight 232 in 1989, and also carried the U.S. flag at the 1996 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremonies.

racehorse Lil E. Tee, who was deemed so worthless that even an auction company rejected him as unsaleable, won the 1992 Kentucky Derby.

Thoroughbred racehorse Gallant Man lost the 1957 Kentucky Derby by a nose after his jockey stood up to celebrate.

Ed Brown (pictured) was an African-American slave who rose to become a Belmont Stakes-winning jockey and a Kentucky Derby-winning horse trainer.

Forward Pass, an American Thoroughbred racehorse, was the only horse in the history of the Kentucky Derby to have been declared the winner as the result of a disqualification.

1943 Triple Crown winner Count Fleet was both sire of and sired by Kentucky Derby winners.

The Exciting History of the Kentucky Derby

1 What class does Kentucky Derby belong to?

2 The tradition originated in 1883 when ________ socialite E.

3 Under Winn, Churchill Downs prospered and the Kentucky Derby became the preeminent and oldest ________ in the USA.

4 Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, traveled to ________, visiting the Epsom Derby, a famous race that had been running annually since 1780.

5 2008 Kentucky Derby Winner ________ did not wear the blanket of roses he earned in the race because of the fact that he hates flowers.

6 ________

7 [1] The race is known in the ________ as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" or "The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports" for its approximate duration, and is also called "The Run for the Roses" for the blanket of roses draped over the winner.

8 Pop vocalist ________ composed the song "Run for the Roses" for the 1980 running of the race.

9 As the horses are paraded before the grandstands, the University of Louisville marching band plays ________'s "My Old Kentucky Home."

10 It is the first leg of the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing and is followed by the Preakness Stakes then the ________.

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