Browse Descriptions for: Churchill Downs

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Rating: 5 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 00:52:00

The oldest continuously held major sporting event in America runs beneath two spires designed by a 24-year-old draftsman as an afterthought. Churchill Downs at 700 Central Avenue in Louisville opened on 17 May 1875, when Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. - grandson of the explorer William Clark - staged the first Kentucky Derby before 10,000 spectators, won by the chestnut colt Aristides with Black trainer Ansel Williamson and Black jockey Oliver Lewis. Clark had toured Epsom and Longchamp in 1...