Friday, May 05, 2000
Kentucky, horses linked since Daniel Boone's day
By Ray Schaefer
Enquirer Contributor
The Bluegrass state and the Run for the Roses have a long and interlocking history.
The rise of horse racing in Kentucky began when the state was young, about a century before the first Kentucky Derby in 1875.
With thanks to Lynn S. Renau, author of Jockeys, Belles and Bluegrass Kings Official Guide to Kentucky Racing , and the Web site Call to the Derby Post (www.derbypost.com), today's Derby theme is: how horse racing became a Bluegrass institution.
Question: What is Bluegrass?
Answer: It's a thin-bladed hardy perennial, with origins extending to the Black Sea. It is believed that Mennonites ousted from Russia imported it here when they settled in Pennsylvania.
Q: How did Kentucky develop its thing for horses?
A: In 1775 Daniel Boone introduced the first bill “to improve the breed of horses in the Kentucky territory.” After the Revolutionary War, many more immigrants flocked here, and many settlements had a “Race Street,” a straight stretch next to the main road and named after what went on there.
Q: Was organized horse racing always a Louisville institution?
A: More like a Lexington institution. The Commonwealth's first Jockey Club was founded in 1797 and reorganized as the Lexington Jockey Club in 1809.
Q: What hurdles — pardon the pun — did horse racing overcome to become dominant in the Southeast United States?
A: War, corruption, religion and geography.
The War of 1812 decimated equine herds, and social reformers essentially shut down racing in the North and East.
But Lexington kept its track open.
Then religious censure and bad business practices in Virginia helped Kentucky gain a favorable reputation among breeders.
By 1850, Lexington was landlocked and had no direct rail access to Ohio River trade.
Merchants and farmers had to depend on Louisville's more developed rail system — its “iron horse” — for long-range transport.
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