The most exciting two minutes in sports is a nickname given long ago to the great horse thoroughbred horse race known as the Kentucky Derby. Held in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May every year, the event attracts approximately 150,000 spectators annually including many famous personalities.

It was the grandson of famed explorer William Clark, Merriwether Lewis Clark who recognized the need for his home-town state of Kentucky to hold an event as prestigious as the Epsom Derby in England and the Grand Prix of France. Clark realized that the blue grass of Kentucky had a propensity of producing world class thouroughbred race horses and dreamed of sharing the beauty of his homeland with the rest of the world.

The venue was named Churchill Downs after Clarks generous relatives who had provided the land. The Kentucky Derby is a one and a quarter mile race but at the time of its first running in 1875, it was a full mile and a half and attracted more than 10,000 people.

Some of the more recognizable winners of the Kentucky Derby are War Admiral, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed. Relatives of these great athletes are in the racing circuits today.

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