-
Introduction
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction The Unique Identity of Kentucky and Its Derby What is it about the Kentucky Derby? Why does it thrill people who will not see another horse race all year, who otherwise pay no attention to an anachronistic sport whose heyday appears to be long past? Each year a quarter million people file into Churchill Downs in Louisville on Derby weekend, and hundreds of thousands more attend festivities around the city in the two weeks leading up to the big race. The Kentucky Derby is not the fastest , longest, or most monetarily valuable horse race in the United States. It was not the first race—or even the first derby—to be run in America. Each year it is only one of dozens of derbies contested throughout the world. Why, then, does the cultural phenomenon that is the Kentucky Derby annually capture the attention of millions , while most American racetracks struggle to survive in the face of steady declines in the popularity of horse racing? The term derby generally signifies a race for three-year-old horses, and its origins go back to eighteenth-century England and Edward Stanley, twelfth Earl of Derby, who cofounded the Derby Stakes in 1780.1 Thus, it is not the derby element of the Kentucky Derby that makes the event unique; rather, the traditions and imagery associated with the Kentuckian roots of the event are responsible for its distinct flavor. These include, most 1 The Kentucky Derby 2 notably, the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home,” the blanket of roses ceremonially draped upon the winning horse, mint juleps , ladies dressed as “southern belles,” and the wild cacophony of the infield that contrasts so markedly with the civility and re- finement in the clubhouse. These aspects of the Kentucky Derby experience all have their roots in Kentucky’s unique and everchanging identity within American popular culture: it is Kentucky —and its associated history, imagery, and mythology—that gives the Kentucky Derby its distinct character and has allowed the event to remain culturally relevant despite myriad changes in American society since the race was first contested over 135 years ago. Throughout these years, regardless of what the prevailing mood of the nation has been, the quicksilver nature of Kentucky’s place in the minds of Americans has attracted Derby fans to the Bluegrass State—and given them something to celebrate once they arrive. Kentucky’s special spot in American popular culture can be traced back to the 1784 publication of John Filson’s The Discovery , Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke.2 First published in Delaware, and eventually translated into French and German, Kentucke was popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Filson described the landscape, climate, and natural resources of what are now the central and eastern parts of the state. The book was an important (and self-serving) promotional tool, as Filson was a land speculator with sizeable Kentucky holdings. With his words, Filson painted a picture of a land of abundance blessed with bountiful wildlife, fertile soil, rich mineral deposits, and a pleasant climate. Filson’s description of the area as a latter-day Eden ensured that Kentucky entered the American popular consciousness as an immensely attractive place, forming a foundation for the idea popularized in the nineteenth century that Kentucky was a uniquely suitable area for raising top-class race horses.3 It was the book’s appendix—written by Filson to sound like an autobiographical sketch of early Kentucky settler Dan- [44.220.247.30] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 07:32 GMT) Introduction 3 iel Boone—that would have the most far-reaching impact on Kentucky’s long-term identity, however.4 Filson’s Boone, a quasimythical —though very much historically “real”—character, was a living paradox: he was portrayed as both a rugged woodsman and a civilizing agent who tamed the wilderness and brought European values to the savage natives; he was an Indian fighter, yet a man who lived peacefully with the natives; he was both a trailblazer for civilization and an Enlightenment-era “Man of Nature” escaping from civilization. Filson’s early descriptions of Boone firmly established the figure of the romantic American pioneer in the American imagination, forging aspects of Kentucky ’s identity that would eventually become crucial elements of the appeal of the Kentucky Derby: both the Kentucky hillbilly and the Kentucky colonel caricatures that would heavily influence Kentucky’s place in twentieth-century American popular culture can be traced back to...