History of the Kentucky Derby, 1875-1921O'Connor, John Lawrence
History
History of the Kentucky Derby, 1875-1921
O'Connor, John Lawrence
Horse racing -- Kentucky; Kentucky Derby
The eighteenth Kentucky Derby was run in the cold. The weather did not
check the crowd, and fully 10,000 people watched the race from the grand
stand and free field and cheered Azra and Huron as they passed under the
wire. It takes more than bad weather to dampen the enthusiasm over the
Kentucky Derby, and only a positive assurance of poor racing will lessen
the crowd. Signs and predictions of the weather prophets failed, and
instead of the bright May-day weather promised by the bureau, the air was
chilly and damp, and the sky hung with leaden colored clouds during the
greater part of the morning and afternoon. In the early morning the sun
shone, and though cool the indications were that the afternoon would be an
ideal one for racing. Instead, however, a cold wind sprang up from the
northwest and turf lovers saw their dreams of a beautiful day fade into
typical fall weather. There was enough virtue in the wind, however, to dry
off the track, which, with the exception of a little stickiness, was in a
fair condition. The officials of the day were as follows: Judges--Col. M.
Lewis Clark, R. A. Swigert and Washington Hessing. Timers--Norvin Harris,
Van Kirkman and Lew Tarlton. Secretaries--Joseph Swigert and Charles
Price. Starter--J. B. Ferguson. Clerk of the Scales--L. P. Ezekiel.
The third race was the Kentucky Derby, with three starters, Huron, Phil
Dwyer and Azra. The betting was on the Corrigan pair, while Azra's few
friends put up their boodle freely. Three minutes before the start the
same persons who were most enthusiastic at the finish were repeating over
and again: "Oh! what a farce the race will be. Three horses only to gallop
around like the hippodrome races of a circus." The following is a
description of the race:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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