Real Quiet was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. He was nicknamed "The Fish" by his trainer due to his narrow frame. He is best remembered for winning the first two legs of American Triple Crown: the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. His loss in the third leg, the Belmont Stakes, was the smallest margin of defeat ever at only four inches.
Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, famed for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby. It officially opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was prominent in Kentucky for many years. The first Kentucky Derby, a Thoroughbred sweepstakes and part of today's horse racing Triple Crown, and the first Kentucky Oaks were held in the same year. Churchill Downs has also hosted the renowned Breeders' Cup on nine occasions, most recently on November 2 and 3, 2018.
Whirlaway was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the fifth winner of the American Triple Crown. He also won the Travers Stakes after his Triple Crown sweep to become the first and only horse to win all four races.
Darrell Wayne Lukas is an American horse trainer and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He has won twenty Breeders' Cup races, received five Eclipse Awards for his accomplishments, and his horses have won 25 year-end Eclipse Awards. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007.
The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse.
Ellis Park is a thoroughbred racetrack near Henderson, Kentucky, just south of Evansville, Indiana. It is owned and operated by Churchill Downs Incorporated. While the track is located north of the Ohio River that forms the border between Kentucky and Indiana, which would put it within Indiana, the border is based on the course of the river at the time Kentucky became a state in 1792.
The Breeders' Futurity Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held annually in early October at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. Currently offering a purse of $500,000, the race is open to two-year-old horses and is run at a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt. From 1997 to 2008, the race was sponsored by Lane's End Farm. From 2009 to 2013 it was sponsored by Dixiana Farm. It is now sponsored by Claiborne Farm.
Winning Colors was an American Hall of Fame Champion Thoroughbred racehorse and one of only three fillies to ever win the Kentucky Derby. Though she was registered as roan, she was, in fact, a gray with a white blaze on her face.
Alan-a-Dale (1899–1925) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1902 Kentucky Derby. He was named for a figure in the Robin Hood legend. According to the stories, he was a wandering minstrel who became a member of Robin's band of outlaws, the "Merry Men." He was bred by Thomas McDowell at his Ashland Stud in Lexington, Kentucky. He was the son of the 1895 Kentucky Derby winner Halma. Raced and trained by McDowell, at age two Alan-a-Dale won three of his four starts but the following year health problems kept him out of racing until Kentucky Derby time. Ridden by future Hall of Fame jockey Jimmy Winkfield, the official Kentucky Derby website says that Alan-a-Dale had a lead of six lengths and despite going lame down the stretch, "carried on with flawless courage to win by a nose." This injury kept Alan-a-Dale out of racing for the rest of the year.
Little Current was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the final two legs of the 1974 U.S. Triple Crown both the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes.
Kenneth G. McPeek is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
Skywalker was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was best known for winning the 1986 Breeders' Cup Classic.
Henry Clay McDowell was an American businessman and noted Standardbred horse breeder.
Joe Cotton was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that is best known as the winner of the 1885 Kentucky Derby. He was sired by King Alfonso who also sired the 1880 Derby winner Fonso. The horse was reportedly named after a bookie.
Runnymede Farm is an American horse breeding farm located outside Paris, Kentucky on U.S. Route 27, the Paris-Cynthiana Road. It is said to be the longest continuously running Thoroughbred horse farm in Kentucky, 365-acre (1.48 km2) established in 1867 by American Civil War Colonel Ezekiel Field Clay.
John Edward Madden was a prominent American Thoroughbred and Standardbred owner, breeder and trainer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He owned Hamburg Place Stud in Lexington, Kentucky and bred five Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winners.
Ethel Veronica Mars was an American businesswoman and racehorse owner. She was Ethel Veronica Healy prior to her marriage in 1910 to Franklin Clarence Mars, the founder of the Mars Candy company.
Kenneth L. "Ken" Ramsey and Sarah Kathern "Kitten" Ramsey are horse breeders and owners of Thoroughbred race horses. They have multiple graded stakes winners, three Breeders' Cup winners, and the Ramseys themselves have won multiple Eclipse Awards for outstanding owner and breeder. Ken and Sarah own Ramsey Farm, a 1,200 acre horse breeding operation in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and have raced horses at tracks throughout the United States. Many of their race horses have names incorporating the word "Kitten", Ken's nickname for Sarah Ramsey, used as the inspiration for the name of their leading stallion, Kitten's Joy, a successful racehorse in longer races on turf racetracks. When his style of racing proved unfashionable and outside breeders were reluctant to send mares to him, the Ramseys bought a herd of their own mares to breed and raced the progeny themselves, with considerable success, punctuated by Ken Ramsey personally leading most of his horses into the winner's circle after their races. To further promote the stallion, most of his offspring have "Kitten" in their names and, in some cases such as Breeders' Cup winners Bobby's Kitten and Stephanie's Kitten, the Ramseys honor friends or family members by incorporating their names as well.
William M. Garth was an American trainer, owner, and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses best known as the winning trainer of 1920 Kentucky Derby victor Paul Jones for owner Ral Parr. He also trained Martingale to a second-place finish behind Zev in the 1923 Kentucky Derby.
The Ashland Oaks was an American Thoroughbred horse race run from 1879 through 1896 and 1912 through 1932 at the Kentucky Association Racetrack in Lexington, Kentucky. A race for three-year-olds fillies, during its tenure it was contested at various distances on dirt. The event was named in honor of Thomas Clay McDowell's Ashland estate at Lexington, the original homestead and breeding farm of his great-grandfather, statesman Henry Clay. In addition to a share of the purse money, the winning owner received a Cup donated by McDowell.
