How Kentucky Became Southern by Maryjean Wall

To the general public, Kentucky is the land of the horse, the home of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs, and powerful breeders led by historic Calumet Farm, all fueled by the limestone soil on which the Bluegrass thrives. However, this was not always the case. In this offshoot of her Ph.D. dissertation, Eclipse Award-winning Canadian turf writer and long time Lexington resident Maryjean Wall educates readers about how this once violent "backwater" border state from the Civil War era gradually became the center of the horse world. An enjoyable read for any horse racing history buff.

Contrary to popular belief, Kentucky was not always "southern". During the Civil War, the bluegrass state actually sided with the Union, but switched allegiances after the war. As horse racing grew in the state, blacks took on prominent roles in racing especially as jockeys and trainers with the end of slavery. An entire chapter is dedicated to these heroes of the Turf, especially jockey Isaac Murphy, who rode for many prominent owners in both Kentucky and the northeast, one of the greatest jockeys in American history and the first rider to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

However, Kentucky's primarily agricultural economy could not compete with the industrial Northeast. With money came power, and as expected, the concentration of power in racing still remained in New York, with the formation of the Jockey Club, which ruled the sport with an iron fist. The Jockey Club wrote the rules for its benefit, in an attempt to ensure that the only legitimate racing and breeding took place in the northeast, as they not only controlled the tracks but also owned the American Stud Book. Led by rich men who made their wealth in industry and finance, Thoroughbred breeding and racing naturally were centered in their home markets, at tracks such as Morris Park, Belmont Park, Sheepshead Bay, and Monmouth Park in New Jersey. Kentucky horsemen who sought to bring fashionable bloodlines home were easily outbid at auction.

The only way for Kentucky racing and breeding to survive would be to get the wealthy northeastern horsemen to invest in their state, but to accomplish this would require changing popular perceptions of the Bluegrass. With increased industrialization and immigration in America, people longed to "escape" to the antebellum South, and through popular books and music, Kentucky's reputation shifted from the Wild West to the Old South, a throwback to the "good old days". Rich horse owners finally saw relocation to Kentucky as beneficial to themselves in two ways: they can experience the Southern lifestyle, and their horses would be stronger runners, drinking the limestone-infused spring water and grazing on the mineral-rich grass. Colonel Matt Winn took over the struggling Churchill Downs, making the Kentucky Derby the "must-see" spectacle we know today, and brought in pari-mutuel wagering, allowing common folk to afford to wager on the races.

Kentucky is fortunate to have become one of the centers of equine breeding and racing in the world, as well as a popular destination for tourists and investors. Today, it is impossible to imagine a world without Lexington-area breeding farms, without Churchill Downs and Keeneland, without the Kentucky Derby. Maryjean Wall showed that many things had to take place, from the Civil War up to the turn of the last century, in order to lead to this historic year as Kentucky hosted both the World Equestrian Games and the Breeders' Cup World Championships.

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