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'From just a race to an international event', the man behind the Kentucky Derby

Much of the success of the annual international cultural and sporting event can be traced back to a Louisville native named Matt Winn.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky Derby is iconic. It garners worldwide attention every year. But it hasn’t always been that way. 

Much of the success of the annual event can be traced back to a Louisville native named Matt Winn.

Winn was born in the Portland neighborhood in the late 1800s. In 1875, he attended the first Kentucky Derby with his father.

In a matter of years, Winn was a businessman and the track’s president. He was part of an ownership consortium that took over Churchill Downs in 1902. 

“At that time, The Derby and Churchill Downs were in financial straits,” said Chris Goodlett, Director of Curatorial and Educational Affairs for The Kentucky Derby Museum. “The track’s founder had created a successful race but not a successful operation financially.”

Winn was among the first to recognize the power of the pen. He solicited writers out of New York City to print stories about the growing Kentucky Derby

He also added events like concerts to the track, increasing its year-round appeal.

“Matt Winn is the gentleman credited by most historians as the one who oversaw the growth of The Derby from just a race, to this international cultural and sporting event that we know it as today,” Goodlett said.

Goodlett said Winn is also responsible for some of The Derby traditions we still hold today, like presenting the garland of roses to the Derby winner.

There’s also the “accidental” Mint Julep glass.

“As the story goes,” Goodlett said, “There were water glasses in the clubhouse that were just water glasses, and then Churchill Downs found out that people were taking them home as souvenirs. So, they started to create an official glass, which became associated with the mint julep, the official drink of the Kentucky Derby.”

Matt Winn died in 1949, while he was still president of the track. But without question, 73 years later, his contributions are many, and his legacy lives on.

“He is so integral to so many of these derby traditions that we still have here at Churchill Downs on Derby day and around The Derby, they are so integral to the celebration,” Goodlett said.

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