“Until you go to the Kentucky Derby with your own eyes, behold the Derby, you ain’t never been nowhere and you ain’t never seen nothing.”—Irving S. Cobb It was a Monday, the start of a new week, but this would go down as anything but a typical Monday. The day began with clear skies, the sun soon joining the multitudes flocking to Louisville’s newest racetrack, their journey presaging a day a century and a half hence. May 17, 1875, was something altogether bigger than a Monday: it was Derby day.
