2018 Kentucky Derby 2018 Kentucky Derby The 2018 Kentucky Derby (officially, the 2018 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve) was the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby, and took place on Saturday, May 5, 2018, in Louisville, Kentucky. The field was open to 20 horses, with a purse of million. The Derby is held annually in Louisville on the first Saturday in May, at the end of the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. It is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of , and has been run at Churchill Downs racetrack since its inception in 1875. The race was
American Quarter Horse resulting horse was small, hardy, and quick, and was used as a work horse during the week and a race horse on the weekends. As flat racing became popular with the colonists, the Quarter Horse gained even more popularity as a sprinter over courses that, by necessity, were shorter than the classic racecourses of England, and were often no more than a straight stretch of road or flat piece of open land. When matched against a Thoroughbred, local sprinters often won. As the Thoroughbred breed became established in America, many colonial Quarter Horses were included in the original American stud