Kentucky Derby top four finishers Kentucky Derby top four finishers This is a listing of first-place, second-place, third-place and fourth-place finishers, and the number of starters in the Kentucky Derby, a Grade I American Thoroughbred race run at miles on dirt for three-year-olds. It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown, run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. A † designates a Triple Crown Winner. Note: D. Wayne Lukas swept the 1995 Triple Crown with two different horses. In 1968, Dancer's Image finished first, but was disqualified after a post-race urine sample revealed traces of a banned drug in the horse. The drug
Churchill Downs in 1875. His father-in-law, Richard Ten Broeck, was an accomplished horse breeder and trainer, and introduced Clark to horse racing, attending the English Derby at Epsom Downs outside London. Churchill Downs filled a void in Louisville left by the closing of Oakland and Woodlawn, two earlier race courses. The then-rural location was along Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks, allowing for easy transport of horses. Clark, who preferred longer races to the relatively short ones that had become popular by the 1890s, was running short of funds, and in 1894 sold the track to a syndicate led by William E. Applegate.