Latest news with #Aristides
Chicago Tribune
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: First Kentucky Derby held
Today is Saturday, May 17, the 137th day of 2025. There are 228 days left in the year. Today in history: On May 17, 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was held; the race was won by Aristides, ridden by jockey Oliver Lewis. Also on this date: In 1792, the Buttonwood Agreement, a document codifying rules for securities trading, was signed by 24 New York stockbrokers, marking the formation of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1946, President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying — but not preventing — a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen. In 1954, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, which held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional. In 1973, a special committee convened by the U.S. Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal. In 1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating Black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. In 1987, 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq apologized for the attack, calling it a mistake, and paid more than $27 million in compensation.) In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to allow same-sex marriages. In 2015, a shootout erupted between members of motorcycle clubs and police outside a restaurant in Waco, Texas, leaving nine of the bikers dead and 20 people injured. Today's Birthdays: Musician Taj Mahal is 83. Boxing Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard is 69. Sports announcer Jim Nantz is 66. Singer-composer Enya is 64. TV host-comedian Craig Ferguson is 63. Musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) is 60. Actor Sasha Alexander is 52. Basketball Hall of Famer Tony Parker is 43. Screenwriter-actor-producer Lena Waithe is 41. Dancer-choreographer Derek Hough is 40. Former NFL quarterback Matt Ryan is 40. Actor Nikki Reed is 37.
Boston Globe
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Today in History: May 17, Supreme Court strikes down school segregation
In 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was held; the race was won by Aristides, ridden by jockey Oliver Lewis. Advertisement In 1946, President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying — but not preventing — a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen. In 1954, a unanimous US Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, which held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional. In 1973, a special committee convened by the US Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal. In 1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating Black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. In 1987, 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the US Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq apologized for the attack, calling it a mistake, and paid more than $27 million in compensation.) Advertisement In 2004, Massachusetts became the first US state to allow same-sex marriages. In 2015, a shootout erupted between members of motorcycle clubs and police outside a restaurant in Waco, Texas, leaving nine of the bikers dead and 20 people injured.
UPI
17-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
On This Day, May 17: Aristides wins first Kentucky Derby
1 of 5 | On May 17, 1875, Aristides was the winner of the first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo On this date in history: In 1792, 24 brokers met in New York City and formed the New York Stock Exchange. In 1875, Aristides was the winner of the first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. In 1943, the Memphis Belle became one of the first B-17 to complete 25 missions in World War II, securing the plane and crew's reputations as rockstars. The plane was the subject of a documentary at the time and a film about the crew was made in 1990 starring Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz and Harry Connick Jr. Ten days after the 25th mission, the pilot, Capt. Robert K. Morgan and co-pilot, Capt. James Verinis, met the king and queen of England, to whom Morgan explained the origin of the plane's name. In 1954, in a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. In 1970, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco in a papyrus boat called the Ra II, modeled on drawings of ancient Egyptian sailing vessels. His mission was to prove his theory that ancient civilizations could have sailed to the Americas. He arrived in Barbados 57 days later. In 1973, the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee opened hearings into a break-in at Democratic National headquarters in Washington. File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI In 1987, two Iraqi Exocet missiles hit the frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 seamen. Iraq apologized for mistaking the ship's identity and the Stark's top officers were reprimanded and retired. In 1989, 1 million people demonstrated for democratic reforms in Beijing. The number of students fasting to support the drive reached 3,000. In 1999, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost his bid for re-election when voters chose Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Israel One coalition, to succeed him. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In 2005, Los Angeles voters elected Antonio Villaraigosa as the city's first Hispanic mayor since 1872. In 2007, the United States' "minority" citizenship topped the 100 million mark, about one-third of the total U.S. population, the U.S. Census Bureau said. Hispanics made up the largest group, ahead of Black Americans, 44.3 million to 40.2 million. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the sentencing of a juvenile to life in prison for a non-homicide case, calling the practice unconstitutional, and cruel and unusual punishment. In 2018, the Senate confirmed Gina Haspel to be the first female director of the CIA, ending weeks of speculation over whether her past role in using torture as an interrogation technique would derail her nomination. In 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. In 2021, Cyclone Tauktae made landfall in western India with sustained winds of 115 mph. The storm would go on to kill 174 people and cause more than $2 billion in damage in India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. File Photo by STR/EPA-EFE
Irish Times
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
McGrath hurrah - Frank McNally on the first Kentucky Derby, 150 years ago
Run 150 years ago this weekend, the inaugural Kentucky Derby produced something of an upset, even for the colourful Irish - American who won it. Henry Price McGrath had two horses in the race, and as often happens, the wrong one won. The diminutive Aristides was meant to be a mere pacemaker for his more fancied half-brother and stable mate, Chesapeake, with a view to burning off the formidable favourite, Ten Broeck. That part of the plan worked: Ten Broeck was in second place at halfway, then faded to finish fifth. Alas for McGrath, the blistering early pace burned off Chesapeake too. Meanwhile, having done his job in front, little Aristides – described by racing historian David Alexander as 'a nothing of a horse ... a shrimp with a scampering gait' – was ready to fold, and his jockey, African-American Oliver Lewis, was ready to let him. The owner and breeder needed to issue new orders, urgently. READ MORE Alexander takes up the story: 'Then old McGrath ran out on the track. He waved his hat frantically to signal Lewis, the hundred pound jockey who was riding Aristides, that he couldn't quit now, that Chesapeake was beaten … and that Aristides must break his heart to win.' Happily, cardiac injury was not required. Responding to the jockey's renewed urgings, 'the little red horse with a heart that wouldn't break' rallied again and won by a length from Volcano. The Louisville Courier rhapsodised: 'It is the gallant Aristides, heir to a mighty name, that strides with sweeping gallop toward victory … and the air trembles and vibrates again with the ringing cheers that followed.' In fact, the horse was named not for the great 5th century BC Athenian statesman, but for a friend and fellow breeder of McGrath's, Aristides Welch. It was a win for the ages, even so. Writing about it 90 years later, Alexander struck a poetic and philosophical note: 'The same horse always wins the Derby, no matter what name he bears. Always the winner is the ghost of the little red horse, Aristides, who answered his owner's hat.' Less seems to be known now about the origins of McGrath than of his horse. Born the son of a tailor in 1814, he turned his back on that profession in favour of wandering the American south as a young man in search of his fortune. He found some of it in the California Gold Rush of 1849, enough to open the south's first 'gambling house' three years later. His luck as a gambler is said to have won him $105,000 in a single night. And he was eventually able to buy 500 acres near Lexington, which he named 'McGrathiana' and turned into one of the great stud farms of 19th century America. What his ancestry was exactly, I can't say. But his horses ran in green and orange, and Aristides was the grandson of an Irish sire called Faugh a Ballagh (from the old war-cry, meaning 'clear the way'). Alexander's 1966 book, The Sound of Horses, also reproduces an artwork celebrating the 1875 win, which depicts McGrath, Lewis, and the horse each occupying a horseshoe arranged in what the author calls a 'clover leaf' shape, but which is surely a shamrock. That was an era of great Irish sporting chauvinism. Price McGrath will have been familiar with the exploits his four-legged namesake, Master McGrath, who died in 1873 after winning England's premier coursing competition, the Waterloo Cup, three times. As immortalised in a famous ballad, the dog was a fervent Irish nationalist whose talents included returning the insults of his English rivals, mid-race: 'Well, I know,' says McGrath, 'we have wild heather bogs. But you'll find in old Ireland there's good men and dogs. Lead on, bold Britannia, give none of your jaw, Stuff that up your nostrils,' says Master McGrath. Interestingly, the same period produced an American racehorse equivalent of that ballad, involving the aforementioned Ten Broeck. It commemorated not the Kentucky Derby but an 1878 'match' (a race involving only two horses) with an undefeated Californian mare named Mollie McCarty: the first horse from out west to travel east and compete in what is now Churchill Downs, the derby's home. Mollie's grandmother was a Shamrock (literally – that was her name). Sadly for Hibernian romantics, she lost the match. Mollie and Ten Brooks, as the song was called, is still a bluegrass standard today. Getting back to the 1875 Derby, it also made African-American history, and not just because of the jockey. The winning horse's trainer, Ansel Williamson, was black too. He had been born a slave in Virginia, as which he first learned to handle horses. After the civil war, he pursued the vocation as a free man, training many champions. He was inducted into the US National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998. The former McGrathiana was renamed Coldstream Farm sometime after McGrath's death in 1881. Today, it is an agricultural research facility in the University of Kentucky.
National Post
30-04-2025
- Sport
- National Post
From yearling sale to finish line, everything you need to know about the Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby might be, as its trademarked slogan suggests, the most exciting two minutes in sports® — and it is unquestionably the most wagered-on, most-watched and most-attended horse race in North America. Article content Article content In 2024, bettors put down $211 million on the iconic horse race held on the hallowed grounds of Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Article content While the Super Bowl now draws more than $1 billion in legal bets — by far the largest handle for a single sporting event — the National Football League championship tilt plays out over three hours or so. Article content Article content The Derby, contested by three-year-old thoroughbreds, is generally won in two minutes and change, lending credence to the slogan which was trademarked by Churchill Downs Incorporated in 2018. Article content The Derby is also known and was trademarked in 2009 as the Run for the Roses® because the victorious horse and jockey proceed to the winner's circle where the animal is festooned with a blanket of 554 red flowers, while the rider receives a 60-rose bouquet. Article content Article content The post-race tradition began much more humbly in the late 1800s with far less flora, but just as much fawning. The first Derby went off in 1875 when Aristides beat 14 other horses to the finish line in 2:37.75 after a gruelling mile and a half. Article content In 1896, the race was shortened to a mile and a quarter and in 1964 Northern Dancer became the first Canadian-bred horse to win it, doing so in exactly two minutes. Article content In 1973, the great Secretariat lowered the race record to 1:59.40, where it remains. Article content Article content The field for the 151 st running, which hits the track on May 3, will be comprised of 20 horses, including 3-1 favourite Journalism and 20-1 long shot Publisher. Article content 'The Canadian Derby is a big deal, but the Kentucky Derby is the holy grail,' said Tim Rycroft, one of Alberta's top thoroughbred trainers, with more than 800 wins. 'It's just a famous race that everyone gears up for basically all winter down there in the states. It's not the most expensive race out there or anything, it's kind of the start of the race season and it seems to just have that appeal to it.
