Working for KentuckyDerby.org as a writer for their betting andodds section has revealed a strange chain of historic facts about the gambling system we see at Churchill Downs today. Although some boring things have changed in the past 138 years, the history of Kentucky Derby gambling will intrigue most horse racing fans.
What betting was like at the first Kentucky Derby
We always think of people in the late 1800s and early 1900s as being Victorian Era prudes. In spite of this, books of the past like the 1863, "Horse-racing: its history, and early records of the principal and other races," show that horse racing and gambling were more akin to the Wild Wild West when Churchill Downs was founded. Before television and radio, people in cities were always on the prowl for entertainment.
At the time of the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, people in Louisville were betting on baseball, boxing, and fights between animals. In this climate, building Churchill Downs (then called the Louisville Jockey Club until 1886) must have seemed like a profitable investment to founder Meriwether Lewis Clark. Sadly, during these times, the odds provided for betting did not have regulation. This was to the detriment of the gambler and the advantage went to the bookie.
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