No Thoroughbred race in the state of Kentucky holds a more
hallowed place in the national and international consciousness than the
Kentucky Derby. Its fame is richly deserved, yet there are other equally
important and historic races whose significance deserves a larger share of the
spotlight—none more so than the Derby's sister race, the Kentucky Oaks.
Inaugurated on May 19, 1875—just two days after the first Kentucky Derby—and
run annually at Churchill Downs since then, the Kentucky Oaks is America's most
prestigious race for three-year-old fillies and the second-oldest continuously
run horse race in North America. Always cherished by horsemen as a test for the
future mothers of the Thoroughbred, the Oaks has in recent years become a major
charity and fashion gala in addition to its significance as a sporting event.
Yet, although multiple books have been published about the Kentucky Derby,
popular and academic historians alike have largely overlooked the Oaks.
In The Kentucky Oaks: 150 Years of Running for the
Lilies, author Avalyn Hunter sets out to recover the history of one of the
most watched and highly attended events in Thoroughbred racing. Beginning with
Meriweather Lewis Clark Jr.'s creation of a race designed to parallel England's
historic Oaks Stakes, Hunter traces the evolution of the Kentucky Oaks through
the stories of the men, women, and fillies that have made the Kentucky Oaks a
symbol for women's growing participation in the sport at all levels.
Avalyn Hunter is a nationally recognized
authority on Thoroughbred pedigrees and racing history whose work has appeared
in the Blood-Horse, Thoroughbred Times, Owner-Breeder
International, MarketWatch, New York Breeder,
and Louisiana Horse. She is the author of Dream Derby: The
Myth and Legend of Black Gold, American Classic Pedigrees 1914–2002, The
Kingmaker: How Northern Dancer Founded a Racing Dynasty, and Gold
Rush: How Mr. Prospector Became Racing's Billion-Dollar Sire.