Curator reveals most interesting pictures ever snapped during Derby at Churchill Downs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB)-- Just like a foal's instinct to walk and then run, horse racing can be something you're born into.

"I am actually a Derby baby," Angie Blume said. "I was born a little late, because of the Derby. My doctor was busy."

Even then, recounting a lot of what happens from year to year within the walls of the hallowed house of horses can be tough to do. It's a good thing the people at the Kentucky Derby Museum understand the importance of history and taking pictures.

"It helps us place the kinds of people who were there," Kentucky Derby Museum Senior Curator of Collections Jessica Whitehead explained. "It helps us understand what the fashion looked like that year."

Who's that fashionable lady?

In 1965, a kind-looking lady with an eye for the flashy changed everything.

"Cora Jacobs was a real estate agent over in New Albany, who help found Harvest Homecoming," Whitehead said. "She was one of the first people who was coming to the Kentucky Derby in the absolutely wild ensemble."

Now one of her outfits, a trench coat with the names of Derby's winners from the past, has a permanent home in a display at the Derby Museum.

Wettest Derby on record

7 years ago, we re-learned ponchos could be fashionable, whether you wanted them to be or not.

"2018 was a rough year for Derby goers, because that is the wettest Derby on record," Whitehead remembered.

Races were delayed. The crowd was soaked.

"Ponchos were selling like crazy," she added.

Much like mother nature delivered on the rain, Justify delivered a Triple Crown that year, that began at a muddy Churchill Downs.

No starting gate

"The starting gate was not a thing for a very long time at the Kentucky Derby," Whitehead said.

One consistently started being used in the 1930s.

"(Before that) these horses would just have to be lined up," Whitehead said.

A starter used the crack of a whip to get the race going.

Infield antics

Despite being less rowdy in recent years, the more notorious memories captured came from the infield.

"All kinds of antics, including your run of the mill drinking, streaking," Whitehead said.

In the 70s, there was also a parachuter and a pole climber.

"He did not get arrested, this particular man," Whitehead revealed. "He's a pretty cool guy, but our parachuter definitely got chased down."

All of what has been captured on camera is probably far from the event born at the Louisville Jockey Club all those years ago, but boy has it shaped who we are and what our city has become.