As part of the week leading up to the annual Kentucky Derby, Curious Louisville is resharing the answers to some of our favorite Derby-themed questions. Today, we’re looking into answers that have to do with the race’s 145-year history.
For example, the call to the post at Churchill Downs is an iconic sound, but how did it become part of the track’s culture?
And in 2018, WFPL’s Laura Ellis looked into the history of those iconic 34 notes in the key of C.
You can listen to the answer below:
And then there are the hats -- which are perhaps even more instantly associated with the culture of the Kentucky Derby than the call to the post.
In 2017, Jenny Pfanenstiel was interested in learning more about the history of those hats.
She submitted her question, “Why are hats so popular to wear to the Kentucky Derby?" And former WFPL reporter Roxanne Scott and I found the answer.
The story takes us to England, through America in the 1960s and ’70s, and into the collections of our own Kentucky Derby Museum.
Listen here:
Call us at 502-814-6560 to record your Derby memory and we’ll play some of them back during WFPL’s weekly talk show “In Conversation” on Friday at 11 a.m.
You can ask your own Curious Louisville question below:
