150th "Run for the Roses": The history and spectacle of the Kentucky Derby

Every year the Kentucky Derby is one of America's great pageants, as a horse-loving, hat-wearing, julep-swilling crowd of 150,000-plus breaks out its Sunday best on the first Saturday of May, in the shadow of those iconic white spires at Louisville's Churchill Downs. 

"First Saturday in May means something to millions of people," said Mike Anderson, president of Churchill Downs. "It's Derby Day!"

But this isn't "every year" – it's even more special. This Saturday the longest continuously-held sporting event in America will celebrate its 150th birthday. "We have run a Kentucky Derby every single year since 1875," said Chris Goodlett, curator of the Kentucky Derby Museum. "We've had two world wars, a depression, pandemics. We've always run a Kentucky Derby."