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Kentucky Derby Winner: The Exciting Story of America's First Great Race Horse
For middle school reading level. Book measures approx 5 3/4" by 8 3/8", has tweed paper covering the boards. Illustrated with black and white line drawings. From the Series FAMOUS HORSE STORIES. Lists all the Derby Winners up to the time of the story
224 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1955
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 10, 2025
A 2.5 star book, really.
This is yet another one of those books I had as a kid and bought a replacement copy for my old age. When I was a kid, I thought the Famous Horse Stories series meant that all the books were about famous horses (like Aristides here.) Little did I know that the stories were what the "famous" part was referring to.
I wonder how famous this book would be today, since it has some blatantly racist elements. For example, there is a cringe-worthy illustration of black nannies all smiling so their cheeks are the widest parts of their heads. As we all know, blacks were all SO DARN HAPPY to live in the South immediately after the Civil War. Gypsies are also not to be trusted, since they are all thieves (more or less.)
The text is silly and doesn't have a lot to do with horses. It's mostly about life on a rich man's farm in Kentucky just after the Civil War. There are some chapters devoted to horses but most of the book is about a huge burgoo party, meeting some gypsies, preparing for a wedding and stuff like that. Even the illustrations show people far more than they do horses. The Kentucky Derby itself only takes up a couple of pages.
It's a calming sort of book, really. I like the cover very much. Sometimes I have my latest copy next to my pillow so I can see the horse. It's much better than the usual illustration for horses ca. 1875, such as this one of Aristides done in 1877:
This is yet another one of those books I had as a kid and bought a replacement copy for my old age. When I was a kid, I thought the Famous Horse Stories series meant that all the books were about famous horses (like Aristides here.) Little did I know that the stories were what the "famous" part was referring to.
I wonder how famous this book would be today, since it has some blatantly racist elements. For example, there is a cringe-worthy illustration of black nannies all smiling so their cheeks are the widest parts of their heads. As we all know, blacks were all SO DARN HAPPY to live in the South immediately after the Civil War. Gypsies are also not to be trusted, since they are all thieves (more or less.)
The text is silly and doesn't have a lot to do with horses. It's mostly about life on a rich man's farm in Kentucky just after the Civil War. There are some chapters devoted to horses but most of the book is about a huge burgoo party, meeting some gypsies, preparing for a wedding and stuff like that. Even the illustrations show people far more than they do horses. The Kentucky Derby itself only takes up a couple of pages.
It's a calming sort of book, really. I like the cover very much. Sometimes I have my latest copy next to my pillow so I can see the horse. It's much better than the usual illustration for horses ca. 1875, such as this one of Aristides done in 1877:
March 20, 2015
Read long, long ago. A favorite book from my childhood: a present from Daddy about the origin of the Kentucky Derby and its first winner, the horse Aristides. Now I've given it to grandkids. [And, I learned who the historical Aristides was.]
October 19, 2018
A good story of Aristides, the first winner of the Kentucky Derby and the history of how this came to be.
Factual and probably written as a children's story.
I enjoyed reading of the local culture of the time and learning of Burgoo, to me, kind of like Gumbo in the South, or Mongolian Stew in the Orient.
It was funny to read what I believe is a children's story as it mentions Gramps chewing tobacco and two of the youngsters getting sick smoking cigars they had pilfered.
All on all a good read that I think most will enjoy.
Factual and probably written as a children's story.
I enjoyed reading of the local culture of the time and learning of Burgoo, to me, kind of like Gumbo in the South, or Mongolian Stew in the Orient.
It was funny to read what I believe is a children's story as it mentions Gramps chewing tobacco and two of the youngsters getting sick smoking cigars they had pilfered.
All on all a good read that I think most will enjoy.
October 26, 2025
The book is a beautiful vintage book with a lovely painting of the first Kentucky Derby winner on the cover, but an exciting story it most assuredly is not.
The first Kentucky Derby takes up the last 3 pages of this book, with Aristides remaining a foal for the entire first 3/4 of the book. The book is consumed mostly with the everyday farm happenings of a fictional child working at McGrathiana and his Confederate grandfather who hero-worships Robert E. Lee (I know this was written in 1949, but man the Confederate apologia had me cringing HARD). There are, additionally, some unpleasant, extremely outdated stereotypical portrayals of African Americans and Romany folks among the cast of characters. The way the Black characters were illustrated made me extremely uncomfortable. I could have done without the lines written in dialect - it made me think I was reading a children's version of Gone With the Wind.
The historical figures remain rather distant, which was disappointing. I would have liked to see Oliver Lewis, for example, make more than a passing cameo in the story where he rode the first Kentucky Derby winner to victory. Fictional characters take up the majority of the narrative, and their happenings are not very exciting: 2 entire chapters are devoted to a burgoo party that has nothing to do with Aristides, a chapter about the children's schoolteacher falling in love with the local preacher and plans for their wedding could have been easily cut, and the chapter in which a cake is baked for Risty's second birthday briefly features the birthday colt himself in one short paragraph. Training chapters are devoted exhaustively to tedious descriptions of tack, with the horsemanship itself passed over quickly. This book is a solid 85-90% padding, and it's Song of the South style padding to boot.
The book isn't without its charms. Whenever Risty is at the center of the action, it is far more interesting. The chapter where he learned to wear a halter was cute. I also enjoyed the journey to Woodburn Stud to visit the legendary Lexington. But these moments are few and far between. I just wish the book had centered the horse instead of human characters invented by the author. As it stands, Aristides is very incidental to his entire story. He could easily be replaced by a fictional horse, and nothing would be lost.
Even if I compared this against literature of the time, this stacks up miserably against a contemporary titan of young readers' equestrian literature like Walter Farley and his magnificent Black Stallion series. In all, it's a pretty book that promises much and delivers little. It looks great on a shelf of vintage horse books - just don't bother reading the story inside.
The first Kentucky Derby takes up the last 3 pages of this book, with Aristides remaining a foal for the entire first 3/4 of the book. The book is consumed mostly with the everyday farm happenings of a fictional child working at McGrathiana and his Confederate grandfather who hero-worships Robert E. Lee (I know this was written in 1949, but man the Confederate apologia had me cringing HARD). There are, additionally, some unpleasant, extremely outdated stereotypical portrayals of African Americans and Romany folks among the cast of characters. The way the Black characters were illustrated made me extremely uncomfortable. I could have done without the lines written in dialect - it made me think I was reading a children's version of Gone With the Wind.
The historical figures remain rather distant, which was disappointing. I would have liked to see Oliver Lewis, for example, make more than a passing cameo in the story where he rode the first Kentucky Derby winner to victory. Fictional characters take up the majority of the narrative, and their happenings are not very exciting: 2 entire chapters are devoted to a burgoo party that has nothing to do with Aristides, a chapter about the children's schoolteacher falling in love with the local preacher and plans for their wedding could have been easily cut, and the chapter in which a cake is baked for Risty's second birthday briefly features the birthday colt himself in one short paragraph. Training chapters are devoted exhaustively to tedious descriptions of tack, with the horsemanship itself passed over quickly. This book is a solid 85-90% padding, and it's Song of the South style padding to boot.
The book isn't without its charms. Whenever Risty is at the center of the action, it is far more interesting. The chapter where he learned to wear a halter was cute. I also enjoyed the journey to Woodburn Stud to visit the legendary Lexington. But these moments are few and far between. I just wish the book had centered the horse instead of human characters invented by the author. As it stands, Aristides is very incidental to his entire story. He could easily be replaced by a fictional horse, and nothing would be lost.
Even if I compared this against literature of the time, this stacks up miserably against a contemporary titan of young readers' equestrian literature like Walter Farley and his magnificent Black Stallion series. In all, it's a pretty book that promises much and delivers little. It looks great on a shelf of vintage horse books - just don't bother reading the story inside.
July 3, 2022
I remember reading this book from my school library when I was in elementary school. It is definitely a children's book but fun to reread. It is dated in the sense that it reflects the culture of its time, much different from today. But it is still a good clean story about a boy and a horse.
February 5, 2025
Definitely a book from the 1940s, good story based on a true event but language is not politically correct for today's readers. It ends too abruptly for me but I did enjoy rereading it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews