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: [COLONEL MATT WINN | j POPULARIZED THE DERBY ; Col. Matt J. Winn is the man responsible for the modern version of the Derby. It was he who carried out Col. M. Lewis Clarks idea of making the Kentucky Derby Americas racing classic, not only creating a national, but international interest in this racing spectacle that annually attracts to Louisville, thousands and thousands from all parts of the United States, Canada, Cuba, Mexico and with occasional visitors from Europe and far away Australia. Little did Colonel Clark dream that scenes I ; I I j I he had witnessed in Europe of staid, self-contained Englishmen of all stations of life from king to costermonger gathering in hundreds of thousands to see the running of the worlds famous Epsom Derby and similar vast throngs of Frenchmen assembled in the Bois-de-Boulonge to worship the winner of the Grand Prix of Paris would one day be depicted in Kentucky at Churchill Downs. It remained for Colonel Winn to bring about the realization of such a dream and how well he accomplished the popularizing of the Derby was strikingly demonstrated on the fifty-sixth running of the event in 1930 when Lord Derby, scion of English nobility, after one of whose ancestors the worlds famous Epsom Derby was named, and after which the Kentucky Derby was patterned, was among the colorful gathering and presented the beautiful gold trophy to Mr. Woodward, owner of Gallant Fox, the winner. •
