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Derby Spectacle Tribute to Winn Has Made Classic I Top Sports Event Octogenarian Always Feels Tops When Time for Downs Great Race Comes Around CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville, Ky., May 6. — This month — May — is the time of the year when the earth buds its beauty . and when even those in the eve of life look upon the bounties of spring with youthful hearts. And it is no wonder that the man known as Mr. Kentucky Derby — Col. Matt J. Winn, of Churchill Downs — looks forward to the seventy-fifth Diamond j Jubilee running of Americas turf classic with the same old indelible twinkle in his eye that he has had since he saw his dream of Americas top sports spectacle ! come true. Next month Colonel Winn will celebrate 1 his 88th birthday and, while has was slightly under the weather earlier in the spring, he says he is feeling fine now — just as he always feels when Derby time rolls around — and he is looking forward to a happy birthday. Accustomed as he is to seeing magnificent old Churchill Downs blossom out in added color and beauty as the years roll by, Colonel Winn realizes that the room for improvement at the historic old track has just about run out. More elaborate flower gardens, more colorful and convenient seating arrangements and more facilities for a crowd of more than 100,000 , hardly could be thought of any more than a substitute "theme" son for Stephen Fosters i beloved "My Old Kentucky Home." I Race Grows With Nation j Years ago citizens of Louisville and others who considered themselves well posted on spectator interest of sports events predicted that Louisville, Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby could not possibly attract larger crowds. But the yearly increases when conditions were normal were so startling that it became apparent half a dozen years ago that the horse race of the Americas was growing as surely and as rapidly as the United States itself was growing. Accepted as the countrys national sports event, the Derby for years has drawn visitors from every state in the Union and from many foreign countries, and each year finds an increase in the volume of visitors from everywhere. Special trains by the hundreds pour into Louisville from every point of the compass. Scores of trains come from Chicago, dozens from Cincinnati, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and many from such distant points as California, Miami and New Orleans. The largest crowd that ever left the capital of Dixie — New Orleans — is making the journey this year, two big special trains bringing the major portion of the New Orleans visitors, while many have come in planes, regular trains, automobiles and New Orleans. Every community from whence racing lovers have flocked to the Derby year after year reports new adherents to the throne of King Horse for his big day at Churchill Downs. There may be more pretentious race tracks in America than Churchill Downs — racing plants that have been adorned by expensive beautifying features; but there is no track in America with the historic atmosphere that enfolds this race course situated near the center of the thoroughbred breeding industry of this country. Col. Matt Winn, a native Kentuckian himself, probably never believed that the lifelong task of giving his native state an i I j immortal event for the entertainment of Kentuckians would spread its interest throughout the nation, so securely entwining itself in the heart strings of sports-loving America that the annual call to the "Downs" is irresistible to those who can afford the trip. There have been years when the Derby was conceded to be a "one-horse" race, such as it was last year with Citation seeming to have it at his mercy, or in Count Fleets year. But there have been many times when there was a wider field for speculation, and this is one of them Whether the race came up with a pronounced favorite or whether its field presented a many-sided debate in which astute horsemen disagreed up to the time of the finish, it made no difference to Colonel Winn; his only desire was to have a great day of horse racing for Derby Day, a fine crowd and world-wide acclaim for his beloved Churchill Downs. Establishing his living quarters next to his office at the Downs, the man who has made the Kentucky Derby what it is, remains as closely interwoven in Derby history as the famous old racing strip itself. And that, a work of art; from the beginning, has needed but little improvement during the span that rounds out 75 years tomorrow afternoon.
