A representative from Commonwealth, one of the owners of 2023 Kentucky Derby winner, Mage, gazes at the golden trophy. (Coady Photography)
Churchill Release/Edited
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—It’s gold and it’s priceless and it will this year be bejeweled. What’s the 150th Kentucky Derby Winner’s Trophy?
To celebrate a century and a half of continuous Kentucky Derby races, the only of the three Spring Classics, Churchill Downs has had a special trophy crafted by S.R. Blackington, the company that has the Kentucky Derby trophy most every year since 1975.
The priceless gold trophy that will be presented to the owner of the 3-year-old Thoroughbred that wins the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve on the first Saturday in May.
Scheduled to arrive at Churchill Downs Racetrack Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 10:30 a.m., the 150th Kentucky Derby Winner’s Trophy will come into the First Turn Club to be put on display. Darren Rogers, Churchill Downs Racetrack Senior Director of Communications and Susanne Blackinton-Juaire of S.R. Blackington, the team that crafted the trophy, will introduce the new trophy.
The trophy was first commissioned by Churchill Downs and Kentucky Derby legend Col. Matt Winnin 1924.
The Kentucky Derby Winner’s Trophy is 22 inches tall and weighs approximately 67 ounces, excluding the gems and its jade base. The trophy is hand-crafted from 14-karat solid yellow gold and green gold over a period of nearly six to eight months. It is topped by a 14-karat gold horse and rider and features a pair of horseshoe-shaped wreath handles. The front of the trophy is adorned by a 14-karat gold horseshoe that, in accordance with racing tradition, is pointed upward.
Racing lore holds that the “luck will run out of a horseshoe” that is pointed downward. The Kentucky Derby Winner’s Trophy carried such a design from its introduction until 1997 when the horseshoe was turned 180 degrees.
Unique jeweled embellishments will note the special 150th anniversary of the Kentucky Derby on the trophy.
Susanne Blackinton-Juaire and daughter Skyla Blackinton are key current members of the team that has crafted the Kentucky Derby trophy most every year since 1975. Blackinton-Juaire is a fifth-generation silversmith whose family entered the profession in 1862 – 13 years before the first Kentucky Derby was run in 1875.
