The Kentucky Oaks is a competition is an annual event held at Louisville, Kentucky. A lot of conditions have been set forth for the contenders of the race to be considered qualified. Read on more about background of Kentucky Oaks.

Firstly, the horse is supposed to b three years and thoroughbred. The contests shall be disqualified immediately in case the horse is older or younger or if it is not thoroughbred. The horse covers a distance of 1 ½ mile. The venue of the event is at The Churchill Downs. This race is held on Friday coming before the Kentucky Derby. It serves as a warm of the event. The winner of the contest carries home a purse of $500,000. The winning horse is also presented with a bouquet of lilies. The flowers are referred to as `Lillies for Fillies’. The winner also gets silver Kentucky Oaks Trophy.

The race was first held in May 19, 1975. The founder of the contest was Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. who was also the founder of Kentucky Derby race. Both of these races are the oldest and the most popular sporting events that have been held regularly throughout the years since 1875.

Another outstanding thing regarding the Kentucky oaks contest is the fact that it has been held in the same field since the beginning. The competition is held at Churchill Downs racetrack. The development of the race was inspired by the British Epsom Oaks. The first race that was held at Churchill downs was won by a horse called `Vinaigrette’ in a period of 2:39 ¼ minutes. The distance covered was 1 ½ mile. The horse was awarded $1,175. From that time, the event has been held in the same field from then.

The Kentucky Oaks race is continuously becoming more popular with the people attending exceeding 100,000. The attendance of the race us ranked third. The race often surpasses other popular races such as the Breeders and Belmont contests. The only two competitions with attendance exceeding the attendance are the Kentucky Derby and Preakness stakes. The event is considered as a local event so the attendants of the events try to imitate the local people.