Kentucky Derby | |
Grade I stakes race | |
Location | Churchill Downs |
---|---|
Date | May 16, 1931 |
Winning horse | Twenty Grand |
Jockey | Charles Kurtsinger |
Trainer | James G. Rowe Jr. |
Owner | Greentree Stable |
Surface | Dirt |
The 1931 Kentucky Derby was the 57th running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on May 16, 1931.[1] Horses Equipoise, Up, and Don Leon scratched before the race. Twenty Grand's winning time set a new Derby record (later broken).[2] The winner was owned and bred by the Greentree Stable of Helen Hay Whitney. It marked the fourth time in the Derby's history that a woman owned the winning horse and the second time that a woman was both owner and breeder.[3]
The 1931 Preakness Stakes was held one week prior, on May 9,[4] making this the most recent time that the Preakness was run before the Kentucky Derby.[5] Until the 2020 Kentucky Derby and 2020 Preakness Stakes were rescheduled to follow the 2020 Belmont Stakes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 1931 was the most recent time that the Kentucky Derby was not the first leg of the Triple Crown.[6]