1931 Kentucky Derby

57th Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
Grade I stakes race
LocationChurchill Downs
DateMay 16, 1931
Winning horseTwenty Grand
JockeyCharles Kurtsinger
TrainerJames G. Rowe Jr.
OwnerGreentree Stable
SurfaceDirt
← 1930
1932 →

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]

  1. ^ Kentucky Derby History, 1931
  2. ^ 1931 Kentucky Derby Results Tables[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Women Have Won Derby". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1934-05-05. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  4. ^ Wade, Jake (May 9, 1931). "It's the Preakness Today; And Derby is One Week Off". The Charlotte Observer. p. 18. Retrieved June 20, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Steadman, John (May 18, 1994). "Spreading out Triple Crown will help set it apart". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  6. ^ Darcy, Kieran (June 18, 2020). "What to know ahead of an unusual Belmont Stakes". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 20, 2020.