The Two Times The Kentucky Derby Was Postponed And Replaced By Turtle Races

The contestants had names like Broken Spring, Nutty Brittle, and Fine Liquors, in keeping with the spirit of horse racing, and ran (more like sauntered, shuffled, or ambled along) a specially-designed track, per The Courier-Journal. More than 6,000 race fans showed up for the Turtle Derby, which was held at the county armory but staffed

The contestants had names like Broken Spring, Nutty Brittle, and Fine Liquors, in keeping with the spirit of horse racing, and ran (more like sauntered, shuffled, or ambled along) a specially-designed track, per The Courier-Journal. More than 6,000 race fans showed up for the Turtle Derby, which was held at the county armory but staffed by many of the folks from Churchill Downs. These folks included Ruby White, the starter for the actual Kentucky Derby, and horse trainers like Ben Jones, who took time out from working with horses to get a turtle into racing shape for the big event, per the Kentucky Derby Museum.

The race fans pumped nearly $200,000 in today's dollars into eight races that night, for bets capped at 50 cents each. The winner turned out to be Broken Spring, who had a winning time of 1 minute and 20.3 seconds, per The Courier-Journal. U.S. Royal was the best payoff at $14. In several of the races, turtles who had been in the lead headed back to the starting gate, making for maddening, raucous viewing. The American Legion raised more than $132,000 (in today's dollars) that they donated to a local children's charity.

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