The inaugural American Derby was held at Chicago's old Washington Park Race Track on the city's South Side and raced there until 1905 when the facility was closed following the state's ban on gambling, and horse racing and the track was demolished.
[citation needed] The effect would be that the American Derby was not run from 1905 through 1925, except for 1916 when it was hosted by the Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, Illinois.
[citation needed] Revived in 1926, it evolved to become one of the important events of the American racing season that drew some of the very best horses from all over the country.
Over the years, the distance has varied: Most wins by a jockey: Hall of Fame jockey George Woolf won the race three years in a row from 1942 to 1944.
Most wins by a trainer: Most wins by an owner: † Dead Heat in 1984 †† Dead Heat in 1994 ‡ In 1996, the first-place finisher Trail City was disqualified and placed second