The Longines Kentucky Oaks may still be 11 weeks away but on Saturday at Fair Grounds one fortunate 3-year-old filly will punch herself a ticket to the May 3 spectacle at Churchill Downs.

“Until you go to the Kentucky Derby with your own eyes, behold the Derby, you ain’t never been nowhere and you ain’t never seen nothing.”—Irving S. Cobb

It was a Monday, the start of a new week, but this would go down as anything but a typical Monday. The day began with clear skies, the sun soon joining the multitudes flocking to Louisville’s newest racetrack, their journey presaging a day a century and a half hence. May 17, 1875, was something altogether bigger than a Monday: it was Derby day.