Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. (January 27, 1846 – April 22, 1899) was the founder of the Louisville Jockey Club and the builder of

Churchill Downs Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, famed for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby. It officially opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was p ...

, where the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-yea ...

is run.

Life and career

He was grandson of explorer and

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

governor, General

William Clark William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Miss ...

of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...

. His father was Major

Meriwether Lewis Clark Meriwether Clark may refer to: * Meriwether Lewis Clark Sr., Meriwether Lewis Clark (1809–1879), U.S. Army officer and Confederate general in the American Civil War * Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. (1846–1899), American businessman and horse racing ...

, "aide de camp" and in-law to General Stephen Watts Kearny, of

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...

fame (Kearny married Mary Radford, the stepdaughter of Clark). His mother was Abigail Prather Churchill, from one of the first families of Kentucky. The Churchills had moved to

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

in 1787 and bought of land in a rural area south of the city. When his mother died, "Lutie" (as Clark was called) went to live with his aunt and her sons John and Henry Churchill. They had inherited most of the original Churchill property, and they donated the land on which Churchill Downs was built. Living with the Churchills, Lutie developed a taste for expensive things, including horse racing. He made two trips to Europe and married twice, both of his wives dying young. He came home from abroad in 1873 with ideas about building a racetrack in Louisville. He planned to eliminate bookmaking by introducing the French system of

parimutuel betting Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winnin ...

machines. The Churchill brothers were the entrepreneurs providing the financial backing, and Lutie was the acting president and on-site manager. By all accounts, Clark had a mercurial and touchy personality. He is reported to have threatened prominent breeder T. G. Moore with a gun, ordering him off the premises after having knocked him down in a dispute over fees. Moore got a gun and shot Clark through a door, hitting him in the chest. Moore turned himself in to the police, but no charges were brought against him. Clark later rescinded his ban from the racetrack. He also threatened others with a gun over perceived insults. The Churchill brothers did not appreciate the negative publicity, and they left the track to their families. Clark received some other land, but by the time John Churchill died in 1897, Lutie was merely a steward at the track he had originated. His contribution to American racing cannot be overstated. In addition to building Churchill Downs and originating the Kentucky Derby, he wrote many racing rules that are still in force today. He worked for a uniform system of weights and pioneered the stakes system, creating the Great American Stallion Stakes, on which the present-day

Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, i ...

is modeled. He also spoke out against betting by officials and reporters. Clark lost heavily in the stock market crash of 1893 and began traveling from city to city working as a steward. Fearing a life of poverty, he committed suicide with a pistol on April 22, 1899. He is buried in

Cave Hill Cemetery Cave Hill Cemetery is a Victorian era National Cemetery and arboretum located at Louisville, Kentucky. Its main entrance is on Baxter Avenue and there is a secondary one on Grinstead Drive. It is the largest cemetery by area and number of buri ...

next to his uncle, John Churchill.

References

External links

*For a more detailed biography, se
Call to the Derby Post: A History of Churchill Downs
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Meriwether Lewis 1899 deaths 1846 births American people of Scottish descent American people of English descent People in horse racing Businesspeople from Louisville, Kentucky Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery Horse racing in Louisville, Kentucky Horse racing in Kentucky 19th-century American businesspeople