Whisky & the
Winner’s Circle

SCOTLAND

From monastery records to the whisky barons

Scotland’s famous early paper trail leads to a 1494 tax record supplying malt to Friar John Cor for the production of aqua vitae, or water of life. It documents distilling already underway; it does not establish that someone invented whisky that year.

Centuries of small-scale production, taxation and smuggling followed. The Excise Act of 1823 helped make licensed distilling commercially attractive, while the growth of grain whisky and blending opened Scotch to a wider audience.

During the nineteenth century, merchants such as James Buchanan and the Dewar family built international businesses. The destruction of French vineyards by phylloxera also created an opening as brandy supplies suffered. Scotch acquired wealthy customers, and its merchants acquired the means to become substantial racehorse owners. Their sporting ambitions would put the whisky business directly into some of Britain’s most celebrated winner’s enclosures.

KENTUCKY

Corn, commerce and Thoroughbreds

Bourbon’s beginnings belong to the farms and settlements of early Kentucky. Distilling turned corn into a valuable product, and whiskey could function as something close to currency. The Lexington History Museum records that farms and Thoroughbreds were sometimes bartered for jugs or barrels of whiskey.

The familiar tale of one inspired pioneer inventing bourbon is tidier than the surviving evidence. Elijah Craig was an early distiller, but the style developed through the work of many producers as grain choices, barrel practices and trade evolved.

Horse breeding and whiskey making became neighboring businesses, with overlapping circles of farmers, merchants and prosperous buyers. A distiller could entertain guests during a race meeting, discuss a yearling over dinner and pour something bearing his own name. That combination of proximity, personal relationships and local pride helps explain bourbon’s lasting place in Kentucky racing culture.

CHURCHILL DOWNS

The mint julep makes it official

For bourbon’s most recognizable racing connection, look to the Kentucky Derby mint julep. Bourbon, mint, sugar and crushed ice turn a few straightforward ingredients into a drink that practically announces where the party is taking place.

Churchill Downs dates the julep’s official association with the Derby to the 1930s, when souvenir cups helped turn the refreshment into a keepsake. The ritual linked a Kentucky product to a Kentucky occasion, then gave visitors something tangible to carry home.

That is a persuasive recipe for a tradition: a distinctive taste, a setting people remember and a vessel they want to keep. The julep lets an occasional racegoer participate as readily as a longtime owner. Knowing every horse in the field is optional; recognizing the mint above the rim is considerably easier.

JAMES BUCHANAN

A whisky baron with two Derby winners

James Buchanan’s two great interests were public knowledge long before his biggest racing triumphs. In 1907, Vanity Fair published a caricature of him titled “Whisky and Horses.” The National Portrait Gallery preserves the print. Some men need a lengthy biography; Buchanan already had an excellent three-word version.

The businessman behind Buchanan’s Scotch, later Lord Woolavington, could back up the sporting reputation. His Captain Cuttle won the 1922 Derby at Epsom, and Coronach followed with victory in 1926. Both were trained by Fred Darling; Steve Donoghue rode Captain Cuttle, while Joe Childs partnered Coronach.

The Derby’s roll of honor makes the scale of the achievement plain. Buchanan had turned commercial success into serious standing on the turf. His story shows how closely Scotch’s business aristocracy could become entwined with the people, horses and ambitions of British racing.

TOMMY DEWAR

The Derby victory he never saw

Tommy Dewar helped carry his family’s Scotch into international markets and became one of the industry’s memorable personalities. He also embraced the life of a racehorse owner and breeder, where an eye for promise mattered as much as a flair for publicity.

Among the horses he bred was Cameronian. Dewar died in April 1930, before the colt reached his greatest season. In 1931, Cameronian won both the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby, by then belonging to Dewar’s nephew, John Arthur Dewar.

There is a particular poignancy to a breeder’s success arriving after his death. The judgment was his; the afternoon in the winner’s enclosure belonged to the next generation. It also gives the whisky-and-horses connection a familiar family-business rhythm: one generation lays the foundations, and another finally sees what they can produce.

JAMES E. PEPPER

A winning filly called Pure Rye

Kentucky distiller James E. Pepper supplied one of the most deliciously appropriate names in racing history. He and William S. Barnes co-owned Melbourne Stable, whose horses included The Bourbon and Pure Rye. Pure Rye won the 1886 Kentucky Oaks. That is a rather convincing advertisement for putting your business interests on the entry sheet.

Pepper later won the 1892 Oaks with Miss Dixie, named after his sister. His Meadowthrope farm stood less than half a mile from his Lexington distillery, making the connection between his two enterprises unusually convenient.

He also understood how to travel in character. His private railway car was named Old Pepper. In 1893, he took an imported, six-horse English coach to Chicago for the World’s Fair and later to Saratoga for the races. Whiskey, horses and an entrance worth watching: Pepper had the whole itinerary covered.

MAKER’S MARK & KEENELAND

The first case went to the races

Some brand partnerships begin with a sponsorship contract. The relationship between Maker’s Mark and Keeneland began with an order for a case of bourbon.

During Keeneland’s 1958 Fall Meet, its caterer, Turf Catering, purchased the first case of Maker’s Mark under its Kentucky liquor license. Keeneland identifies itself as the first place to serve the bourbon. Racegoers were among the brand’s very first customers.

The relationship grew to include the Maker’s Mark Mile and collectible bottles supporting charitable causes. The commemorative-bottle collaboration began in 1997, giving the partnership another life beyond the bar.

It is an unusually neat example of how a racing connection becomes part of a whisky’s identity. The track helped introduce the drink; the drink became part of the track’s hospitality; and the bottle eventually became something a patron might keep long after the afternoon’s results were forgotten.

BLANTON’S

A complete race on the bottle tops

The little horse and jockey on a Blanton’s bottle do more than announce a Kentucky connection. The collector’s set introduced in 1999 contains eight different stoppers, showing successive stages of a race.

Each carries a letter. Arrange the set correctly and it spells B-L-A-N-T-O-N-S, with the final “S” marking the victorious finish. The two appearances of “N” are part of the sequence, so a complete field takes eight.

The bourbon itself was introduced by Elmer T. Lee in 1984, honoring Albert B. Blanton’s practice of selecting special barrels for guests. The horse imagery ties that tradition of hospitality to Kentucky’s other celebrated pursuit.

For a racing enthusiast, the appeal is easy to understand. A bottle that begins as a drink can leave behind a miniature sporting collection, with a winner already guaranteed at the end.

NEVER SAY DIE

The colt with a bourbon beginning

One of racing’s most unusual bourbon stories concerns Never Say Die, the Kentucky-born colt who won the 1954 Derby at Epsom.

In a family account recounted by historian James C. Nicholson, his grandfather, horseman John A. Bell III, gave bourbon to the struggling foal shortly after a difficult birth. The colt survived, and his name acknowledged the fighting spirit of those first moments.

The bourbon episode belongs to the horse’s origin story. The racing result is firmly on the books: Never Say Die won at 33–1 for owner Robert Sterling Clark, ridden by Lester Piggott and trained by Joe Lawson.

He became the first Kentucky-born winner of the race, giving Bluegrass breeders a result that traveled well beyond their own sales rings. A precarious beginning had become a remarkable transatlantic success, with an unforgettable whiskey anecdote attached.