I didn’t know, so I tried to find out - apparently he was hired by the Kentucky Derby people to write it for the 1980 Run for the Roses.
Wow, I’ve just read a bunch of people saying Kentuckians hate the song because it’s played so much this time of year. Yeesh, I didn’t know that. What’s not to like about it?
For some reason, it’s not an offical Derby song - only My Old Kentucky Home is. (And it also makes milady weep.) My grandmother was a “Kentucky Woman” by birth, but left as a young tot. However, her family always went back for Derby every year and I grew up never missing it - on TV!
I’ve never been, myself - tho I’ve been to lots of horse races in my life and used to never miss any of the Quarter Horse races - especially the All-American Futurity, the Rainbow, Kansas and those in Ruidoso, NM. My grandaddy had interests in some horses that ran in those. I can’t even find them on TV anymore.
Anyway, it’s funny - Run for the Roses is one of those few songs that I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard it and I fell in love with it.
That is weird, to me at least. I have relatives in New Orleans who HATE the song “New Orleans Ladies” but I love that song as well, and cannot understand why they don’t see it as a tribute! But I loved ‘Run for the Roses’ a few years before I EVEN realized it was about horse racing or the Kentucky Derby...so maybe the true Derby fans are annoyed by that...and people like me, who didn’t even realize the TRUE nature of the song!...who knows??