Source: Blog – Alliance for American Manufacturing

Jockey Flavien Prat celebrates atop of Country House #20 after winning the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 04, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. Prat’s apparel, better known as his silks, were made in America by Triple Crown Silks. | Getty Images

Kentucky based-Triple Crown Silks makes entirely American-made apparel for some of the sport’s biggest races.

Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky is the one time each year that casual American fans turn their attention to the Sport of Kings.

The crown jewel of horse racing, the 151st Derby will host a field of 19 three-year-old horses vying for the first leg of the Triple Crown and the winner’s share of $3.1 million out of the total purse of $5 million.

These are heady numbers for a horse race, but thoroughbred racing in America generates $177 billion annually to the U.S. economy. A total of $210 million was bet on the Derby in 2014, when 156,710 fans packed into Churchill Downs. another 16.4 million watched the race on TV.

But wagering is only a fraction of the revenue the resurgent thoroughbred horse racing industry has witnessed.

There are hundreds of manufactured products that play a small part in the Derby and many of them are made in America.

The official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby is the mint julep, which contains Woodford Reserve bourbon. Woodford Reserve has been distilled in Versailles, Kentucky since 1838. The company offers a special Kentucky Derby bottle, which contains an illustration of the storied race.

If you are watching the race on TV, take a close look when they visit the horses in their stalls in the backstretch barns. Most horses will have a round, handled, colorful ball on the stall door. These are horse toys known as “Jolly Balls,” which are meant to relieve a horse’s boredom while keeping them calm.

There are many manufacturers of the 10-inch Jolly Balls, and a major supplier is Horseman’s Pride in Ohio. Horseman’s Pride also manufactures many of the accoutrements for the sport including horse blankets, harnesses, lead lines, feed tubs, water buckets and more.

However, the most visible American-made product on Derby Day is the apparel worn by the jockeys. Known as silks, the colorful clothing represents the owners of each horse and are cut and sewn by small businesses throughout U.S. horse country.

Three of the silks to be worn on Derby Day this year are made by Triple Crown Silks in Winchester, Kentucky. The jockeys riding contenders Sovereignty, East Avenue, and Final Gambit will sport jacket tops and helmet coverings manufactured by the company.

Foudners Brenda Byarski and Teresa Estes launched Triple Crown Silks 13 years ago. Both had previously worked sewing silks for a Kentucky Company that moved to California and eventually went out of business.

Making silks for jockeys and their owners has a limited customer base, but Byarski and Estes say they have made many thousands of the “colors” in recent years. And despite the contraction of the horse racing industry during the past 30 years, Triple Crown Silks has been able to continue to grow year after year.

“Teresa and I were sewing for a company in Lexington that moved, and we just decided to start our own business,” said Byarski. “We’ve had several new clients that we acquired last year because their silks company went out of business. This past week we added two new clients who said their seamstress in New York retired.

“We do all the sewing and cutting here in Kentucky and we source our fabric and thread here in the U.S.”

Silks made by Triple Crown Silks

The jockey jackets today are made of satin, Lycra, or nylon. They are ordered by the horse’s owner and no two can be alike. Triple Crown Silks may make several copies of identical silks for an owner who has a string of horses, but no other owner may use the same style and color pattern.

Owners deeply invested in horse racing often have many horses racing at tracks around the globe. These large stables require many copies of their racing silks to cover all the multiple horses that may be racing on any given day.

Triple Crown Silks is fortunate to have two of the biggest players in the business as clients.

“We sew for Darley, which is Godolphin racing, and we also have Juddmonte Farms,” said Byarski. “Those are our two biggest ones.”

Indeed, Godolphin and Juddmonte breed and race horses all over the world and can have multiple starters on any given day. Godolphin has won many of the sport’s most prestigious races with horses like Cody’s Wish and Street Cry, but its colors have never visited the winner’s circle after a Kentucky Derby.

Godolphin will be represented by Sovereignty in Saturday’s Derby and the work of Triple Crown Silks will again be on display in America’s biggest horse race.

Juddmonte Farms, which also has a global dominance in racing, won the Kentucky Derby in 2021 with Mandaloun who placed first after the disqualification of first-place finisher Medina Spirit. Juddmonte is a major player in the thoroughbred industry, and keeps Byarski and Estes busy sewing many copies of its green, pink, and white outfits.

“The owners are typically the ones that design their silks,” said Byarski. “They decide what they want then they contact us and either give us a picture or description. If they are new, they sometimes need help designing it. The major owners sometimes order 30 copies at one time.”

The rules of racing can often make silk selection a bit confusing.

“Darley or Godolphin has three different sets because they race a specific set in New York, a set in Kentucky, and another set everywhere else because you can’t advertise in Kentucky so they can’t wear their “Emirates Fly Better” jackets in Kentucky,” said Byarski of the Saudi Arabia- based stable. “Their second choice is solid royal, but somebody already has that registered in New York, so they race in solid royal with white chevrons on their sleeves. In Kentucky they race in a solid royal which is what they will be wearing at the Derby.”

Triple Crown Silks interviewed just ahead of the 2019 Kentucky Derby.

Triple Crown Silks creates its colors from satin or Lycra. They make a few silks in nylon, but that fabric has mostly been discontinued like the original silk fabric colors.

“They can either be satin, which is what Godolphin will be wearing on Derby Day. It is a shiny, snap down silk,” said Byarski. “And then there is the aerodynamic Lycra, which is a pullover stretch. It is like a long sleeve, stretchy t-shirt that is slightly shiny.

“We don’t do many of the nylon because they don’t wear very well, and you can’t get very many colors in nylon.”

Byarski is especially proud of the reproduction of silks they have made for the Kentucky Horse museum. The original silks for Seattle Slew and Man O’ War wore out over the years and the museum wanted a new, clean copy of each.

But it is her reproduction of silks worn by Never Say Die who was born and bred in Kentucky and went on to win the Epsom Derby in England that is close to her heart.

Never Say Die was sickly as a foal and they thought he would die, but Kentucky horseracing lore says his handlers gave him a shot of bourbon every day and he grew into a champion racehorse.

“They make a bourbon after him that is made in Kentucky, but it is aged and bottled in England,” added Byarski. “When the horse won the Epsom Derby, a lady thought he looked like a beautiful horse, so she sold all of her jewelry and put the money on the horse. She won so much money that she bought this old Victorian home and turned it into a bar that featured musicians.

“Her son was Pete Best, the original drummer of The Beatles. So, they say if Never Say Die had not won the Derby, there would be no Beatles.”

Yes, horseracing tales can mimic the imagination of a fisherman and his recollections.

Byarski and Estes will proudly watch the three horses wearing the silks they made and will have a little wager, too.

“I always pick the horses if they wear our silks,” said Byarski.

And when they win the Derby, as did Country House in 2019, it’s good for business. And good for horseracing lore.

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