Do you know how many California-bred racehorses have won the Kentucky Derby? The answer to that question is four.

California Chrome immediately comes to mind since he is the most recent to do so back in 2014. But you have to go back a long time to find the one who captured the Run for the Roses before Chrome did. That would be Decidedly, who left Louisville with the 1962 renewal. And before Decidedly came Swaps, considered to be the greatest Cal-bred of all time and the horse who defeated the excellent Nashua under the Twin Spires.

Cal-breds winning the Kentucky Derby has a generational component to it. All three of the names just mentioned took their respective editions in different decades, yet they became remembered for all time in California racing because of the fact they triumphed in the Triple Crown's first race. Their moments are frozen in time, but are at the same moment timeless since they comprise a very exclusive group.

And that leads to the club's charter member and the one who started it all back in 1922.

The Kentucky Derby that year served as the three-year-old debut for Morvich, a Cal-bred son of Runnymede out of the Dr. Leggo mare, Hymir. Bred by Adolph B. Spreckels, owned by Benjamin Block and trained by Fred Burlew, Morvich knew nothing but perfection when the month of May rolled around. As a juvenile, he took down everyone who faced him in eleven starts to become the sports Champion-Two-Year-Old. In terms of Kentucky Derby preparation, Morvich displayed three important characteristics during his first season at the races.

First, there was the obvious class. No horse is going to win that many races without possessing class, especially when several of those contests were stakes. Second, he had no problem adapting to different tracks. Morvich's undefeated campaign spread across six venues: Jamaica, Aqueduct, Yonkers, Saratoga, Havre de Grace and Pimlico. And that tied in to the third trait: shipping. Morvich won in two states that year, spending most of his season in New York before heading to Maryland. While Morvich was coming off a layoff of about six months going into the Kentucky Derby, the fact he could take his race to so many tracks could not be overlooked.

The major question that Morvich had to answer mirrored that of everyone else in the Kentucky Derby field. Would he be able to successfully navigate a mile and one-quarter? Of his eleven starts at two years of age, only one race was a route. That came in his last start of the season, the Pimlico Futurity at one mile. While not without routing experience, Morvich had primarily been a sprinter up to that point in his career. Before the Pimlico Futurity, all of Morvich's starts had been between five and six furlongs. The Pimlico Futurity had been a step up in distance for Morvich. To his credit, he handled the assignment. But the Kentucky Derby was an entirely different situation.

Still, Morvich's layoff and limited routing experience did not faze the public. They firmly backed the Cal-bred at the windows on May 13, making him the top choice at 6-5 in a field of ten. With that abundant support, Morvich and jockey Albert Johnson began their ten furlong excursion around Churchill Downs.

After the first quarter-mile, Morvich had the lead with My Play trailing in second. The leader continued to guide the field, setting a half-mile time of :47 3/5 seconds after a :23 4/5 quarter to open the race. My Play trailed by over a length, but soon lost second to Startle. Positions kept changing as the Kentucky Derby progressed, but Morvich continued to lead.

After 1:13 for three-quarters of a mile, no one could catch the Cal-bred. He still had the lead after a mile, which he covered in 1:39 1/5. Time was ticking. If anyone had anything for Morvich, they needed to get moving. But the problem for them was Morvich was not going to let anyone spoil his winning streak. Six months on the bench would not prevent him from winning. And the the question of distance would be answered shortly.

No one caught Morvich in the stretch, and no one caught him before he reached the wire. With a time of 2:04 3/5, Morvich made it twelve consecutive victories as he became the first California-bred racehorse to win the Kentucky Derby just over a year after debuting. It was a big day for the brown colt and his connections, and they were all part of a truly historical day for California racing and breeding.

In the years since, Morvich has lived on thanks to his Derby score. The moment made him a trailblazer, as three more Cal-breds have since joined him as a Kentucky Derby winner. But Morvich became more than that. Looking back on that time more than a century ago, Block, Burlew, Johnson and Spreckels never knew that their colt was greeted by immortality in California racing when he reached the wire that day under the Twin Spires.