It takes two minutes but lasts all year.

There's really no other way to measure the impact of the Kentucky Derby- not only in the host city of Louisville but throughout the country.

The party starts nearly a month before the Run for the Roses, always held on the first Saturday in May.

Pyrotechnics, fashion shows, and a lengthy celebrity guest-list must make the horses wonder what the commotion is all about.

The Derby, which put the town on the national sports map more than a century ago, is held every year at Churchill Downs, a historic raceway more famous than the unrelated but historically more important Winston Churchill. Built in 1874, the year before the first Derby, its twin spires added in 1895.

Though its one-mile oval track and mile-and-a-quarter Kentucky Derby distance remain from the 19th century, virtually everything else has been upgraded or expanded during an ongoing $121 million facelift. Though it remains the oldest continuously-operated racetrack in the United States, Churchill Downs now has luxury suites.

The annual run of three-year-old thoroughbreds attracts Hollywood hot-shots and high-rollers from all walks of life, plus a myriad of media members. It doesn't hurt that associated events start a month ahead of time, with a balloon race, a steamboat race, and a fireworks display ["Thunder Over Louisville"] believed to be the world's largest. Locals admit, however, that the mint julep is an acquired taste.

Winning jockeys must not drink them- or anything else that might add excess pounds. Maintaining their svelte figures is a must, according to displays at the Kentucky Derby museum, at Gate 1 of Churchill Downs.

So handsome that even those with no interest in racing will be enthralled, the museum offers an optional  hour-long backside tour through the stable area and infield, with two photo stops, for an extra fee.

Louisville Slugger bats, a baseball staple since 1884, come out of a Main Street factory that also features a museum- devoted to the history of hitting a ball with a stick. Nearby Louisville Slugger Field houses a Triple-A team called the Bats- named for the wooden variety, not the kind that hangs out in caves.

The local sports calendar includes the 2006 Breeders' Cup, a world-class day of racing hosted five times previously at Churchill Downs, and the 2007 Summer National Senior Games. In addition, the Valhalla Golf Club, site of the Senior PGA Championships in 2004, will host the 2008 Ryder Cup.

College basketball is a passion for fans of the University of Louisville Cardinals and Arena 2 professional football also has avid followers.

With warm weather invariably lasting longer in Louisville, participation sports are also popular. There are 228 public tennis courts, 21 public golf courses, and 31 private links. Louisville has 30 miles of bike lanes, a myriad of walking and biking paths, plenty of picnic areas, and proximity to the Ohio River, a navigable waterway that separates Kentucky from Indiana. Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park, left his legacy in Louisville too: he planned four of the city's 112 parks, giving it more parkland per capita than any other American city [11,000 acres of park plus 15 miles of historic parkways].

Two sports legends- Baseball Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese and heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali- called Louisville home long after the 12th President of the United States, Zachary Taylor.

The city also produced musician Lionel Hampton, actor Tom Cruise, actress Irene Dunne, comedian Foster Brooks, television anchor Diane Sawyer, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The city was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, whose brother William was co-commander of the later Lewis & Clark expedition. The famed explorers met in Louisville on Oct. 14, 1803, spent 12 days in the area, then headed for the west- and the great unknown- with their Corps of Discovery.

Louisville's location was no accident: it was chosen because rapids along the Ohio River, the major east-west transportation link, mandated portage around the falls.

Named for French King Louis XVI, the city has an official seal that reflects both history and heritage: the French fleur-de-lis is a tribute to French aid given to the Colonies during the Revolutionary War. Virginia Gov. Thomas Jefferson, the future President, signed the town's first charter, in 1780.

The Portland Museum needs its own Corps of Discovery: though it's small and hidden away in a nondescript home on the west side, it provides a fine overall city history, including newsreels of the 1937 flood.

The site of the Great Southern Exposition, forerunner of later World's Fairs, Louisville also gave the world its first electric streetcar, the cheeseburger, and chewing gum- much to the chagrin of dentists and schoolteachers everywhere.

The University of Louisville, founded in 1828, remains one of the oldest city-supported colleges in the country, while the Belle of Louisville paddlewheel steamboat (circa 1914) is the oldest still-operating vessel of its kind. That boat and its sister ship, the Spirit of Jefferson, offer daily dinner and sightseeing cruises along the Ohio River, which stretches 981 miles and is one of three major rivers on the American continent.

Horses hooves have been heard in town since 1875, when Churchill Downs held its first "Run for the Roses," the first leg of the thoroughbred Triple Crown. Derby excitement begins more than a month before the main event in May.

Thanks to the Louisville Slugger Museum, baseball is never out of season. The world's biggest bat, which weights 68,000 pounds and towers 120 feet over the museum's Main Street entrance, is an exact replica of Babe Ruth's 34-inch Louisville Slugger.

That brand name is almost as old as Churchill Downs; it was first applied in 1893, nine years after John (Bud) Hillerich crafted the first model in his father's woodworking shop. Modern bat-making is such a precise art that professional players sometimes visit the factory to inspect ordered bats before delivery.

The city is steeped in history far beyond the Derby and the bat factory. Old Louisville has one of the largest collections of restored Victorians in the country, with stately well-preserved structures standing in the shade of magnolias and oaks. The Thomas Edison House, where he spent two years immediately after the Civil War while working for Western Union, contains many of his inventions, plus the 19th-century boarding room he rented during his brief Louisville sojourn.

History also comes to life in the buildings along West Main Street- the nation's top collection of cast-iron storefront facades outside of Manhattan.

The Seelbach Hilton, built in 1915 and immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby a decade later, is a registered national historic landmark, while The Galt House has nearly equal claims to fame plus proximity to the waterfront. Though many celebrities have stayed there, most locals swear the best thing ever to come out of the downtown Brown Hotel was a cheese-topped turkey & bacon sandwich called The Hot Brown.

Derby Pie, another local delicacy, is a chocolate-and-nut concoction created by the Melrose Inn of nearby Prospect, Kentucky. Registered with the U.S. Patent Office and the Commonwealth of Kentucky,

Derby Pie is distributed by Kern's Kitchen, a small, family-run operation. It sells like hotcakes at Lynn's Paradise Café, where the eclectic decor draws patrons even more than the clever and diverse menu. Its smokefree atmosphere- rare in a tobacco-producing state- is another bonus [there's even a bowling alley named Lucky Strike!].

Food, drink, and frivolity are also on tap at 4th Street Live!, a one-year-old, $70 million entertainment complex that embraces 350,000 square feet. A short hop from both the convention center and downtown hotels, it features bookstores, bars, free special events, and such food finds as Cold Stone Creamery [perfect for the hot, sultry Kentucky summers].

The city's East End features find dining, afternoon tea, and family-style Italian fare, while Frankfort Avenue is more sophisticated, with chic cafes and outdoor grills fronting historic structures. Restaurant Row choices include Japanese and Latino cuisine.

The funky side of town is the Bardstown Road district, where fusion food takes on a whole new meaning and culinary students learn their future trade [at a goumet restaurant named Winston's].

Residents head to the river to cool off, especially since the June 2004 opening of the Waterfront Park's second phase. Most of the 90-acre mix of picnic areas, walking paths, pavilions, playgrounds, viewing porticos, and docks has been completed, with an average annual attendance stretching into seven figures. The designers did well: the complex has won several awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Also near the finish line are the Muhammad Ali Center, a $41 million futuristic structure that will be part museum and part educational complex, and the Kentucky Center for African-American Heritage, to be housed in the historic Trolley Barn on the west side of town. Already open, albeit less than a year old, are the Marriott Louisville Downtown, a 617-room, $10 million convention hotel, and the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, featuring historic weaponry from around the world.

Even historic Churchill Downs is getting a new look, thanks to a three-year project that cost $121 million and caused considerable changes but kept the famed twin spires intact.

As all Kentucky thoroughbreds know, getting around Louisville is equivalent to a hop, skip & a jump: trolleys on tires troll Main and Market Streets, charging 25 cents a ride but offering free gallery hops the first Friday of every month. The trolley stops right in front of the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, home of numerous Kentucky-made items. For antiques, the top spot in town is Joe Ley, one of the nation's largest and most unusual treasure troves.

Louisville has a compact city center surrounded by a network of interstates that go north to Cincinnati, west to St. Louis, and south to Atlanta. Louisville International Airport, with more than 100 flights per day, is only seven minutes from the heart of downtown. Independence Air, a discount carrier based in Dulles, links Louisville with more than 40 different cities.

Because of its central location, simple transportation system, and 17,000 hotel rooms, Louisville has become the permanent base of at least a half-dozen national conventions. The list includes the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association's annual convention & trade show;  the International Lawn, Garden & Power Equipment Expo; the National Street Rod Association's Street Rod Nationals; the North American International Livestock Exposition; and the National Farm Machinery Show.