 The use of roses was first established as part of the Derby celebration when they were presented to all the ladies attending a fashionable Louisville Derby party in 1883.The roses were such a sensation, that the president of Churchill Downs, Colonel Lewis Clark, adopted the rose as the race's official flower.The rose garland now synonymous with the Kentucky Derby first appeared in the 1896 when the winner, Ben Brush, received a floral arrangement of white and pink roses.