See who was crowned Derby Festival Queen

With a vigorous spin, the carnival-style wheel was spun and the 2024 Kentucky Derby Festival Queen was crowned within moments.

In a tradition dating back more than 65 years, the Kentucky Derby Festival Royal Court selects a queen by the spin of a wheel. The crowning of this year’s Royal Court regent took place Saturday during The Fillies Derby Ball at the Galt House Hotel. The annual event is sponsored by the Fillies, a volunteer group that works closely with KDF and manages the Derby Princess program, among other things.

All five Derby princesses — Paighton Brooks of Alexandria, Sarah Downs of Springfield, Ankita Nair of Louisville, Laurel Riggs of Bardstown, and Emma Rhodes of Louisville — had an equal chance of winning the queen’s crown.

The wheel landed on Ankita Nair, who will reign as the Kentucky Derby Festival Queen for the two weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby, held this year on Saturday, May 4.

The selection of the Kentucky Derby Festival Royal Court is a self-nominating process.

After submitting applications, the young women go through a judging process before five are chosen to serve as Princesses and ambassadors to the community for the duration of the festival. Along with the newly crowned Queen, the Royal Court will attend nearly all 70 events associated with the Kentucky Derby Festival and the Kentucky Derby itself.

The first Derby Festival Princess was crowned in 1957, the second year of the Festival. Previous Princesses have included former Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collins and the late Gail Gorski, the first female pilot ever hired by United Airlines.

PHOTOS BY SAM UPSHAW JR./COURIER JOURNAL Ankita Nair, right, was crowned as the new Kentucky Derby Festival Queen by former queen Mahshad Taheri during the coronation at the Fillies Derby Ball at the Galt House in Louisville on Saturday.

Newly-crowned Kentucky Derby Festival Queen Ankita Nair following the coronation at the Fillies Derby Ball at the Galt House in Louisville.