In the article Steadman remembered his first impression of Thompson that day:
Shortly thereafter, Steadman recalled their meeting at the Kentucky Derby to the British newspaper The Independent. The narrative ends with a bittersweet anagnorisis, somewhat common in Thompson's work after several days of immersing themselves in raucous partying and alcoholism to get a sense of the event, Thompson and Steadman realize that they have become exactly the type of people they originally planned to caricature. Thompson provided up-close views of activities in the Derby infield and grandstand at Churchill Downs, and a running commentary on the drunkenness and lewdness of the crowd, which he states in the article as the only thing he was focusing on with the work. Thompson's depiction includes the events in Louisville, his hometown, in the days before and after the Derby, and Steadman captured the debauched atmosphere in his surreal drawings.
The article is less about the actual race itself – indeed, Thompson and Steadman could not see the race from their standpoint – but rather focuses on the revelry and depravity that surrounds the event. Accompanied by Ralph Steadman's sketches (the first of many collaborations between Thompson and Steadman), the resulting story, and the manic, first-person subjectivity that characterized it, were the beginnings of the gonzo style of journalism. The genesis of the article has been described by Thompson as akin to "falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool of mermaids." Faced with a deadline and without any coherent story for his editors, Thompson began tearing pages from his notebook, numbering them, and sending them to the magazine. Thompson queried Scanlan's editor Warren Hinckle, who approved the project and paired Thompson with illustrator Ralph Steadman for the first time. The idea for the story began at a dinner party at the Aspen, Colorado home of novelist James Salter. The article marked the first appearance of what became known as " gonzo journalism", the style that Thompson came to epitomize through the 1970s. Thompson on the 1970 Kentucky Derby (an annual horse race held in Louisville, Kentucky), which first appeared in an issue of Scanlan's Monthly in June of that year. "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" is a seminal sports article written by Hunter S. 1970 seminal gonzo-style article by Hunter S.
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