Simplification finished fourth and Mo Donegal was fifth.Ĭhurchill Downs returned to full capacity, including former President Donald Trump, on the first Saturday in May for the first time in three years.īut the final result was the more upheaval for America’s greatest horse race. The colt lost to Zandon in the Blue Grass Stakes last month and was beaten by Epicenter in the Louisiana Derby in March. Rich Strike earned $1.86 million for his first stakes victory. Calumet Farm has won a record eight Kentucky Derbies, but none since 1968, when Forward Pass was placed first via disqualification. Rich Strike was purchased by Dawson, who races as RED TR-Racing LLC, for $30,000 last fall when the colt was entered in a low-level claiming race by his former owner.Ĭalumet Farm head Brad Kelley might be ruing that decision now. "And so anybody that’s in this business, lightening can strike." "Small trainer, small rider, small stable, he should have been 80-1," Reed said. Reed had no argument with the bettors ignoring his colt, whose victory surely inspired little guys everywhere. Mine That Bird sprang what was then the Derby’s third-biggest upset, paying $103.20 to win. Leon’s rail ride was reminiscent of jockey Calvin Borel’s stealth move aboard Mine That Bird in 2009. But he matched wits with such veteran riders as Joel Rosario, aboard Epicenter, and Mike Smith, aboard Messier. Leon regularly rides on some of the country’s smallest circuits, where the horse flesh is inexpensive and the purse money modest. "It let me know there’s so much good out there, and then I just decided I wasn’t going to let it take me out." "People I hadn’t seen, people I haven’t talked to in years, my best friends were there in the morning to pick me up," Reed recalled. He briefly considered the fire might be a signal for him to leave the sport. Reed endured a tragedy five years ago when he lost nearly two dozen horses in a barn fire at his training center in Lexington. "When I was in the last 70 yards, I said, ‘I think I got this race,’" Leon said.īoth Leon, from Venezuela, and Reed were in their first Derby. Rich Strike made a deft move around Messier in the stretch and went right back to the rail intent on picking off Epicenter and Zandon.
Leon eventually guided his mount between horses and to the inside rail. Jockey Sonny Leon and Rich Strike had just two horses beat in the early going. "I got beat by the horse that just got in." "I can’t believe it after Epicenter’s effort," said losing trainer Steve Asmussen, who fell to 0 for 24 in the Derby. After taking a bite out of his much costlier competition, he playfully chomped on the pony guiding him to the winner’s circle. "It put us in the race and really we always felt if we just got in we’ve got a shot." "We found out about 30 seconds before the deadline on Friday," owner Rick Dawson said.
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