Another Triple Crown long shot? Fenwick is 50-1
BALTIMORE » Rich Strike winning the Kentucky Derby at 80-1 may not be the only big upset this Triple Crown season. Not if Fenwick has anything to do about it.
Two weeks after Rich Strike became the second-biggest long shot to win the Derby, Fenwick could join him in the record books at the Preakness Stakes. The 50-1 shot also has as heartwarming a story and is as unlikely to be on the Triple Crown trail: The colt is named after owner Jeremia Rudan’s mother, who died in a house fire when he was 19 and running for Kevin McKathan two years after the trainer lost his brother because of a heart attack.
“This is one of those deals where you can stop and take a breath and say, ‘You know what, we can do this,’” McKathan said. “It can happen.”
Fenwick has the longest odds of any horse in the field of nine for Saturday’s Preakness, which is being run without Rich Strike, largely because he finished last in his most recent race in April and has just one win in six lifetime starts. Rich Strike also had only won once before shocking the sports world in the Derby.
“Everyone’s like, ‘This is a real sport for the rich and famous,’” McKathan said. “But let me tell you what: You just end up with a good horse and you can beat ‘em all. That horse has no idea. He has no idea what he cost. He has no idea who owns that guy. He has no idea what kind of plane they flew in here on. They don’t know.”
Few know much about Fenwick, who was bought by Rudan and McKathan for the modest sum of $52,000 as a yearling and went unsold as a 2-year-old after a freak accident caused him to run slower than expected.
“He goes faster, he brings $900,000 and we’re not here,” McKathan said. “Someone else is.”
Perhaps it’s par for the course for the big chestnut colt that McKathan acknowledged runs into troubles on the racetrack. That would explain the 11th-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 9 when Fenwick broke a step slow and couldn’t find room to run.
“I don’t think we really saw what he could’ve showed,” Rudan said Thursday. “He needs a clear trip, and hopefully he gets it and then we’ll really know what he can do.”