Outsider strikes it rich in Kentucky Derby boilover
LOUISVILLE: Longshot Rich Strike stormed to victory at the 148th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville yesterday in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the race.
The chestnut colt, who went off at 801 odds in the United States, hit the lead down the stretch to edge favourite Epicenter and Zandon.
Rich Strike entered the 20horse race only when Ethereal Road was scratched on Saturday.
The unlikely victory was the first Kentucky Derby win for trainer and Kentucky native
Eric Reed.
‘‘I fell down in the paddock when he hit the wire,’’ Reed said.
‘‘I passed out. I’m so happy. ‘‘This is the reason everybody does this. We’re not supposed to be here but I knew this horse loved this track and he has been training so good all year.’’
Reed had considered walking away from the sport after he lost 23 horses in a barn fire in 2016. Thirteen horses were saved.
Summer Is Tomorrow and Crown Pride took the early lead in the blisteringly fast start of the race in front of more than 150,000 fans.
Epicenter looked poised to notch the victory until Rich Strike and jockey Sonny Leon made their move along the rail in the final seconds of the race.
‘‘I knew the horse could do it if he could find his way through the traffic,’’ Reed said.
‘‘That’s why I had Sonny on him. He got us here, he knows the horse and he gave him the greatest ride I’ve ever seen.’’
Rich Strike is the secondlongest shot to win the Run for the Roses after Donerail won at 911 odds in 1913.
Owner Rick Dawson was one of the few people who did not seem surprised by the outcome.
‘‘We always felt like if we could just get into the race, we’d have a shot, and we proved it today,’’ Dawson said.
‘‘We’ve never entered a race we didn’t think we could win. Ever.’’
Leon was forced to break from the No 20 position in his first Kentucky Derby.
‘‘We had a difficult post but I know the horse,’’ he said.
‘‘I didn’t know if he could win but I had a good feeling with him. I had to wait until the stretch and that’s what I did.
‘‘I waited and then the rail opened up. I wasn’t nervous, I was excited. Nobody knows my horse like I know my horse.’’
Rich Strike will now look to the sport’s Triple Crown when he races in the Preakness Stakes on May 21 and the Belmont Stakes on June 11.
This year’s race was notable for the absence of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, whose horses have won the Kentucky Derby six times.
Baffert was suspended after last year’s winner, Medina Spirit, failed a postderby drug test and was stripped of the title.
Rich Strike paid $183 for a win on the New Zealand TAB. — Reuters