Racing feel-good story
Mage winning the Kentucky Derby gave horse racing a welcome distraction.
After seven horses died at Churchill Downs over a span of 10 days, the sport got a winner with a unique story. No conglomerate owners, no big-name trainers. Mage is the first Derby winner with ties to Venezuela in more than half a century, and nearly 400 people can call themselves one of his co-owners.
Mage can make them all even happier if he can win the Preakness on Saturday and keep alive the chance for a Triple Crown.
“I had been working on this goal for many years,” trainer Gustavo Delgado Sr. (pictured) said through an interpreter in his office at Pimlico on Thursday. “It would be a reward for our work and our sacrifices.”
Nearly everyone involved on a daily basis with running the horse is from Venezuela: Delgado and son Gustavo Jr., exercise rider J.J. Delgado and jockey Javier Castellano, who won the Derby in his 16th try.
“It means a lot to my country because they deserve it: They need something to feel proud of,” he said.
Delgado Sr. — known affectionately as “Puma” — won the Venezuelan Triple Crown twice before turning his attention to the U.S. It was his goal to find horses good enough to compete at the elite levels of racing here.
After 18th- and 13th-place finishes in the Derby in 2016 and ’19, he found Mage — a horse who delivered for the Delgados and beyond.
Gustavo Jr. owns a 25 percent stake, blood stock agent Ramiro Restrepo 25 percent and Sam Sterling 25 percent. The other 25 percent belongs to Commonwealth, a group that sells micro shares to anyone who wants to get in on a thoroughbred racehorse for as little as $50.
There are 382 stakeholders in Mage all over the U.S. and in roughly a dozen other countries around the world, down to singleshare owners.
“We have people from all walks of life: We have executives and surgeons, and we have factory workers and laborers,” said Chase Chamberlin, Commonwealth co-founder and head of racing. “The reactions are all the same. When that horse crossed the finish line ... you forget how many shares you have. You feel like the king of the world.”