Rich Strike beats the odds to claim Kentucky Derby
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Anyone anticipating a return to normalcy in the Kentucky Derby got a dose of crazy Saturday when an 80-1 shot came charging up the rail to win at Churchill Downs.
With favorite Epicenter and Zandon engaged in a duel at the front, Rich Strike stole the show with the secondbiggest upset in the Derby's 148-year history.
The chestnut colt beat 4-1 favorite Epicenter by threequarters of a length. Zandon finished another three-quarters of a length back in third.
“I about fell down in the paddock when he hit the wire,” winning trainer Eric Reed said. “I about passed out.”
Rich Strike paid $163.60 Only Donerail in 1913 had a higher payout of $184.90.
“What a crazy Derby," said trainer Kenny Mcpeek, whose horses finished eighth and ninth.
Rich Strike wasn't even in the Derby until Friday when Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas scratched Ethereal Road, making room for the chestnut colt who had just two previous wins in his career.
“We found out about 30 seconds before the deadline on Friday,” owner Rick Dawson said. “It put us in the race and really we always felt if we just got in we've got a shot.”
Rich Strike ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.61. After taking a bite out of his much costlier competition, he playfully chomped on the pony guiding him to the winner's circle.
“I can't believe it after Epicenter's effort," said losing trainer Steve Asmussen, who fell to 0 for 24 in the Derby. "I got beat by the horse that just got in.”
Jockey Sonny Leon and Rich Strike had just two horses beat in the early going. Leon eventually guided his mount between horses and to the inside rail. 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.
“When I was in the last 70 yards, I said, ‘I think I got this race,'” Leon said.
Both Leon, from Venezuela, and Reed were in their first Derby. Reed endured a tragedy five years ago when he lost nearly two dozen horses in a barn fire at his training center in Lexington.
He briefly considered the fire might be a signal for him to leave the sport.
“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. “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.”
Leon regularly rides on some of the country's smallest circuits, where the horse flesh is inexpensive and the purse money modest. But he matched wits with such veteran riders as Joel Rosario, aboard Epicenter, and Mike Smith, aboard Messier.
Leon's rail ride was reminiscent of jockey Calvin Borel's stealth move aboard Mine That Bird in 2009. Mine That Bird sprang what was then the Derby's third-biggest upset, paying $103.20 to win.
Reed had no argument with the bettors ignoring his colt, whose victory surely inspired little guys everywhere.
“Small trainer, small rider, small stable, he should have been 80-1,” Reed said. "And so anybody that's in this business, lightening can strike.”
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.
Calumet Farm head Brad Kelley might be ruing that decision now. Calumet Farm has won a record eight Kentucky Derbies, but none since 1968, when Forward Pass was placed first via disqualification.
Rich Strike earned $1.86 million for his first stakes victory. The colt lost to Zandon in the Blue Grass Stakes last month and was beaten by Epicenter in the Louisiana Derby in March.
Simplification finished fourth and Mo Donegal was fifth.
RIPLEY – A six-run seventh inning in which East Webster took advantage of three Pine Grove errors propelled the Lady Wolverines to the Class 2A North State championship series with a 9-3 win on the road.
After East Webster had Liz Massey throw a three-hit shutout on Friday night at home, game two was much more competitive the rest of the way. A 2-2 game heading into the sixth inning escalated quickly for the Panthers.
Down 3-2 in the seventh, Pine Grove had three different errors that proved costly. With two outs and a runner on base, Keely Mcknight and Addison Edwards doubled and Nashlynn
Vickers tripled as the bottom of the order came through to push the lead out to 7-2. Two more errors came with two outs scoring a couple of more to put the game away.
Katelee Box got the Lady Wolverines the lead early in the game with a two-run double in the third inning that got a 2-0 lead for the Lady Wolverines. Pine Grove answered back in the bottom of the frame with a two-out double and a single making it 2-2. It wasn't until the sixth inning when East Webster scored the next run as Peyton Flora singled with two outs and got the 3-2 lead.
For the second-straight day, Massey didn't walk a batter in the game. She had another solid performance going
EAST UNION 14, EUPORA 0, FOUR INNINGS
seven innings, scattering six hits, giving up three runs and striking out three. The Lady Wolverines had 11 hits in the game with two hits each from Emma Jennings, Emma Mckee and Mcknight.
Box, Edwards, Jennings and Mcknight all had doubles and Vickers the triple.
With the win, East Webster moved to 25-4 this year with 17-straight wins and a perfect 4-0 playoff slate to this point. A big showdown awaits the Lady Wolverines in the North State championship. East Union is next up with a 25-3 record and two playoff series blowouts against Class 2A, Region 2 opponents Calhoun City and Eupora by a combined score of 34-2.