Derby winner Rich Strike got start at small track
HENDERSON, Ky. — Less than a year before his shocking win in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, Rich Strike ran a one-mile turf race at Ellis Park.
Taking off as a 5-1 shot that day, the third choice out of 10 horses, Rich Strike finished dead last and got smoked by the field.
“He wasn’t competitive at all,” said Jennie Rees, a longtime racing writer. Rich Strike was owned by Calumet Farm and trained by Joe Sharp at the time.
Ellis Park is a track on the north side of the Ohio River in Kentucky, adjacent to Evansville, Indiana.
The horse’s workouts, however, raised hopes for better results. In subsequent races at other Kentucky tracks, Rich Strike finished third, fourth and fifth.
Then, in a Sept. 17 claiming race on the dirt of Churchill Downs — only a month after his dismal Aug. 15 showing at Ellis Park — the horse blew away all of his competitors.
Rich Strike’s workouts had gotten the attention of trainer Eric Reed, who put in a $30,000 claim prior to the Sept. 17 race for owner Rick Dawson, an Oklahoman.
Reed, according to Rees, felt that the horse’s lousy race at Ellis Park was an outlier, and “maybe he just didn’t like the turf.”
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde, underlying the unlikeliness of Rich Strike’s Kentucky Derby victory, wrote: “Claiming races are the backbone of the sport, but they almost always are the province of cheaper horses with modest futures. You do not find Kentucky Derby horses in claiming races.”
Rich Strike didn’t earn any victories after the Churchill Downs claiming race but accumulated enough points to qualify for the Derby. Reed didn’t find out until the night before the race that Rich Strike would be in the field.
At 80-1 odds, Rich Strike scored the second-biggest upset in Kentucky Derby history and paid $163.60 on a $2 win bet. Donerail, at 91-1 odds in 1913, is the longest shot to win the race.
“It’s a horse race, and anybody can win,” Reed said after the race. “And the tote board doesn’t mean a thing.”
Rees said Ellis Park “prides itself on its 2-year-old program,” and multiple horses that have run in Henderson have gone on to become big earners.
Rich Strike proved to be a historic example.
“He’s a real poster boy for Kentucky racing,” Rees said.
Ellis Park’s history dates to 1922, It features a 1.125-mile dirt track and a 1mile turf track.
The track has been owned since 2019 by Ellis Entertainment, LLC, a subsidiary of Laguna Development Corporation in New Mexico. The track has daily simulcasting, as well as a schedule of live racing each year, but its 2022 live racing schedule hasn’t been announced.