By:  Blood Horse

Photo Credit: Skip Dickstein

Reed, Dawson Hoping for Another Lightning Strike

“Life changes in about two minutes, so you never know,” said owner Rick Dawson.

Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) upsetter Rich Strike  has left his mark this year, from ink in newspapers and magazines to ink applied to the skin of his faithful supporters.

Six months after his 80-1 surprise in the Run for the Roses, the colt’s underdog success story still resonates, with trainer Eric Reed and owner Rick Dawson of RED TR-Racing continuing to receive fan mail and watching in wonder at the support he also receives online. Thousands are part of the colt’s fan club on Facebook.

Dawson recalled this week how an 84-year-old grandmother told him she used the Rich Strike Derby story as a teaching opportunity to her grandchildren to never give up, just as she said the colt’s connections and the horse did in the Derby.

Others have taken their fandom even further.

“I’ve got pictures of women that are tattooing, like on the base of their neck, and it says, ‘Rich Strike. America’s horse.’ I am not kidding,” he said with a laugh.

Dawson, 66, is sporting a little ink, too. Last month, on the day of the Lukas Classic Stakes (G2), he, Reed, and six others associated with the Keen Ice   colt went under the needle for Rich Strike tattoos, asking for the number 21. That was the colt’s program number in the Kentucky Derby and where he ranked on qualifying points before the scratch of Ethereal Road  from the body of the field allowing Rich Strike to draw into the Kentucky Derby minutes before the deadline, the day before the Derby.

“That morning of the Lukas, we went 10 minutes from Churchill Downs to a tattoo parlor, and it was a lot of fun,” said Dawson, who had not previously been tattooed.

The fun has continued this week for Dawson. He traveled from his Oklahoma residence Oct. 30 to enjoy the experience of seeing his colt prepare and compete in North America’s richest race, the $6 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) Nov. 5 at Keeneland. Not bad for a horse Reed claimed for $30,000 for Dawson in September 2021 at Churchill Downs, and no wonder his connections have been in conversations with Hollywood for the movie rights.

“It may be an overreach, but as you know, in horse racing nobody knows,” he said. “We were an overreach on the first Saturday in May, too.”

Or so indicated the toteboard, but Rich Strike produced, rallying from 18th in the field of 20, catching Epicenter  late for a three-quarter-length victory. According to NBC Sports, the telecast of the Derby reached 16 million viewers, peaking at 19 million viewers in the aftermath of his astounding closing charge.

“Life changes in about two minutes, so you never know,” said Dawson, who indicated he can only remember a fraction of the Derby press conferences due to what he described as an almost out-of-body experience from winning the race.

Reed nearly fainted after the Derby, his knees buckling in excitement.

The Derby upset made Rich Strike a household name, leaving him with equine name recognition perhaps only surpassed by the brilliant and unbeaten Flightline , the Breeders’ Cup Classic favorite at morning-line odds of 3-5.

Rich Strike at 20-1 is the second-highest price in the field. He is a longshot, though more so due to the strength of the competition than because of Rich Strike’s form. Other high-caliber participants include Life Is Good   and Olympiad  , grade 1-winning older horses this year.

Rich Strike is at least now viewed by pundits as legitimate, which was not universally the case after his Derby surprise and subsequent sixth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1). At the time, Rich Strike was 2-for-9, with his only other graded placing being a third-place finish, beaten 5 3/4 lengths in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway Park.

Reed heard all the criticism, and even today, the trainer still seems to be smarting from it. His horse, he recalled, was considered to be the “five-letter word fluke. I heard it so many times—it made my hair stand up. But I can understand.”

He doesn’t hear it as often today—not after Rich Strike finished fourth in the Aug. 27 Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course and second against older horses in the Oct. 1 Lukas Classic (G2) at Churchill Downs. The 3-year-old was edged in a three-horse photo for the place in the Travers behind runner-up Zandon  and third-place Cyberknife  , and his Lukas Classic was even better, a mere head defeat by $5 million earner Hot Rod Charlie .

“Watching him get the respect back for the last couple of races has been amazing for a lot of reasons because that horse is so personal to me, and to the owner,” Reed said.

He blames himself for the instructions he gave to jockey Sonny Leon in the Belmont, telling the rider to take Rich Strike to the outside if Leon sensed the pace slowing. Leon did, and Rich Strike wasn’t mature enough at that time to run well from that position. To that point his competitiveness had been sparked when he had been placed inside rivals, as he had raced for much of the Kentucky Derby.

“My instructions were bad,” Reed said of what he told Leon before the Belmont. “It caused 10 weeks of grief for me, and gave the horse 10 weeks of disrespect, but in hindsight now, I think he learned a lot. His last two races—he’s changed his running style in a number of ways.

“All of those races toughened him up. He’s showing more speed that we (now) know he has. He’s more tactical. He’s not limited to running inside anymore.”

VIDEO

The racing drama hasn’t ended for Rich Strike.

Leon was suspended 15 days by stewards who ruled the rider leaned in aboard Rich Strike in the last sixteenth of a mile in the Lukas Classic and intentionally tried to interfere with Hot Rod Charlie and rider Tyler Gaffalione. Had Rich Strike finished first, he likely would have been disqualified after Leon’s left elbow made contact with Hot Rod Charlie and Gaffalione.

Leon told the Rich Strike camp after the race that he was seeking to maintain his balance because his saddle had slipped.

That explanation was not widely accepted by observers, with Fox Sports analyst and former rider Richard Migliore saying on a broadcast, “I did not see that at all, and if it did slip at all, it was because of him leaning so hard to the left.”

The controversy surrounding the Lukas Classic was only beginning. Days later, Rich Strike’s connections contested the outcome, having received photographs taken from the race that appeared to show protrusions from Hot Rod Charlie’s front shoes. Front shoes with traction devices, known as toe grabs, are prohibited by Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority regulations.

A paddock blacksmith is responsible in Kentucky for checking that all horses compete with proper shoes, according to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

Doug O’Neill, trainer of Hot Rod Charlie, emphatically denied in a public statement that Hot Rod Charlie raced with toe grabs.

KHRC stewards conducted an investigation—which fell under HISA’s jurisdiction due to the appeal calling into question a violation of HISA regulations—and concluded that Hot Rod Charlie was not in violation of HISA horseshoe rules. HISA said in a statement that it “determined the investigation was well conducted and thorough, and agrees with the conclusion of the stewards.”

An open records request of KHRC documents by BloodHorse showed that stewards examined other photos of Hot Rod Charlie, placing some into records that appear to show no toe grabs, and considered evidence of Hot Rod Charlie’s shoes in the days after the race in making their decision.

Per the KHRC documents, KHRC equine medical director Bruce Howard examined Hot Rod Charlie Oct. 4, and reported there was no traction device on his shoes, which Howard said showed enough wear to indicate they had been on the horse for “quite some time.”

The matter remains unsettled. Via attorney Barry Hunter, Dawson began taking steps to appeal HISA’s acceptance of the stewards’ findings. On Oct. 31, HISA announced they would allow the connections of the top two finishers from the Lukas Classic to present evidence to its enforcement team for evaluation and recommendation to HISA’s board of directors.

“We don’t think they did a detailed and in-depth investigation,” said Dawson. “Reading the HISA rules further and dealing with attorneys, it’s still left to be known how much influence they’re going to have on these kind of decisions—whether they are going to rely on the stewards 100%; the stewards provide them with a report, and they just say, yah or nay, and they go on, which is kind of what they did here. Or is HISA going to become more involved, have their own investigators, and so on.”

Dawson is content to leave the HISA appeal to his attorney, wanting to focus on what lies ahead on the racetrack.

That is the Classic, which comes at the same 1 1/4-mile distance over which Rich Strike caught division leader Epicenter in the May 7 Kentucky Derby. He has finished behind him on two other occasions.

“Epicenter is the class of the 3-year-olds right now,” Dawson said of the Travers winner. “But we know that’s one race from us jumping him, too. That’s another reason the Breeders’ Cup Classic was interesting to me, too, cause I didn’t see how we could win the 3-year-old of the year award without beating Epicenter. I think he’s a fantastic horse.”

Epicenter and another Classic-entered 3-year-old, Taiba , have yet to face older stakes horses, as Rich Strike has.

Reed acknowledged this week that he favored awaiting the Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare (G1) later in the month at Churchill Downs, which figures to be the easier race than the star-laden Classic, but that he understood Dawson’s desire for a higher risk, higher reward attempt. Rich Strike is 2-for-3 at Churchill Downs, with his only defeat being his narrow loss in the Lukas Classic.

Rich Strike has never won outside Churchill Downs, running third at Keeneland in his only local appearance in a first-level allowance optional claiming race a little over a year ago.

Reed received a scare last week when the colt coughed after training, but a scope of his lungs and healthy blood work indicated the horse was well. The horse resumed training after an easy day of jogging in the barn to monitor him. Rich Strike feels his normal self, Reed said.

“I’ve never seen him as fit as he is right now,” he said.

The Classic is a draw for the Versailles, Ky., resident for another reason—”to compete in the biggest race in the world at home is something I wanted to do, but I wasn’t going to let that sway me.”

Reed is appreciative to merely be in this position, training Rich Strike and a sizable string of horses after his stable was devastated by a 2016 barn fire that killed 23 horses at his Mercury Equine Center near Lexington.

The trainer anticipates that Rich Strike will receive a warm response Saturday from Kentucky fans. Even this summer when in New York for the Travers, the colt was enthusiastically greeted by the Saratoga public.

“As we were walking to the paddock for the Travers, as we approached the area where the fans were able to get on each side, hearing this enormous roar and chant, ‘Go ‘Richie.’ We love you ‘Richie.’ You got this ‘Richie.’ Over and over.

“Well, my groom cried. He teared up and said, ‘These people love him.’ That gave me goosebumps when I heard that.”