By:  Blood Horse

Photo Credit: Skip Dickstein

Rich Strike Stuns With 80-1 Kentucky Derby Upset

Rich Strike  made his mutuel backers in the May 7 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) precisely that—richer, posting the second-largest upset in the race’s 148-year history.

Catching two of the race favorites, Epicenter  and Zandon , with a dramatic stretch drive under unheralded jockey Sonny Leon, the 80-1 longshot stunned a crowd of 147,294 at Churchill Downs. The Keen Ice   colt returned $163.60 for a $2 win wager, a payoff surpassed only Donerail, who returned $184.90 in 1913.

Bettors weren’t the only ones shocked. Winning trainer Eric Reed said his knees buckled in excitement soon after the race, and he fell to the ground as he watched his colt cross the wire in front.

“Can you believe this, man?” Reed later exclaimed to friends as people rushed to congratulate him.

Photo: Skip Dickstein

He wasn’t alone in feeling that way. Winning owner Rick Dawson of RED TR-Racing also was stunned.

“What planet is this? I feel like I have been propelled somewhere. I’m not sure,” he said. “This is unbelievable. I asked my trainer up on the stage, I said, ‘Are you sure this is not a dream? Because it can’t be true.’ He assured me this is real.”

For many in attendance, this was a result that wasn’t supposed to happen—and it nearly didn’t. Rich Strike wasn’t even in the original field of 20, lacking the Kentucky Derby qualifying points of other competitors, leaving him as an also-eligible in need of a scratch to start.

From the time of entries May 2 until the early morning hours of May 6, it didn’t look like he would get the chance. But opportunity knocked in the waning minutes before closing scratch time at 9 a.m. Friday, when Ethereal Road  was pulled from the race, clearing the way for him to start.

As an also-eligible, he secured a spot in the race on the far outside in post 20, a position from which only one horse, Big Brown   (2008), had won in 17 previous attempts.

But Leon—who rode not at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day but at his regular base at Belterra Park—never rode like a jockey daunted by the wide draw. Quickly easing his mount back off the pace, he settled Rich Strike toward the back of the pack, and the colt entered the first turn in 18th, ahead of just two horses and only a couple of paths off the inside.

With a hot pace unfolding in the Derby—Summer Is Tomorrow  threw down taxing opening splits of :21.78 and :45.36 while chased by Japan’s Crown Pride —Rich Strike’s placement toward the back left him with plenty in reserve.

By the six-furlong stage of the Derby, the pace began to moderate, with Messier  forging to a narrow advantage over Crown Pride. But the off-the-pace horses were coming.

Following the rallies of horses in front of him, notably Epicenter and Zandon, Rich Strike began picking off rivals, with Leon moving a few paths outside on the turn, then inside for the stretch run.

Still, few yet noticed Rich Strike, as attention shifted to Epicenter, the 4-1 public choice, who, racing from farther off the pace than usual, took command after a mile in 1:36.96. With Zandon hot on his heels, the race seemed likely to come down to a battle between the race favorite and the morning-line favorite in Zandon, who closed at 6-1.

But Rich Strike was just finding his stride. With Leon narrowly avoiding running up on the heels of a tiring Messier in midstretch, Rich Strike reeled in the leaders, catching Epicenter in the final sixteenth for a three-quarter length victory. He stopped the clock with 1 1/4 miles on a fast track in 2:02.61.

“I didn’t know if he could win, but I had a good feeling with him,” said Leon, whose lone mount on the card was the Derby. “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’s victory denied Steve Asmussen, the winningest trainer in North American racing history, an elusive Derby win. He is 0-for-24, with three runner-up finishes and two thirds.

“I said it earlier, they’re gonna tell me this happened tomorrow, and I’m not going to agree,” he said in the paddock tunnel after the race. “I’m like, I’m not gonna believe ’em.”

He was pleased with the performance of his colt and Joel Rosario’s patient handling to rate his horse in eighth early. He noted Rosario positioned Epicenter “where you want to be” with the lead in the stretch, set to fend off Zandon.

Then “I saw the other horse, and I’m like, ‘No! He’s not going to beat us.’ And he did,” Asmussen said.

He praised the winner and Rich Strike’s connections.

“Hats off to him. They won the Kentucky Derby. What a story,” he said.

Following Zandon across the wire was Simplification , who ran fourth, two lengths behind the show finisher. A closing Mo Donegal  settled for fifth after a poor start.

Completing the field were Barber Road , Tawny Port , Smile Happy , Tiz the Bomb , Zozos , Classic Causeway , Taiba , Crown Pride, Happy Jack , Messier, White Abarrio , Charge It , Cyberknife , Pioneer of Medina  and Summer Is Tomorrow.

Indicative of the demanding pace, no horse that raced among the top four for the first half-mile finished better than 10th.

Saturday’s Derby had a field that was among the least experienced on record, with seven colts having four or fewer starts. One entrant, Taiba, had raced just twice, winning a maiden race and the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby (G1).

Both Taiba and Santa Anita Derby runner-up Messier were prepared for Saturday’s race by Tim Yakteen, who began overseeing their training this spring. Yakteen took over shortly before their prior trainer, six-time Derby winner, Bob Baffert began serving a suspension from Medina Spirit  testing positive for a prohibited medication in last year’s race and ultimately being disqualified.

While other Derby starters, such as Taiba, cost exorbitant sums at auction, Rich Strike was acquired for $30,000, plucked out of a maiden claiming race last September at Churchill Downs in his second start.

Reed had been encouraged by the colt’s earlier workouts and was optimistic he may not have run to his potential in his Ellis Park debut when competing on turf for trainer Joe Sharp and his owner/breeder, Calumet Farm.

So Reed submitted a claim and watched in excitement as Rich Strike won on dirt by 17 1/2 lengths, showing an affinity for the main track at Churchill Downs. The horse then joined his stable.

Rich Strike entered the Kentucky Derby with no other wins, with his best finish in four stakes being a pair of third-place finishes, the most recent of which came in the April 2 Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway Park when he lost on a synthetic surface by 5 3/4 lengths to Tiz the Bomb. Epicenter had beaten him by 14 lengths in the Gun Runner Stakes over the winter at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

“It’s a horse race, and anybody can win. And the tote board doesn’t mean a thing,” Reed said.

Even without Rich Strike in their colors, Calumet Farm was represented in the Derby by 14th-place finisher Happy Jack. He needed to be reloaded in the gate after being loaded, briefly delaying the start of the Derby.

The Derby winner is a Kentucky-bred and one of eight foals out of the graded stakes-winning Smart Strike mare Gold Strike , champion 3-year-old filly in Canada in 2005. She has produced four winners, including Llanarmon  (Sky Mesa  ), who captured the Natalma Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine on turf in 2013. Rich Strike is her most recent foal.

Rich Strike earned $1,860,000 in taking the $3 million Kentucky Derby, elevating his earnings to $1,971,289 with a record of 2-0-3 in eight starts.

He provided Calumet Farm with their 10th Kentucky Derby win as breeder, extending their record, with eight coming from horses that raced for the farm when the Wright family operated Calumet in the mid-to-late-20th Century. Brad Kelley currently owns Calumet, where Keen Ice stands at stud.

Like Rich Strike, Keen Ice pulled off a memorable upset, surprising Triple Crown winner American Pharoah   at 16-1 odds in the 2015 Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.