Folks watching Saturday’s Kentucky Derby got a big dose of crazy. A come-from-waaayyy-behind horse charged up the rail to win at Churchill Downs. The horse called Rich Strike stole the show with the second-biggest upset in the Derby’s 148-year history.
On Saturday, a cloudy and unusually cool day, fans strutted in their huge hats, floral-print dresses, and seersucker suits. After two years of pandemic-affected derbies, this “Run for the Roses” in Kentucky was back in full swing.
As the famous horse race began, all eyes focused on the favorite, Epicenter, and several other steeds that came out blazing fast. A half mile into the one-and-a-quarter mile race, Rich Strike was in 18th place with only two horses trailing him.
Coming into the final stretch, Epicenter and Zandon dueled neck and neck at the front of the pack.
But Rich Strike and jockey Sonny Leon had other plans. An aerial view of the race shows Leon weaving the horse through narrow gaps, zigging and zagging and passing horse after horse to the inside rail. Nobody, it seems, saw them coming.
In the stretch to the finish, Leon deftly guided Rick Strike around the horse Messier—and went right back to the rail. Only Epicenter and Zandon were left to beat.
“When I was in the last 70 yards, I said, ‘I think I got this race,’” Leon says.
Rich Strike ended up defeating Epicenter by three-quarters of a length in 2:02.61. Zandon finished another three-quarters of a length back in third.
“Oh, my goodness,” screamed announcer Larry Collmus, who hadn’t mentioned Rich Strike during the entire broadcast. “The longest shot has won the Kentucky Derby!”
“I about fell down in the paddock when he hit the wire,” winning trainer Eric Reed says.
Rich Strike wasn’t even in the Derby until Friday. A horse called Ethereal Road scratched (withdrew). That made room for Rich Strike, the horse with just one previous win in his career.
“We found out about 30 seconds before the deadline on Friday,” Rich Strike owner Rick Dawson says. “It put us in the race, and really we always felt if we just got in, we’ve got a shot.”
“I can’t believe it,” says Epicenter trainer Steve Asmussen. “I got beat by the horse that just got in.”
Not since 1913, when a horse called Donerail won, has a horse had a more surprising finish.
It was the first Derby for Leon, Reed, and Rich Strike. Trainer Reed understands why people ignored this colt, whose victory surely inspired little guys everywhere.
A few days ago, Reed sent owner Dawson a photo of the colt sprawled in his straw-covered stall with his handlers napping on him. Reed typed, “I think our horse is cool and ready to run.”
Dawson responded, “If we can wake him up.”
Did they ever.
“Small trainer, small rider, small stable,” Reed says. “Lightning can strike.”
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. — 1 Corinthians 9:24
(Rich Strike (21), with Sonny Leon aboard, wins the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 7, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky. AP/Jeff Roberson)
