WASHINGTON: Rich Strike, an 80-1 longshot who only got into the field the day before the race, stormed home on the inside to seize a stunning upset victory in the 148th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
The colt, trained by Eric Reed and ridden by Sonny Leon, gained a place in the field when Ethereal Road was scratched on Friday morning, as owner Richard Dawson put it, “about 30 seconds before the deadline” to enter.
Breaking out of the 20th post, Rich Strike was well back in the field of 20 as they turned for home, but Leon patiently guided him through the throng on the Churchill Downs dirt track.
Epicenter, sent off as the 4-1 favorite, was dueling with Zandon in the stretch when Rich Strike burst through on the rail for the greatest upset in terms of odds since 1913, when 91-1 longshot Donerail won the first event in US flat racing’s Triple Crown.
Epicenter, trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Joel Rosario, was second and Zandon, trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Flavien Prat, was third.
For Asmussen, it was his 24th Kentucky Derby start without a victory.
“I fell down in the paddock when he hit the wire,” said Reed, who like Leon was in the US classic for the first time. “I about passed out!“
The chestnut colt’s only prior victory came at Churchill Downs in September.
But Dawson said that he wouldn’t have entered the horse if he didn’t think he had a chance.
“Never, ever would Eric and I put a horse in a race we didn’t think we could win,” he said.
“We just knew that we had a shot because every time he went longer he got better. Today he went a mile and a quarter and he just kept going.”
Indeed, the fired-up winner tried to take a bite out of his escort horse as they made their way to the winner’s circle to celebrate the victory, worth $1.86 million of the $3 million purse.
“I knew I had a horse for the race,” said Leon, who said he tried to keep the ride “nice and easy.”
“I waited for my moment and I came through on the stretch. The last 100 yards, I said, ‘I think I’ve got this race.’“
Reed called Leon’s performance “just the greatest ride that I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s the reason everybody does this,” he said of the astonishing win. “We’re not supposed to be here. But I knew this horse loved the track and he’d been training so good all year.”
Rich Strike became just the second horse to win the Kentucky Derby from the 20th post since the modern starting gate was introduced in 1930. The other was Big Brown in 2008.
The Triple Crown resumes in two weeks with the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland, and Reed indicated that Rich Strike would be there.
The coveted treble, completed by just 13 horses, concludes in June with the Belmont States in New York — the race Reed said Rich Strike would have likely next been headed for had he not gotten into the Derby.
“He’s just getting good,” Reed said of the colt that was purchased from Calumet Farm for $30,000 last autumn after his breeder and former owner entered him in a low-level claiming race.
The astonishing finish unfolded before a full house under cloudy skies at Churchill Downs, after the number of spectators were limited in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, one longtime Derby mainstay was missing was six-time Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert, who is serving the first year of a two year ban.
The Baffert-trained Medina Spirit won last year, but then tested positive for an anti-inflammatory not allowed on race day and was stripped of the victory.
Baffert has denied wrongdoing, and his influence was still felt as his former assistant Tim Yakteen saddled two runners who had previously been trained by Baffert: Taiba and Messier.
Taiba and Messier, who finished one-two in the Santa Anita Derby in California, received backing from bettors and went off as the second and third choices.
Taiba finished 12th and Messier 15th.
Longshot Rich Strike races to stunning Kentucky Derby triumph
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Longshot Rich Strike races to stunning Kentucky Derby triumph
Bublik, Medvedev progress to second round of Dubai Tennis Championships
- Medvedev, the No. 3 seed this week, enjoyed a straight-sets victory over Juncheng Shang to set up last-16 tie with Swiss star Stan Wawrinka
- No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik needed only 66 minutes to see off Jan-Lennard Struff
DUBAI: Under the afternoon sun, the seeds blossomed. Day 2 of ATP 500 week at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships started with Daniil Medvedev showing clinical efficiency to dispatch China’s Juncheng Shang in little more than an hour. The Russian, seeded third this week and champion here in 2023, moved through the match with confidence to seal a 6-1, 6-3 win and set-up a last-16 tie with Stan Wawrinka.
Shang, the 21-year-old ranked World No. 262, has offered flashes of promise in recent months despite the inevitable growing pains of a young professional. In early January, he reached the quarterfinals in Hong Kong, a result that hinted at an upward trajectory, but consistency has since proved elusive and he had lost three of his previous four matches, including a 4-6, 2-6 defeat to Medvedev last week in Doha.
The rematch provided little reversal of fortune as Medvedev struck 20 winners and 10 aces, dictating play from the baseline and rarely allowing rallies to drift beyond his control. On serve, the World No. 11 was especially untouchable, capturing 81 percent of his first-serve points over the course of the contest to condemn Shang to consecutive defeats in subsequent weeks.
“Of course, I tried to play the same tactic (as last week) because if it works, you need to stick to it,” Medvedev said. “I knew he would of course try to adapt some things, so I tried to adapt to his adaptations and did that quite well. I saw he was struggling a bit at the end, but until then, I thought it was a fair match, and we were playing some pretty good points.”
For all the scoreboard’s lopsided tilt, there were moments of resistance. Early in the first set, the pair engaged in a bruising 34-shot rally — one of the longest exchanges of the tournament to date — that drew murmurs from the appreciative crowd. It was Medvedev, the former world No. 1, who ultimately claimed the point.
Asked where he feels the level of his game is coming into a tournament that features four other former Dubai champions as well as eight of the world’s top 20, Medvedev suggested he is more content than confident.
“Actually, I shouldn’t judge myself too much just now,” he said. “I lost a couple of matches lately and whenever you do it, you always feel like you are playing worse. I should try to pump myself up instead. I won 6-1, 6-3, so if we don’t put every point under the microscope, it was a good level in general, I look forward to the next match and raising my level even more.”
Medvedev had barely finished his post-match media duties when Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, the world No. 10 and this week’s No. 2 seed, strolled onto the 5,000-capacity Centre Court to open his own campaign. Facing a “lucky loser” in Jan-Lennard Struff, Bublik was a picture of composure despite entering the tie on the wrong side of a 3-2 head-to-head record and having required three sets to get past the same opponent only a couple of weeks ago in Rotterdam.
Bublik, breaking his German opponent’s serve at the first opportunity, took an early 3-1 lead and refused to relinquish it, hitting six aces as well as saving three breakpoints. Battling throughout, Struff — ranked 70 places below his opponent in the world rankings — showed fight but could not level the tie. When his own service game was broken again in the ninth game, the first set went to Bublik 6-3.
Struff found his serve in the second set, hitting six aces of his own, but Bublik was not for budging and took his tally to 12 overall. With the set going with serve, the Kazakh eventually got the all-important break in the 10th to take the set 6-4 and seal comfortable passage to the second round.
“I think I played a solid match,” said Bublik, who lost in the Dubai final two years ago. “I mean, it's never easy to face Jan. I’m trailing a bit in the head-to-head, but I knew what I had to do. I knew what shots I have to execute to get more chances to win easily, and I think I did well in more important moments.”
Bublik is enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 10, but insisted he prefers to focus on his game, knowing the two factors are not mutually exclusive. “It’s just a number and if you play well, you’re going to have a better ranking,” he said. “If you start losing matches, the ranking is going to go down very quickly if everyone else plays well. So, for me, it’s more about keeping my game and enjoying the moment.”
