Kentucky DerbyMage’s Victory Caps an Unpredictable Kentucky Derby

“It felt great because you knew you had a whole country backing us up,” Gustavo Delgado Jr., the assistant trainer for his father, said of Venezuela.

It was a feel-good story in a day — and week — that so desperately needed it. Before the excitement on the racetrack, there was an air of drama and solemnity surrounding this year’s Derby, with at least seven horses dying at Churchill Downs in the days leading to the race.

That statistic was not lost on the winning connections. “It’s a very difficult subject, especially in the climate of 2023. We are very sensitive to these unfortunate instances,” Ramiro Restrepo, a co-owner of Mage, said. “All I can say is, we do our best to take care of our horses. We treat them better than we treat our children.”

On Thursday, Lord Miles, trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., was scratched by stewards after two of Joseph’s horses had collapsed and died in the past week at Churchill Downs. Two other horses, not trained by Joseph, had also died after sustaining leg injuries, including Wild on Ice, a colt who was also scheduled to run in the Derby. The deaths prompted an investigation by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

Then three other horses, Practical Move, Skinner and Continuar, were scratched on Friday, and another shock came Saturday morning when the morning-line favorite, Forte, was scratched by veterinarians because of a bruised right front hoof. Forte was named last year’s 2-year-old champion and had won six of his seven races. He is well bred and trained by Todd Pletcher, a Hall of Famer. He was to be ridden by the nation’s top jockey, Irad Ortiz Jr.

Once racing began, two more horses were vanned off the racetrack with injuries and later died. A gelding named Chloe’s Dream was pulled up leaving the first turn of Saturday’s second race, taken off the track in an equine ambulance and euthanized, according to a spokesperson for the Horse Racing Integrity & Safety Authority.

And in the early part of the eighth race, Freezing Point pulled up abruptly. The horse, ridden by Corey Lanerie for the trainer Joe Lejzerowicz, walked into the equine ambulance under his own power but was later euthanized because of his injuries, according to the same spokesperson.

The deaths brought attention to the sport’s troubles during one of the few weekends of the year when sports fans are focused on horse racing.

It was the 50th anniversary of the start of Secretariat’s record-setting Triple Crown feat. Before he was “moving like a tremendous machine” in an earth-shattering performance in the Belmont Stakes, and before he secured the ninth Triple Crown sweep in history, ending a 25-year drought, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby on May 5, 1973, in such dramatic fashion that it would have been considered one of the greatest races of all time had he not bested that performance in his next two races.

It was the first Oaks victory for Gaffalione, who owns nine Churchill riding titles. He won a Preakness in 2019 with War of Will, and won two Breeders’ Cup races in November. Now he wants a Derby.

“I can’t even put it into words,” he said after the Oaks race. “I’m so happy I was able to accomplish this, especially being in my home track now, Churchill Downs, and my family is here today.”

It was also the first Oaks win for her owner and breeder, Godolphin, and trainer, Brendan Walsh.

So what does this mean for the Kentucky Derby on Saturday? Gaffalione rides Verifying, one of four horses trained by Brad Cox in the race. A speedy son of the 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, Verifying is a 15-1 shot on the morning line. He lost by a neck to Tapit Trice in the Blue Grass Stakes last month.

Pretty Mischievous is a daughter of four-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, who sired the Derby contenders Sun Thunder (50-1 on the morning line), Rocket Can (30-1) and Cyclone Mischief (30-1). She also has Tapit in her pedigree. He sired Tapit Trice.

Godolphin and Walsh do not have any horses in the race.

Rich Strike wowed casual racing fans with a swerving stretch run to go from last to first to win the 148th running of America’s most famous race at odds of 80-1.

The journeyman jockey Sonny Leon was back in the saddle but was unable to motivate the colt. The trainer of Rich Strike, Eric Reed, was confounded by the lackluster performance.

“I’m unusually disappointed in the effort,” he said. “I’m not sure what’s going on. I expected him to finish better. He was where he was supposed to be, but he didn’t fire at all.”

“In the past, he has won from the middle and from the front,” Lemaire said. “He can adapt to the conditions of the race, and that is a big advantage for me.”

Still, the colt has much to overcome. Horses coming from the U.A.E. Derby are 0 for 18 in the Derby and have never even hit the board. The best finish came from Master of Hounds, who was fifth in 2011.

A more intriguing choice from Japan is Mandarin Hero (20-1), who ran last month in the Santa Anita Derby and came a neck short of upsetting Practical Move, a serious Derby contender before he was scratched. Mandarin Hero’s trainer, Terunobu Fujita, decided to cancel their return flight to Japan in hopes of getting a Derby starting spot even though his colt did not have enough points to qualify.

Mandarin Hero drew in after the late scratches, which included another Japan-based horse, Continuar. Mandarin Hero has looked fresh in the mornings here, and the Canada-based Kazushi Kimura rode him at Santa Anita and will be back on board for the Derby.

“They’ve made it so you can see more and be part of the process,” said Chris Riley, a Louisville native who now lives in Atlanta and has been to more than 40 Derbies. “But next year will be when we can judge it.”

When the project is complete, for the 150th Derby, it will offer terraced standing-room viewing, premium seating, club spaces and even dining options. Twenty-one saddling stalls will flank the tunnel connecting the paddock to the racetrack. The statues of Aristides, the first Derby winner, and the jockey Pat Day, the track’s all-time leader in every major category, have been moved elsewhere and will return to the paddock area when the construction is finished. The tradition of hanging a sign above the previous winner’s stall will continue as well, even with the temporary setup.

Eustace Fernandes, who has lived in Louisville since 1993, has been to at least 20 Derbies. Last year, he met Brenda Brown of Frisco, Texas, and Sheri Hightower of Denver, both longtime flight attendants, on the rail at the paddock. They have texted nearly every week ever since and were back there Friday.

“She never knew she had seats until Eustace told her,” Hightower said of Brown. “We’re always at the paddock.”

While this year’s version is very much a work in progress, there are some benefits: fans have more room than ever to catch a glimpse of their betting interests. When the project is complete, the open square footage will drop to around 78,000 square feet, according to Churchill Downs.

The vantage point — “the best in the house,” Fernandes said — is what they like about the new configuration. “It’s a great view of the horses, which is what the three of us love,” Hightower said.

And it’s not just the paddock that has a new look. A $90 million first turn project, essentially a three-story structure reminiscent of what you’d find at a soccer stadium, is being unveiled. It replaces a temporary seating area around the first turn and adds thousands of indoor and covered seats as well as a dining area.

The best 3-year-olds in the land will try for the first leg of the Triple Crown in the race known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports.” The track is 1¼ miles; the record, set by Secretariat in 1973, is 1:59⅖.

After the call of “riders up,” the jockeys will board their mounts. As the horses head to the track, the cherished but controversial “My Old Kentucky Home” will be played. A few minutes later, the winner will be draped with a blanket of roses.

The deaths are bringing attention to the sport’s troubles during one of the few weekends of the year when sports fans are focused on horse racing.

In the days leading to Saturday’s races, the Derby entrant Wild on Ice was euthanized after he sustained a leg injury; another horse was put down after an injury; and two collapsed and died after racing, prompting officials to suspend their trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., and scratch his Derby horse, Lord Miles.

Adding to those numbers, Code of Kings broke his neck after flipping several times in his saddling paddock last Saturday. He was rushed to a nearby equine clinic, where he was euthanized.

In Saturday’s 10th race, Here Mi Song, a 5-year-old gelding with 20 career starts and five wins, was taken off the track in a van after finishing fourth. An Associated Press reporter said on Twitter that X-rays showed no injuries.

Then the gates opened in the 99th running of the Run for the Roses, and he went off as the 3-2 favorite anyway, with Sham the second choice at 5-2. And so his furious rally to prove his doubters wrong began. He broke a step slow, a Secretariat trademark, and settled in behind his 12 challengers. His regular rider, Ron Turcotte, sat aboard, unworried. Turcotte let the colt find his legs and run his race.

He moved to the first pack, and then moved up to the second. His rival Sham sat near the lead and made his move to catch the leader, Shecky Greene, at the top of the homestretch. Then, and only then, did Turcotte ask his horse for more, and Secretariat, like the finest of racecars, found another gear.

He dug in and zipped past Sham in the stretch to win by two and a half lengths in 1:59⅖, a record that still stands. He ran each quarter-mile faster than the one before, going 25⅕, 24, 23⅘, 23⅖, and 23 seconds — unheard of in horse racing — and on he went into the history books. 

Of course, the horse known as Big Red for his crimson-tinted chestnut coat went on to battle Sham in another thriller in the Preakness, setting another record in 1:53, and then followed that with a jaw-dropping performance in the Belmont in 2:24, a feat that will almost certainly never be bested.

His influence on the sport is unparalleled, and his exploits also redefined the breeding industry. Nearly half of the horses in Saturday’s Derby have Secretariat in their bloodlines.

“I think people fell in love with the story, the horse was very pretty and his athletic abilities just kind of captured the nation,” said Walker Hancock, who runs Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., where Secretariat stood at stud and where he is interred and memorialized.

On most days, his modest grave is topped with roses and pennies, a nod to his owner, Penny Chenery Tweedy, an unlikely heroine who took over her father’s farm early in Secretariat’s career and saved it with the horse’s Triple Crown run and a $6.08 million syndication of his breeding rights, a record at the time.

“He kind of was like a rallying cry for America,” Hancock said, referencing the era of Richard Nixon, the Watergate scandal and the end of the Vietnam War — a time during which his father, Seth, ran the historic breeding farm; Hancock was not even born yet. “He kind of brought everyone together after everyone was so divided.”

Melissa Hoppert’s picks:

Tapit Trice (5-1): This gray son of the prolific sire Tapit has won four straight races. That run includes the Blue Grass, where his come-from-behind running style was on full display. He has looked like a million bucks in the morning, and good thing, too, because his owners shelled out $1.3 million for him.

Angel of Empire (8-1): There’s no doubt this steadily improving colt will be the shortest price of the four Cox horses. He needs a perfect trip to showcase his strong finishing kick, no easy feat in a 19-horse field.

Verifying (15-1): This speedy son of the 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify lost by a neck in the Blue Grass Stakes last month, and he’ll have Gaffalione, who owns nine Churchill riding titles, on his back.