3 Lessons Learned from Kentucky Derby 149

Kentucky Derby 149 brought a new champion to the Winner’s Circle. Mage pulled off a surprise by storming from the back of the pack to the finish line, taking home the garland of roses at 15-1 odds. Hundreds of thousands gathered at Churchill Downs for horse racing’s biggest weekend. No matter how many times you have traveled to the Kentucky Derby, there’s always something enlightening from the experience.

2-Year-Old Experience is Irrelevant in the Kentucky Derby

Forte was the morning line Kentucky Derby favorite, largely thanks to his experience as an underclassman. He won four of his five starts as a 2-year-old, including the prestigious Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Meanwhile, Mage was just learning how to ride. He only had three starts under his belt this spring, including a narrow defeat to Forte in the Florida Derby.

Of course, we cannot judge the two rivals because Forte was sidelined on the first Saturday in May. However, it’s abundantly clear that experience no longer matters significantly when handicapping the Kentucky Derby. Like Mage, Justify did not race as a 2-year-old before he went on his Triple Crown run. Since then Rich Strike is the only Kentucky Derby winner with more than one start as a 2-year-old. Winning the Kentucky Derby is all about peaking at the right time and Mage did just that.

You Gotta Keep Firing

It’s a long week of handicapping horses. Thursday provided plenty of chalk. Even if you won, you probably weren’t winning much. Friday was not so kind to my wagering budget, or many others in my group of pony pickers, but slowing down on Derby Day is like pulling up on the backstretch without asking the horse for more. You gotta keep firing on the biggest race day of the year. The tickets were due to eventually cash, and they did. Was it enough to win big in the Kentucky Derby? No, but were there still winners in the final two races? Of course.

You can’t always win big, but you’ll probably win enough to keep coming back for more next year.

Too Many Horses are Dying

The Kentucky Derby puts the national spotlight on horse racing for even the most casual sports fans. Unfortunately, this year that spotlight brought extra attention to the dark side of the sport.

Derby hopeful Wild on Ice didn’t even make it to Derby week before suffering a catastrophic injury while working out beneath the Twin Spires. It was one of seven thoroughbred fatalities at Churchill Downs in the first week of the spring meet.

Aside from the two horses trained by Saffie Joseph, who is suspended and under investigation by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, these fatalities are not incredibly unusual. It’s part of the sport. It’s no less heartbreaking, but to say a “dark cloud hangs low over the sport” feels a bit overdramatic.

Consider this. When Mark Stoops was playing football, he “blew out his knee.” It essentially ended his playing career. Fast forward 40 years and that injury happens at least once a year on every football team and almost every one of those players fully recovers to play quality football. Go back a few more years and there were plenty of pitchers who “threw out their arm” and were never able to play baseball again. Now Tommy John surgery is a common procedure that even teenagers are able to undergo and still have successful careers.

Equine science has not caught up quite so quickly. One day procedures and prosthetics will advance far enough to allow these thoroughbreds who suffer broken bones to be able to recover and live healthy lives. Last week’s fatalities do not need to be a sign of the beginning of the end for the sport. It can serve as a catalyst for innovation that provides some much-needed security for the sport of kings.