War Story: My Kentucky Derby Blunder
When ranking the Kentucky Derby contenders four, five and six months out, you are bound to swing and miss occasionally. Add in the factor of it being far less fun to go with nothing but favorites, and it is really quite easy to end up with egg on your face on the first Saturday in May. That’s my story, and I am sticking to it.
In fact, I am reminded of just how silly I can look every time that War Story enters a race. In case you forgot, believe it or not, he was my top ranked Derby prospect early in the 2015 racing season. I think the question needs to be asked -- what was I thinking?
Let me try to explain, or at least attempt to save a little face … I really liked what I saw from the handsome geldng, from a good female family, in his third lifetime race. After having won his first two starts nicely, he made a big move, which I thought was premature, to get the lead in the Lecomte Stakes, before succumbing to the late run of International Star. It was the kind of move which I believed could only lead to bigger things. It did not. The fact that American Pharoah swept the Triple Crown later that spring, in rather dominating fashion, only helps underscore my Derby blunder.
Thankfully by the time he finished third in the Louisiana Derby, I was no longer on the War Story bandwagon. See if you can even find him in this replay of the Run for the Roses ...
While the racing legend of American Pharoah was wrapped up nicely and neatly with the fancy bow of his runaway victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the racing career of War Story has been anything but tidy. These days American Pharoah sips on Kentucky bourbon and dates only the finest ladies for Coolmore America at Ashford Stud. Meanwhile, War Story toils in the relative obscurity of winterized racing at the Big A. I mean really, what was I thinking?
All in all, it’s been a bit of a long, strange trip for War Story. Owned by a balls to the wall outfit in Loooch Racing, it’s no wonder that War Story has had plenty of chances against good horses. In fact, going into yesterday’s feature at Aqueduct, War Story had failed to win in each of his 13 starts in stakes racing. That’s right, the horse I had ranked #1 in late January/early February of my 2015 Kentucky Derby rankings was 0-for-13 in stakes races. And I consider myself an excellent judge of horse racing talent … ouch!
Among those 13 defeats was a 16th place finish in the Kentucky Derby, and a pair of 8th place Breeders’ Cup finishes in the Dirt Mile and the Classic. So, did I take any satisfaction at all in seeing him romp home by nearly eight-lengths in yesterday’s Queens County at Aqueduct? Deep down I must admit that I did, just a little, although I also know that I probably shouldn’t. After all, as six-figure stakes races go, you cannot get much more removed from the Kentucky Derby, than the Queens County.
Oh well, you can’t win them all. I will continue to watch the interesting career of War Story unfold. I mean, he has won well over half a million dollars. I know I would like to own him. And who knows? Maybe he will win something a little bit more important than the Queens County someday. No matter what, though, for me, he will always be a humbling reminder of my Kentucky Derby blunder.