80-1 shot Rich Strike 'passed 'em all' to stun Kentucky Derby

Louisville, Ky.

The riders were up, the song was played, the horses were on the track. And as the crowd left the paddock, a couple dozen horsepeople remained, content to watch the 2022 Kentucky Derby on a videoboard overhanging the area where 20 3-year-olds were just saddled.

Standing to the left of the screen was Tim Yakteen. The former assistant to Hall of Fame trainers Bob Baffert and Charlie Whittingham assumed training duties this spring for Messier and Taiba, two talented, well-bred colts formerly under Baffert’s watch.

Standing in the center of the paddock was Todd Pletcher. The Hall of Fame trainer had twice won the Kentucky Derby, and he brought a trio of Charge It, Mo Donegal and Pioneer of Medina in pursuit of his third.

And then standing in the back right corner of the paddock was a group of men and women whose horse, Rich Strike, was not even in the Kentucky Derby field until Friday morning. Among that RED TR-Racing ownership group, emblazoned in a fire-engine-red blazer, was trainer Eric Reed.

Two minutes later, as Pletcher, Yakteen and 12 other trainers watched their runners fall short to a former claimer with 80-1 odds, Reed was engulfed in a sea of red.

Owners practically pulled the trainer through the Churchill Downs tunnel, toward the track where his colt had just blown by favorite Epicenter and Zandon down the stretch. Behind Reed, a celebrating party member kept repeating the phrase that summed up what Rich Strike had just accomplished:

“We shocked the world!”

Rich Strike stunned the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, crashing a stretch duel between Epicenter and Zandon and surging to score an upset at 80-1 odds.

The Keen Ice colt returned $163.60 on a $2 win ticket and became the second-highest priced winner of the Run for the Roses in the race’s history. 1913 Derby hero Donerail went off at 91-1.

Rich Strike covered 1 1/4 miles under jockey Sonny Leon in 2:02.61, winning by 3/4 of a length over Epicenter. He broke from the far outside post and ran 18th more than halfway through the race. But then he was the beneficiary of a blistering pace and closed late to pull off the shocker.

When asked at the start of the postrace news conference, “How did that happen?” Reed responded, “He passed ‘em all.”

“I didn’t think I could win necessarily, but I knew… they’d know who he was when the race was over,” Reed said.

Summer Is Tomorrow, the eventual last-place runner, gunned out to the early lead Saturday. He showed the way through fractions of 21.78 – fastest recorded first quarter-mile in race history – and 45.36 seconds before quickly giving way to Messier, who hit the 3/4-mile mark in 1:10.34.

Jockey Joel Rosario was content to sit off the pace with 4-1 favorite Epicenter. He moved forward around the far turn, was ahead by the mile mark and showed the way heading for home.

As the field of 20 entered the Churchill Downs stretch, Zandon made his bid to challenge Epicenter down the center of the track.

“I thought he had to hold off Zandon to win,” Epicenter trainer Steve Asmussen said. “That’s what I was focused on.”

But while those two prepared to battle it out, little-known Rich Strike came charging on the inside. Leon maneuvered the colt around a tiring Messier, gave a few left-handed strikes, and flew by the leaders to hit the wire first.

“I had to wait until the stretch, and that’s what I did,” Leon said. “I waited and then the rail opened up. I wasn’t nervous, I was excited. Nobody knows my horse like I know my horse.”

Reed entered Saturday with 1,444 winners in his training career out of 9,092 starters. Only one of those victories came in a graded stakes, with 2009 Raven Run Stakes (G2) victor Satans Quick Chick.

The conditioner claimed Rich Strike, then trained by Joe Sharp, Sept. 17 off a second-out maiden win at Churchill. He acquired the 2022 Kentucky Derby hero for a claiming price of $30,000.

"We don't go out and buy the big horses," Reed said. "We just try to have a good quality stable. We always perform well. Our percentages are always good, and we take care of the horse first. And the rest falls into place.

"I never dreamed I would be here. I never thought I'd have a Derby horse. I never tried to go to the yearling sale and buy a Derby horse. I just wanted to buy my clients a horse that would keep them happy, have some fun, maybe make a little money. If we got a good one, terrific.

"So this was never in my plans. Everybody would love to win the Derby. I always would, but I never thought I would be here, ever."

Rich Strike never finished better than third in five subsequent starts for Reed. In his last two efforts, both at Turfway Park, he was fourth March 5 in the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes and third April 2 in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3).

The 21 Kentucky Derby qualifying points he tallied through those two efforts put him at No. 21 on the leaderboard of horses still under Derby consideration at the beginning of the week. He was designated as the first also-eligible to enter the field in case of a scratch.

Come Friday morning, trainer D. Wayne Lukas scratched long shot Ethereal Road, opening a spot for Rich Strike.

Reed owned exactly one more graded-stakes victory than Leon had Saturday morning. While the Rosarios, Ortizes and Velazquezes of the world were riding Friday in the Kentucky Oaks, Leon was plying his trade at Belterra Park a couple hours up the Ohio River in Cincinnati.

But come Saturday, Leon got the chance of a lifetime and made the most of it.

“We had a difficult post, but I know the horse,” Leon said. “I didn’t know if he could win, but I had a good feeling with him.

"15 gallops before the wire, I say, "I think I got the race. I got to push him more harder than ever." That's what I did."

Historic upsets run in the family for Rich Strike. Seven years ago, his sire Keen Ice stunned 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah at Saratoga in the Travers Stakes (G1).

Still, Keen Ice’s 16-1 shocker in the Travers looks downright chalky compared to the 80-1 stunner Saturday that triggered that raucous celebration in the Churchill paddock.

The full order of finish for the 2022 Kentucky Derby: Rich Strike, Epicenter, Zandon, Simplification, Mo Donegal, Barber Road, Tawny Port, Smile Happy, Tiz the Bomb, Zozos, Classic Causeway, Taiba, Crown Pride, Happy Jack, Messier, White Abarrio, Charge It, Cyberknife, Pioneer of Medina and Summer Is Tomorrow.