Owner: Rich Strike is about to go to stud in Pennsylvania

Rich Strike, the 80-1 winner of the 2022 Kentucky Derby who had a succession of leg injuries for the past 1 1/2 years, is about to start his breeding career in Pennsylvania.

“I have entered into a (purchase and sale) agreement to stand Richie as stallion at Mountain Springs Farm in Palmyra, Pa., with owner Rich Miller,” Rich Strike’s owner Rick Dawson said in a Facebook post Tuesday. “A final contract should be executed very soon, and Richie will ship shortly thereafter.”

Flashback: Dawson decides to retire Rich Strike.

The now 6-year-old son of Keen Ice went unraced since May 5, 2023, when he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Alysheba on the Kentucky Oaks undercard. It was not for lack of trying. After more than a year out of training, Rich Strike returned to the work tab during the summer. He breezed four times at Saratoga for trainer Bill Mott before suffering a ligament tear in his left front leg.

Dawson declared in November that Rich Strike was retired, telling Horse Racing Nation, “This has been an extremely difficult decision for me. However, as always, it came down to what’s best for Richie is what’s best.”

With a stallion apparently only signatures away from being done, Dawson said he intends to be part of Rich Strike’s new career.

“I personally plan to support Richie with several quality mares each season,” Dawson said in his Facebook post.

In six starts after his sensational Derby triumph, Rich Strike never won again. The closest he came was in the fall of 2022 with loss by a head when he placed second in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic. The race was fraught with controversy that included jockey Sonny León getting a 15-day suspension for interfering with eventual winner Hot Rod Charlie in the homestretch. There also were accusations from Rich Strike’s team that Hot Rod Charlie had illegal toe grabs on his front shoes, a claim backed by photographic evidence but subsequently rejected by Kentucky stewards.

Originally racing for his breeder Calumet Farm and trainer Joe Sharp, Rich Strike went from a last-place debut on turf to a maiden win going a mile on the dirt at Churchill Downs in September 2021. For $30,000 he was claimed for Dawson by Eric Reed, who would train Rich Strike for what turned out to be the rest of his racing career.

Rich Strike will be remembered eternally for his deep-closing victory in the 2022 Derby. León successfully rallied the maiden winner from 18th place, seizing on the meltdown of a suicidal early pace to overtake 4-1 Epicenter in the final strides to win by three-quarters of a length. If not for the scratch of Ethereal Road minutes before a morning deadline a day earlier, Rich Strike would not have gotten into the Derby.

Reed resigned the week after the 2023 Alysheba, and Dawson eventually transferred Rich Strike to Mott. That was because Dawson and Reed differed about the direction of proposed Peyton Manning-produced films about the Derby triumph. Reed said last month those are still active projects.

Rich Strike was turned out last year at Margaux Farm in Kentucky, where Dawson said he was diagnosed with suspensory injuries. Other than that month of training this summer for Mott, those recurring fitness problems prevented any realistic hope of a return to racing.

Dawson flirted with retiring and selling Rich Strike in the fall of 2023. The horse was put into the Keeneland November sale and then taken out when it appeared to Dawson the eventual price might not be right.

Rich Strike ended up with a record of 14: 2-1-3 and earnings of $2,526,809.