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At the Kentucky Derby, the 80-1 long shot Rich Strike showed that horse racing isn’t just for the humans and horses with fancy pedigrees.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Sport of Kings. Ha!
Thoroughbred races have increasingly surrendered to the sheikhs and princes, the hedge fund wizards and industrialists, the fat cats who could plunder their vaults and pay whatever it took to secure a regally bred horse who, they hoped, could run a hole in the wind.
But that was not the story on Saturday in the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby. Not after an 80-1 long shot named Rich Strike, who did not even earn his spot in the starting gate in America’s greatest horse race until Friday, seemed to follow Moses’ path through the Red Sea to a three-quarter length victory that had appeared impossible.
When Rich Strike hit the wire low and long as if he were trying to sneak past a hall monitor, most of the Churchill Downs swells searched their programs to see who wore the 21 saddlecloth. Discerning horse fans everywhere hit Google to make the acquaintance of the jockey Sonny Leon and the trainer Eric Reed.
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