CRAWFORD | In long shot Rich Strike's win, Kentucky Derby magic strikes again

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This is why the Kentucky Derby is the best. It's why the race endures amid a sport that is struggling for survival. Well, this and a liberal amount of bourbon and a prodigious propensity to party.

You can search from now until next year's Derby, and you won't find anyone who thought that late addition Rich Strike would be wearing the garland of roses on Saturday afternoon in the Churchill Downs' Winner's Circle.

This just doesn't happen in other sports. This is five guys showing up off a playground and winning the NBA Finals. It's a dude rolling out of a Holiday Inn Express and winning an Olympic medal.

Did anyone ask Rich Strike trainer Eric Reed where he stayed Friday night?

Last August, the colt was claimed from historic Calumet Farm for $30,000 by Reed and owner Rick Dawson after winning a maiden claimer at Churchill Downs by 17 lengths. Since then he had not won a race, and hadn't finished better than third. His last three races at Turfway Park he'd finished third, fourth and third.

Come on. This isn't just me going out and qualifying for the F-1 race in Miami in my Toyota Prius, but winning it.

No offense to the horse. Please. Nor his remarkable and indomitable team.

Outside his barn on Saturday morning, Reed had the "we're just happy to be here" feeling. At 8:45 Friday the previous morning, with the scratch deadline approaching at 9, he accepted the inevitable that his colt wasn't going to get into the Derby.

"We were told at 8:45 we weren’t going to be in," he said. "So, I broke the news to the owners and my parents and some friends. We had our 5 minutes of silence, started picking ourselves up and I got another call just before 9 saying, hey, hold on, something is going on and then they told us we got in. The people that were standing around here, sounded like we scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl, you know, I mean it was crazy, so it’s been fun."

It's been fun, he said. And the implication was that the party was pretty much over.

Little did he know he was about to win the Super Bowl.

Roughly 24 hours after 86-year-old D. Wayne Lukas won the Kentucky Oaks for a fifth time and became the sure-fire storyline of the weekend, Churchill Downs and the greatest two minutes in sports whispered, "Hold our beer."

And folks, that's a heck of a lot of beer to hold.

The heartstrings were plucking in this one even after Sonny Leon's brilliant rail rally. He took advantage of the fastest opening fractions in Derby history, then managed traffic more deftly than an Uber driver, before bolting past a developing classic duel between favorites Epicenter and Zandon to make Derby history as the second-biggest long shot ever to win the race.

For Reed, it was a miraculous moment.

Six years ago, he lost 23 horses in a tragic barn fire at his farm outside Lexington.

At this point, let's have him take over the story.

"When we drove up on that that night, I told my wife, I said, 'We've probably lost everything,'" Reed said. "And by the grace of God, the wind was blowing in a direction that kept it from getting to the other two barns. The next morning when we saw the devastation -- because this happened in the middle of the night -- I just thought of all the years and all of the stuff we had done to get this beautiful farm. And to have this happen, that something might be telling me it's the end of the line."

"And it was everybody helping me. People I hadn't seen, people I hadn't talked to in years were there. My best friends were there in the morning to pick me up. And about the third or fourth day, when people started showing up from states that didn't know who I was, they just saw the story, it let me know there's so much good out there."

"And then I had a few trainers that sent me texts -- some big trainers, the guys you guys know well -- that told me, 'Don't let this take you out. And we'll help you. We'll get you horses. We'll get you clients, whatever you need.' And I think that kept me going.

"And then I just decided that I wasn't going to let it take me out. And thank God we're here today."

Then Reed choked up a bit, and many listening to his comments behind the press conference applauded. The guy has been through a great deal, including a difficult battle against COVID in 2021.

But I'll say this for him – he picked a heck of a spot for his first Grade I victory.

Whatever storm blew in to create that moment – the decision of Lukas to pull his horse out of the Derby because the didn't think he was ready, the decision of Dawson and Reed to pluck that horse away from Calumet after one impressive Churchill Race, an inexplicably hot start to the race, the ride of a Venezuelan jockey who one day prior was racing at Belterra Park in Cincinnati – it's the kind of gift the race keeps giving, no matter how much money is spent, no matter how many big name trainers are involved or, in the case of this year's race, aren't involved.

A second look, however, reveals how brilliant Leon was. He was three-wide on the back stretch. Darted inside, then had to swerve outside again to make a pass before getting back to the rail and darting to the finish line. It was a tremendous piece of riding.

You can tell when every losing trainer on the track is walking away with a dazed smile on his face, shaking his head, that something has happened that no racing form can explain.

The Kentucky Derby happened. Again.

Don't bet against it.

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