LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – What a story it would have been if Larry Demeritte had won the Kentucky Derby with West Saratoga in 2024.
I smiled at the thought of the traditional morning-after-the-Derby story — with reporters huddled not around a barn, but gathering in the Sunday School class Demeritte taught at Forks of Elkhorn Baptist Church in Midway, Ky., which is where he planned to be – even if he’d won the Derby.
Demeritte lived by faith. In 1996 hew was diagnosed with multiple myeloma bone cancer and doctors told him he had five years to live. In 2018, he was diagnosed with amyloidosis and given six months.
He died Monday night in Louisville, at age 75.
But in those intervening years, he proved time and again that the odds aren’t always the arbiter of the outcome.
Making the most of his “extra time,” he fulfilled an improbable dream of training a Kentucky Derby horse, with an $11,000 gray colt named West Saratoga. He was the first native of The Bahamas to train a Kentucky Derby horse. And he was the first black trainer in the race since 1989 and just the second since 1951.
West Saratoga finished 12th. But the real gift was Demeritte’s story, and his message, which was an inspiration to many – and which was captured by documentary cameras from Netflix, for its Race for the Crown series.
His barn on the Churchill Downs backside was always crowded with well-wishers or children. He welcomed them all and shared his message of faith and joy amid circumstances, whatever they were.
West Saratoga trainer Larry Demeritte (left) and assistant trainer Donte Lowery speak two kids outside their Churchill Downs barn.
“Don't let your friends tell you what you can't do," he said to a group of children one morning, when WDRB had paid a visit for an interview. "If they tell you what you can't do, they're not really a good friend. If I listened to people who told me what I can't do, I wouldn't be here. Listen to friends and people who tell you what you can do. Because if you believe, you can do anything you want."
Born in Nassau, The Bahamas, Demeritte was just two weeks old when his mother handed him to his grandmother to raise. He grew up in a crowded two-bedroom home shared with 13 children, where food was never guaranteed and prayer was a daily ritual. His father remained nearby but divided his time between two families.
From a young age, Demeritte found a purpose in horses—grooming, walking and caring for them around the tracks in Nassau. That early experience led to trips to Florida racetracks like Hialeah, Gulfstream and Calder, and eventually to horse sales and training farms in Ocala. Along the way, he found a mentor in Oscar Dishman Jr., a Lexington-based horseman who earned national recognition in the 1970s. Inspired, Demeritte stayed in the U.S. and immersed himself in the Florida-Kentucky-Illinois racing circuit. He earned his trainer’s license in 1981 and persevered through 48 winless starts before saddling his first winner—Tom Tale—on Dec. 19, 1984, at Latonia in Northern Kentucky.
It took him eight more years before his stable would ever produce more than two winners in a calendar. It was eight more before it had its first $100,000 year. He didn’t have double-digit winners in a year until 2005.
But he loved what he was doing. Of that, there could never be a question.
And despite the increasing pain he suffered – he finally succumbed to lung cancer – his last years were among his best. And his message was as resonant as any that ever rang out from the barns on Churchill Downs’ backside.
“I don't ever sit and worry about what I'm dealing with," Demeritte said. "I always say that my faith controls me. I don't control my faith. I strongly believe in the scriptures. I strongly believe in that governing my life, regardless of what other people say. And I know that's not popular all the time but I'm not here for a popularity contest. I'm here to serve my Almighty. That's the way I live my life.”
Demeritte prayed to get to the Derby one day, and promised if he did, he’d give the credit and praise to God. He was every bit good to his word.
“I hope that I inspire people," Demeritte said. "If I don't inspire people, I'm not carrying out my calling."
He didn’t win the Derby. But you can't run the home stretch better than he did.
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WDRB journalist Rick Bozich contributed to this story. Copyright 2025 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
