An 80 to 1 horse laying off the early pace is not unusual.
The bravery of jockey Leon to only make a move if a route opened along the rail was smart and very brave. Jockeys over the past 125 plus years have been killed or injured for life trying to make late moves along the rail. The effects on the horses racing 1 1/4 mile at Kentucky Derby, race for 3 year old Thoroughbreds is similar to humans racing about 950 meters. The danger to the jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing is nothing like T&F.
Posters like you comparing this to Billy Mills or other come from behind victories in T&F and not factoring in the bravery of jockey Leon yesterday.
An 80 to 1 horse laying off the early pace is not unusual.
The bravery of jockey Leon to only make a move if a route opened along the rail was smart and very brave. Jockeys over the past 125 plus years have been killed or injured for life trying to make late moves along the rail. The effects on the horses racing 1 1/4 mile at Kentucky Derby, race for 3 year old Thoroughbreds is similar to humans racing about 950 meters. The danger to the jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing is nothing like T&F.
Posters like you comparing this to Billy Mills or other come from behind victories in T&F and not factoring in the bravery of jockey Leon yesterday.
I've watched a lot of horse races, and while the jockey certainly gave Rich Strike an excellent ground-saving ride to win the Derby, none of the holes he went through looked particularly tight to me. Being a jockey is inherently risky and those guys all have a lot of guts to sit on a 1000 pound horse at 40 mph surrounded by a bunch of other nervous, unpredictable 1000 pound horses. Relative to race riding in general, I don't see that Rich Strike's jockey did anything unusual. He just rode a very smart race.
Physically yes thats an amazing comeback. But the horse is not trying to win in the same way a person is. The horse doesn't even know the finish line. I'm just not moved in the same way I would be if people were racing on foot, bike or even by car.
Don't kid yourself. Top race horses very much know they are racing and are trying to win. They may not know exactly where the finish is that's the jockey's job but these horses are competitive as all get out . They are bred to race.
Of course that doesn't mean that this is the greatest come from behind race ever... but certainly a good one especially if you had money on the winner. (The jockey/horse certainly had some good racing luck as things opened up nicely for them on the rail.)
It was an absolutely incredible comeback. Leon makes a tremendous shift to the right to get around one horse on the inside with another just outside to make it the final stretch run possible. That was one gutsy horse in Rich Strike. Even though only one deeper long shot has won the Derby, this is why you don't want to bet on horse racing, because horses are very unpredictable and very much affected by conditions and horses around them. Note the overall time was 3 seconds behind Secretariat's Derby record of 1:59 2/5. Tenth all-time is Fusaichi Pegasus at 2:01.12, so this 2:02 and change was not particularly fast. In 1973, Secretariat was first with the Churchill Downs record, Sham 2nd at 1:59 4/5, and only Monarchos in 2001 has also broken 2:00, with 1:59.97. Third fastest Derby winner is Northern Dancer from 1964. Then Spend A Buck in 1985 and Decidedly from 1962. So, four of the top six were from 1962-73. They ought really to reconceive how they train horses.
Please tell me of a better finish to any race of significance in the history of the world.
Depends what type of finish most excites you. This is the chaotic, anyone-could-win sort of craziness that you sometimes see in middle-distance races. If that's what you want to see, horse racing (or bike racing!) is a fantastic place to see it.
Personally, I much prefer races like Chicago 2010 Wanjiru vs. Kebede. One vs. one, clash of styles, Wanjiru makes move after move, can't drop Kebede, and after each one looks like he is out of it. The tension builds over several minutes, and then boom! The race is over in a moment.
I personally saw Tommie Smith come from at least 15yards down to 20.5 Bernie Rivers on a 4x2 anchor. Saw Houston McTear do the exact same thing on the same track. While I never saw it what Nehemiah pulled off at the Penn Relays must have been amazing.
It's always so fun when someone you don't expect at all comes out of nowhere and wins it all. Kind of reminds me of the men's 800 final from the 2000 olympics, where Nils Schumann came out of nowhere and out-kicked Kipketer, Bucher, and co. Not sure why there's like 5 hours of coverage for a race that goes for like 2 minutes but that was EPIC.
I personally saw Tommie Smith come from at least 15yards down to 20.5 Bernie Rivers on a 4x2 anchor. Saw Houston McTear do the exact same thing on the same track. While I never saw it what Nehemiah pulled off at the Penn Relays must have been amazing.
How many of these horses get taken out by a bolt gun? Horse racing is messed up.
Trainer of the winning horse had 23 horses die in a fire and he only seemed to care about himself. Not one word about the horses that died.
“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 the stuff we had done to get this beautiful farm and have this happen, that something might be telling me it’s the end of the line.”
His only concerns were about his loses. What a pos just like people that endorse horse racing.
Eric Reed nearly lost everything six years before the horse he trains pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Kentucky Derby history Saturday at Churchill Downs.
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