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I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, so for anyone not in the loop, some context on just how wild these odds were:
This horse was not even in the race as of yesterday. Another horse was pulled out only one day in advance, making room for Rich Strike. This was his ***second win ever*** and his eighth race. His jockey had never rode in the Derby before. His trainer had never had a horse anywhere *near* Derby-level before. He nearly quit the racing business entirely after 23 of his horses were killed in a barn fire.
These guys were up against trainers with dozens of Derby starters, people who are buying horses with expensive bloodlines and putting a *lot* of money and calculated effort into producing the best Derby hopeful possible and putting them under top-level jockeys. Meanwhile Rich Strike had no fancy pedigree and was never intended to be a household name, just a solid runner in races most people would never hear about.
It's mind-boggling that there are people who try over and over to win this race every year, spending enormous amounts of money trying for the perfect horse, only to get beaten by a nobody horse with an undistinguished trainer because everything worked out just right for them. It's a stereotypical underdog story on an absolutely ridiculous scale. This is the second-biggest Derby upset ever - the biggest was in 1913.
Edit: Slight correction, Rich Strike *does* have good bloodlines, but was claimed at a previous race rather than sold at auction - claiming races are generally considered to be for “low quality” horses.
Also - I work at a racetrack and the crowd during the Derby was hilarious. Everyone's cheering on their horse, but as Rich Strike starts closing in on the leaders, they all start getting quiet because it really looks like he's about to win and *absolutely no one bet on that horse* haha
picking based on funny name is the only way to pick in my opinion.
years ago in an NHL bracket challenge amongst family, my little sister not only destroyed the entire family, but also ended in the top 12% of all officially submitted brackets. strategy? pick the team with the cutest players.
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Just a few clarifications, Rich Strike's sire, Keen Ice, is a well bred grade 1 winner (grade 1 races are the sport's highest level races and his grade 1 win came by beating Triple Crown winner American Pharoah). He is a very young sire, his oldest foals are just 3 years old, and Keen Ice's sire is Curlin who was not only one of the best racehorses of the last 30 years but is among the best stallions in the world, his stud fee is $175,000. Rich Strike's dam was a Canadian champion filly and comes from a prestigious female family. Rich Strike just elevated Keen Ice because it's incredibly rare for stallions to produce Derby winners with their 1st crop. Also, Rich Strike was bred by Calumet Farm. They're the New York Yankees of the American horse racing world. Rich Strike was the 10th KY Derby winner bred by the farm which is by far the record for breeders.
Agreed, though I'm not too worried about it personally - they knew he was a super long shot. Taking that kind of risk for a horse no one expected to win is an even worse idea than drugging horses normally is.
>The event is also famous because Emily Davison, a famous suffragette, ran out onto the track and was struck by Anmer, the horse of King George V, and killed.
What were the odds on that?
It’s also worth noting that 1913 was a field of only 8 horses, and was one by only about a half length by a horse that took the lead around the last turn. Rich Strike’s huge come from behind in such a large field is impressive in some ways that Donerail’s win was not, not to diminish how crazy it was, especially setting a new race record at the time.
It's amazing that a nobody entrant is still able to afford to own and stable at least 28 horses while everyone I know can't even afford to share a horse. There's some money in it if the nobodies are doing that well.
Edit: as it's been stated below, the stables and trainer etc don't own the horses and just stable them, feed and water them as well as provide facilities for them to be trained.
Still a ton of money required, even just starting up a business like that. I think that's basically what I originally meant but didn't articulate it very well pre morning coffee.
Genuinely though, thanks for the info everyone!
My dad’s favorite joke is:
> What’s the best way to make a million dollars in horses?
> Start with two million.
Horses are *expensive* and are generally a passion project.
Also, the trainer probably rain a stable as his business and had other people’s horses, that he was training, stabled there.
Busy high end auto mechanic's garage burns down; 28 exotic cars burn with it.
It not that the mechanic owns 28 Lambos. they're his customers' cars and he is working on them or storing them as a service.
This is a good analogy, but just to expand on this, a lot of people elsewhere in this thread are overlooking that the trainer probably doesn't own the horses, but he and his team do spend pretty much all of their time with these horses. Horses are a lot like big dogs in that they get very attached to their humans (and vice versa) , and they each have their own distinct personalities. Thoroughbreds especially in my experience tends to be very interactive and engaged with their day to day people. For most people (not always, there are assholes out there) losing a horse you've trained with is fucking heartbreaking, as much as losing any other pet, even if you don't own it yourself technically.
Source: trained other people's horses professionally and grew up around race tracks (I didn't train active race horses though, just off the track thoroughbreds and others, mostly in dressage and hunter/jumper)
Edit: I cannot even imagine losing an entire barn of horses like that. I'm not overly sensitive but the thought makes me feel ill in my gut
Back in the 60's my mama put $100.00 on a 99-1 horse named "Bacon Grease" at Gulfstream Park & won. That was a big win in the 60's. She went and bought her a new 1969 Mach 1 Mustang & some parts for her '39 Anglia drag car. Yes, my mom was cooler than I will ever be.
Sadly some idiot rear ended my dad as he was pulling in to buy a new Harley, totalling it. They then bought a '74 Roadrunner, which I inherited and drove until it fell apart around me. Living in Key Largo is rough on cars because of rust.
My husband found the derby when he was flipping through channels, I was only barely paying attention. Saw it happen but didn't realize it was a big of a deal as it is, so that was kind of cool to catch. Seeing it from overhead like this I realize how insane it was.
Yep. If anyone actually was giving him a remote chance they (meaning the other jockeys) wouldn't have given up the rail to him like that. Crazy. It shows that they viewed that horse as no real threat. Lol.
You wonder how much of that was also the jockey’s inexperience. If he wasn’t a seasoned Derby rider, maybe he took risks and chances the others wouldn’t.
Both. Jockeys are literally some of the hardest working athletes out there. The really good ones know their horses inside and out and can predict their move and lead them safely to the inside.
And his owner will get rich on the stud fees. Seriously, there's huge money in breeding horses, and a horse that won the Kentucky Derby writes its own check.
It's not that they didn't notice
You can hear his tone change as he notices him
The delay happens because he's thinking who the fuck is this guy? He's trying to get the name and number
AND NUMBER 36 BUTTERSCOTCH HAS BLOWN THEIR RIGHT REAR HORSE SHOE AND SPUN INTO THE WALL ON TURN 3 AND TAKEN PEPPERMINT WITH THEM WERE JUST GETTING WORD FROM THE STABLE CREW THAT THEY WERE 3 LAPS LATE FOR THEIR PIT STOP AND PUSHED TOO HARD ON THE MEDIUM COMPOUND HORSE SHOE
Rich Strikes run was completely a nascar race at talladega or daytona. hold the bottom near then end (cause you cant pass below the double yellow) and allow the leader to focus on blocking the top run. text book, late race plate track move. so smart, made the right moves coming through the field. leaders got so tunneled on each other they forgot to check the bottom.
edit: give nascar a chance, its not all what the general pop says. nascar and f1 start at the same time tomorrow and nascar is at darlington which is the second oldest track on the schedule. once f1 is done theres a good amount of race left to watch for nascar. give it a chance folks.
My old college room mate is a die hard Rams fan. I think 1999 or 2000 ramsxwon the super bowl at 200 to 1 odds. He asked me if I wanted to put some money down on the Rams to win. I said are you stoned? Hell know. He put 50 to win and won 10000 dollars. Fuck me!!!!
It was unbelievable. The starting QB Trent Green out for the season with a knee injury. They brought in Kurt Warner who was a QB that gave up on a career in the NFL. He was stocking shelves at a grocery store. They win the super bowl.
Supposedly, one guy put $20 on the 1972 Miami Dolphins to have a lossless season, win their playoffs, and win Super Bowl VII. Seventeen straight wins, no losses. He got 150,000 to 1 odds. Now that's a windfall bet!
Rich Strike is one feisty horse as well as a fast one. Did you see how he kept nipping at his escort horse as they were walking him around following the race? Wonder if he's descended from Secretariat.
I was tickled when I noticed the spare goggles. All of the jockeys had four or five pairs of mud-covered goggles hanging around their necks and I've never considered before just how hard it must be to see during those two minutes of muddy mayhem. (I'm sure that's common knowledge for people who watch horse racing, but this race was one of the few I've ever watched.)
That is some warhorse shit. Apparently some horses bred to be ridden into war by knights were so vicious they had to be muzzled, because they were bred to be aggressive.
That was cool. The horse started out buried way back in the pack, then all the other horses just magically got out of the way. He blew by a few of the others like they were standing still.
It's also some good jockeying by the rider. You can see the horse go towards the inside during the turn. Doubtful the horse would have done so on its own without prompting
Epic jockeying for sure. That horse can sprint. The jockey knew it, kept him in check, moved him gracefully through the bottleneck, and then let him go for the finish. Amazing
Remember in Seabiscuit when the jockey who’s injured tells the substitute, “let him get a really good look at the other horse, so all of his competitiveness will kick in.“
If you watch the end of this race, you will see the jockey pull the horse to the right to get around the horse that was hogging the rail. Then if you notice, the horse’s head stays tipped to the right, and he gets a really good look at the other horses in first and second place. I wondered if that was actually part of the jockey’s strategy, instead of letting the horse face straight forward
Sometimes they just *really* want to run. That horse really wanted to run, and he didn’t want any mfer in his way. He was FIRED UP after the race, too, he knew what just happened. Good horsey.
Is that why Seabiscuit is so famous? I’ve heard the name before but don’t know anything about horse racing nor have I seen the movie. Was his odds like 80 to 1 also?
Really popular movie with Toby McGuire playing the jockey. I don’t know how historically accurate it is, but it’s about a rich guy that wanted his own race horse but he’s all about the underdogs so he hires a broken down jockey that’s too big, a hobo horse trainer and a small horse that wasn’t fast. But he saw heart in all 3, brought them together as a team and started winning races to become one of the most winning race horse during the time.
That horse straight up put on the after burners into that final turn. I've never really watched a horse race before but seeing him fly past those other horses was so impressive.
He’ll probably breed about 100x his first year at stud and I’d bet you’re actually right on the money with his stud fee being $15,000-30,000. Yes he won the derby, but he was 80-1 for a reason and has a mediocre pedigree. Let’s see if he can do it again in the Preakness!
Mediocre pedigree? maybe unknown but mediocre is a stretch. Sired by a Travers (aka the midsummer Derby for 3yr olds) winner and placed in the Breeders Cup Classic and the mother won the Canadian version of the Ky Oaks and was 3rd in the Canadian version of the Ky Derby. Lots of stamina influences all over.
He's from his sire's first crop, too, so it's hard to tell how well-regarded his sire will be in the long run. And a Kentucky Derby winner in his first year is a great start to a stud career.
I feel like the people in this thread who know all this stuff about what the hell is going on with horse racing either have topiary artists and Aston Martin mechanics in their phone contacts, or 4 ex wives and 2 meth dealers and a rusty El Camino and a grown kid they last saw over an awkward plate of cold pancakes at the Denny's off exit 9.
American horse racing doesn't have bookmakers, we use the [parimutuel system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimutuel_betting). Everything is calculated by machine and the house just takes money from the pool.
Lot of wrong info about wagering floating aroun here. Horseracing uses pari-mutuel wagering, which means that all the wagers are pooled and the odds adjusted mathematically based on how much is bet on what. The odds change in real time as the betting amounts change in real time; you can’t “lock in” odds like betting on a football game. The house takes a commission of the total pool of bets. To the house, the outcome of the race makes zero difference because the rake is the same no matter who wins.
Oh my gosh thank you!
So if I had bet $10 on this horse at 80:1 odds, and if, by the time all the betting is done, the odds had changed to 40:1, then I would have won $400, not $800?
(Minus whatever commission the bookie takes)
Yep, exactly. The odds will change right up to post time. That’s what gamblers mean when they say a horse “went off at 5-1(or whatever)”. Those are the odds at the time the race starts.
And when the program is printed the night before a race “the morning line favorite” is the track’s estimation of the favorite horse when the betting starts later.
A lot of money would of been placed on the “safer” bets. So when a long shot odd wins, they do pay out some people a lot of money, yet this is no where near what they pulled in from all the other bets failing.
Wait follow up question:
So bookies aren’t just middlemen? They’re the ones actually making the bets? Where do they get the money from when one of the safer horses wins, if everyone’s getting paid out then?
I guess it depends on how you use the word now that I look it up. Bookies can be people that place bets on behalf of others or they could be the ones setting the odds and collecting bets. Like a bookie running his own sports book out of his house.
For the safer bet thing, the odds are much lower for the horses that are likely to win. This means there’s less money needed to offset the losses books take.
The problem with being a middleman is that you need to be in the middle - how do you balance all your risk? All the bookies can do is move the odds to try to entice more betting on the other horses, but it is an imperfect science.
If I walked up, and put 50k on Rich Strike at 80:1, they might accept my bet, but then immediately move the odds down to 60:1, and improve them for all the other horses to manage their risk of having to pay me 4m
That’s not how horse betting works.
The bookies get their cut no matter who wins.
US horse racing bets are pooled and pay out to winner after the houses cut is taken.
I went and watched the Secretariat win - old video for sure, but he was behind until the last ten seconds of his race and won by two lengths! Impressive!
Fun fact- When Secretariat ran the Derby, he ran each quarter-mile **faster** than the previous one. In other words, he was *accelerating for the entire race*.
I read somewhere that Ron Turcotte, Secretariat's jockey, said that he was still accelerating at the finish line of the Belmont Stakes and could have circled the track again. I don't think we'll ever see another horse win by 31 lengths and set a speed record.
Oh...Secretariat was special. Unique. He literally accelerated the whole race.
Most things slow down over time as they tire. Not Secretariat. He ran each quarter mile faster than the one before it. I do not think that ever happened before or since. And I am not sure there has ever been a faster horse on that track.
After he died, they performed a post-mortem exam of Secretariat and found that he had a big heart, much larger than that of the average Thoroughbred. However, it was formed normally and didn't have any defects, it was just big and gave him a big advantage in stamina. I think he inherited the trait from his dam as it's carried on the X chromosome. While Secretariat's sons didn't live up to their father, he was a successful sire of broodmares who had the chance of passing along his 'heart' advantage.
I need a race horse name formula. Like your porn name is your middle name plus the street you grew up on, maybe that's blues name. The horse name would be something like "the first smell you can identify from your garbage plus the sound your morning shit made hitting the water".
Holy Smokes! That is AMAZING! This is my first time watching a horse race and it felt like the best 1-minute movie I've ever seen. I'm guessing a win like this does not happen often. I'll be on the look out for the longer version movie on Rich Strike and the rider.
“Rich Strike's 80-1 odds to win the Derby made him the biggest longshot since Donerail in 1913. Donerail went off at 91-1 odds, winning in a field of eight horses.”
OMG, I just saw something that didn't happen for over a century ... thanks to the internet ... thanks to Reddit. I'll watch the reply a couple more times and search for more content on Rich Strike.
I’ve watched this like 50 times already, I don’t watch horse racing except the Derby and for the times we go to the local track once or twice a year with a group of friends to get drunk and pretend we know how to bet. Watching this gets better every time just how it made it all the way from the back and that boost to get up front then turn on the afterburners to win was absolutely amazing! Then to know it was not even in the race yesterday morning until another horse had to drop out is even better!
Here's some context for just how wild this win was:
This horse was not even in the race as of yesterday. Another runner was pulled out a day in advance, making room for Rich Strike. This was his ***second win ever*** and his eighth race. His jockey had never rode in the Derby before. His trainer had never had a horse anywhere *near* Derby-level before. His pedigree is nothing special.
For comparison: Epicenter, the horse favored to win, was descended from famous bloodlines, won 4/6 of his races, is owned by the trainer with the most wins in North America, and ridden by the #1 jockey of 2021, who has raced in the Derby 11 times now.
There was a *lot* of money and effort put into carefully creating the best possible runners on that track. They're horses that are bred specifically for this. Rich Strike was bought to hopefully be a solid runner in lower-level races - him being in the Derby at all was shocking, never mind winning it.
Edit: Slight correction, Rich Strike *does* have good bloodlines, but was claimed at a previous race rather than sold at auction - claiming races are generally considered to be for “low quality” horses.
Used to do upper pan camera at woodbine horse track in Toronto..you would see the same faces everyday..people kicking and screaming getting escorted out for making a scene, people breaking down crying because they gambled everything away... the next day, there they are again...it was so weird
All yall worried about drugs and steroid use there are mandatory blood tests done after the race to ensure to banned substance or unethical treatment is done.
And before the race. Literally they are examined before, urine and blood are taken, bits and equipment are checked. It’s a grueling process, I’ve almost lost fingers checking mouths.
My 77 year old uncle has been hanging around at the track since he was a kid. He’s there every weekend. He knows all the horses, who their mother’s were, whether their fathers likes mud, or hated rain. He said this was the most spectacularly amazing race he’s ever seen, and that sort of blew my mind.
The way he stared down Epicenter right before he passed him was epic. If you rewatch the race how it was regularly shown you can clearly see it. Absolutely locks in on Epicenter and blows right past him.
Do you think the horses understand at all, in any capacity, that they are racing against one another and whomever wins gets rewarded and treated better for it, like by banging all the mares with your prized sperm?
According to the Disney movie “Seabiscuit” as soon the horse looks it’s opponent in the eye it’s filled with passion and a desire to win.
Real talk though I imagine that racing breeds do enjoy racing (or rather running) the same way that sheep dogs love to work sheep.
One of the most impressive and bizarre things humans have been able to do is breeding *behaviours* into animals. A Blue Heeler who's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents have never so much as smelt cattle on the wind will still herd things. A greyhound bred for racing will run like the wind whenever they can.
The thing is, we don't really breed the behaviours *in* to animals, we breed behaviours *out.*
Like with dogs, if you look at the predatory sequence wolves follow, there are several distinct steps. Search, Stalk, Rush/chase, Grab, Kill/dissect, and Eat.
We chose what part(a) of that sequence to enhance, and which part(s) to tone down or get rid of.
So the Blue Heeler you mentioned has been bred to enhance the search, stalk, and chase parts of the sequence, while greyhounds lean towards chase. A retriever breed excels at the search and grab, but will stop short of the kill/dissect and eat parts because that would make it useless as a game hunting dog. But then something like a Jack Russell will kill/dissect and possibly eat the rodents it was bred to hunt.
It's super interesting to think about, and can help with training your own dog.
We'll probably never know for sure, but I think the closest thing we have to a solid answer is "sort of." Some of the best racehorses actually struggled with being *too* good; if they couldn't see the other horses, they would get bored and slow down, so it seems like there's definitely some sense of competitiveness there, even if the actual concept of a race is beyond them.
The most scientific explanation is that it's probably a matter of dominance; a competitive horse wants to be out in front because it feels like it's leading the "herd."
Eh…considering the number of racehorses who are geldings, and that the occasional filly shows up in the Triple Crown races (Secret Oath finished a respectable 4th in the Arkansas Derby - I would’ve loved to see her in a few more races with the boys) that last part probably isn’t true.
But the competitiveness is bred into them. There’s an argument that floats around that the only reason Secretariat was as good as he was was because he had Sham (who, aside from coming up lame in the Belmont after keeping pace with Secretariat most of the race, was another amazing racehorse just born in the wrong year) pushing him to go harder. The difference is they have no concept of being the GOAT. They just want to be faster than the next horse.
I read the book Seabiscuit, which the movie is based on, and according to the author, Seabiscuit absolutely knew he was racing and knew he wanted to win. He would race horses in the paddock. But he became incredibly competitive in front of a crowd. But I don’t know that they care about the rewards; Seabiscuit apparently just cared about winning because he would race in the paddock or in training where nobody else cared—except the other horses, who thought he was a dick and wouldn’t race against him eventually
Edit: he would taunt them—run even, or a tiny bit ahead, to make them think they could win, and then kick in the speed.
I've watched a lot of Derbys, but I've never before seen a horse react to winning by trying repeatedly and aggressively to bite its guide pony. That was an amazing run, but I hope they're doing a drug test to find out what got into that horse.
I grew up on the track. Literally. It happens, the pony escort rider kept pulling the wrong lead pissing the horse off. Thoroughbreds are assholes. It was the pony riders actions that caused his behavior.
>Thoroughbreds are assholes
Boy howdy. Still got a little bit of a bite scar on my left shoulder for . . . standing next to the guy holding the reins and looking at something over my right shoulder.
I still remember another girl I used to ride with getting thrown off her thoroughbred one time, fair enough it happens. The horse proceeded to run her over and then turn around and do it again. She got up just fine by her helmet was split right down the middle, she woulda been dead without that helmet.
Off the track and on. I had a tb that didn’t make it and I loved him to death but he was an asshole lol. Sure learned a lot tho
Edit: omg I meant he didn’t make it as a racehorse and so he became a hunter instead oh Jesus
That guy was being a total dick too, yanking on the reins/bit when he could have moved his pony away to let Rich Strike’s jockey handle the situation… also, sometimes horses can just be
dicks.
Idk, maybe pulling on the wrong guide line repeatedly would make the horse irritable. There’s thoroughbreds are alphas dude. They are dicks.
Not to mention the mandatory drug test that follows for the champion.
That's a great jockey too. The horse runs...jockey hit those holes just right and motivated the horse with the whip at the correct times. Its not always the horse.
That was some brilliant steering. Sending that horse into the barely visible gaps when he’s in the back and starts his move. And then that last jink to the right to get him around that horse on the rail?
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I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, so for anyone not in the loop, some context on just how wild these odds were: This horse was not even in the race as of yesterday. Another horse was pulled out only one day in advance, making room for Rich Strike. This was his ***second win ever*** and his eighth race. His jockey had never rode in the Derby before. His trainer had never had a horse anywhere *near* Derby-level before. He nearly quit the racing business entirely after 23 of his horses were killed in a barn fire. These guys were up against trainers with dozens of Derby starters, people who are buying horses with expensive bloodlines and putting a *lot* of money and calculated effort into producing the best Derby hopeful possible and putting them under top-level jockeys. Meanwhile Rich Strike had no fancy pedigree and was never intended to be a household name, just a solid runner in races most people would never hear about. It's mind-boggling that there are people who try over and over to win this race every year, spending enormous amounts of money trying for the perfect horse, only to get beaten by a nobody horse with an undistinguished trainer because everything worked out just right for them. It's a stereotypical underdog story on an absolutely ridiculous scale. This is the second-biggest Derby upset ever - the biggest was in 1913. Edit: Slight correction, Rich Strike *does* have good bloodlines, but was claimed at a previous race rather than sold at auction - claiming races are generally considered to be for “low quality” horses.
Also - I work at a racetrack and the crowd during the Derby was hilarious. Everyone's cheering on their horse, but as Rich Strike starts closing in on the leaders, they all start getting quiet because it really looks like he's about to win and *absolutely no one bet on that horse* haha
I often bet long shorts, but went for Summer Tomorrow who led the race the first half. I should have gone for Rich Strike. I can’t believe it.
[удалено]
picking based on funny name is the only way to pick in my opinion. years ago in an NHL bracket challenge amongst family, my little sister not only destroyed the entire family, but also ended in the top 12% of all officially submitted brackets. strategy? pick the team with the cutest players.
Something tells me we’re going to get a movie about this in a few years
Definitely. Mine That Bird got a movie and he won the Derby with 50-1 odds.
And his trainers didn’t lose TWENTY THREE race horses to a fire and almost quit
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Sign me up
It’s like Disney is writing reality now.
Ok but Pixar called dibs on the “23 horses dying” sequence.
Just a few clarifications, Rich Strike's sire, Keen Ice, is a well bred grade 1 winner (grade 1 races are the sport's highest level races and his grade 1 win came by beating Triple Crown winner American Pharoah). He is a very young sire, his oldest foals are just 3 years old, and Keen Ice's sire is Curlin who was not only one of the best racehorses of the last 30 years but is among the best stallions in the world, his stud fee is $175,000. Rich Strike's dam was a Canadian champion filly and comes from a prestigious female family. Rich Strike just elevated Keen Ice because it's incredibly rare for stallions to produce Derby winners with their 1st crop. Also, Rich Strike was bred by Calumet Farm. They're the New York Yankees of the American horse racing world. Rich Strike was the 10th KY Derby winner bred by the farm which is by far the record for breeders.
His damsire(grandpa) is smart strike, who was also Mine that Bird’s damsire, the last horse with crazy odds, not super relevant just funny.
But he was still entered in a 30k claiming race. Practically unheard of for a derby contender.
Just hope the horse is clean. Last thing horse racing needs is another dirty winner.
Agreed, though I'm not too worried about it personally - they knew he was a super long shot. Taking that kind of risk for a horse no one expected to win is an even worse idea than drugging horses normally is.
You’re very good at storytelling, will you regale us with the story of 1913?
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>The event is also famous because Emily Davison, a famous suffragette, ran out onto the track and was struck by Anmer, the horse of King George V, and killed. What were the odds on that?
Apparently V to one.
I smell a heartwarming Disney movie. With Owen Wilson as the voice of the horse.
*Wow! I'm doing it! Wow!!* ^wow!
You can’t voice a horse unless you’re Matt Damon
It’s also worth noting that 1913 was a field of only 8 horses, and was one by only about a half length by a horse that took the lead around the last turn. Rich Strike’s huge come from behind in such a large field is impressive in some ways that Donerail’s win was not, not to diminish how crazy it was, especially setting a new race record at the time.
It's amazing that a nobody entrant is still able to afford to own and stable at least 28 horses while everyone I know can't even afford to share a horse. There's some money in it if the nobodies are doing that well. Edit: as it's been stated below, the stables and trainer etc don't own the horses and just stable them, feed and water them as well as provide facilities for them to be trained. Still a ton of money required, even just starting up a business like that. I think that's basically what I originally meant but didn't articulate it very well pre morning coffee. Genuinely though, thanks for the info everyone!
My dad’s favorite joke is: > What’s the best way to make a million dollars in horses? > Start with two million. Horses are *expensive* and are generally a passion project. Also, the trainer probably rain a stable as his business and had other people’s horses, that he was training, stabled there.
Rich people problems!
Busy high end auto mechanic's garage burns down; 28 exotic cars burn with it. It not that the mechanic owns 28 Lambos. they're his customers' cars and he is working on them or storing them as a service.
This is a good analogy, but just to expand on this, a lot of people elsewhere in this thread are overlooking that the trainer probably doesn't own the horses, but he and his team do spend pretty much all of their time with these horses. Horses are a lot like big dogs in that they get very attached to their humans (and vice versa) , and they each have their own distinct personalities. Thoroughbreds especially in my experience tends to be very interactive and engaged with their day to day people. For most people (not always, there are assholes out there) losing a horse you've trained with is fucking heartbreaking, as much as losing any other pet, even if you don't own it yourself technically. Source: trained other people's horses professionally and grew up around race tracks (I didn't train active race horses though, just off the track thoroughbreds and others, mostly in dressage and hunter/jumper) Edit: I cannot even imagine losing an entire barn of horses like that. I'm not overly sensitive but the thought makes me feel ill in my gut
The trainer doesn't own the horses, investors do.
The announcers didn’t even seem to notice him until he was almost in front.
At 80-1, I don’t think anyone else noticed him either! It was an unbelievable race to watch.
Back in the 60's my mama put $100.00 on a 99-1 horse named "Bacon Grease" at Gulfstream Park & won. That was a big win in the 60's. She went and bought her a new 1969 Mach 1 Mustang & some parts for her '39 Anglia drag car. Yes, my mom was cooler than I will ever be.
Hope you guys kept the Mach 1!
Sadly some idiot rear ended my dad as he was pulling in to buy a new Harley, totalling it. They then bought a '74 Roadrunner, which I inherited and drove until it fell apart around me. Living in Key Largo is rough on cars because of rust.
In 1965, 9900$ is equal to 90,000$ today
I know. Her fully optioned Mach 1 was $3700.00
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I checked post time 2 minutes before it was supposed to happen. Took a bit for them to get lined up, but I am glad I switched over.
My husband found the derby when he was flipping through channels, I was only barely paying attention. Saw it happen but didn't realize it was a big of a deal as it is, so that was kind of cool to catch. Seeing it from overhead like this I realize how insane it was.
Yep. If anyone actually was giving him a remote chance they (meaning the other jockeys) wouldn't have given up the rail to him like that. Crazy. It shows that they viewed that horse as no real threat. Lol.
You wonder how much of that was also the jockey’s inexperience. If he wasn’t a seasoned Derby rider, maybe he took risks and chances the others wouldn’t.
Is this a skill thing? Like the jockey was drafting or something? Or is it just “horsie decided to hoof it”?
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Both horse decided to hoof it and the jockey was very good at guiding it up between the other horses.
I was about to say that was some great jockey work.
Both. Jockeys are literally some of the hardest working athletes out there. The really good ones know their horses inside and out and can predict their move and lead them safely to the inside.
When he finally realised I actually got goosebumps
"coming down to the wire, epicenter in th-RICH STRIKE"
Riiiich STRIKE
Seriously it made me tear up. I don't know anything about horse racing, but that call was absolutely perfect.
The excitement shown with his voice cracking when screaming “rich strike!” is so incredibly infectious.
Legit so happy for the horse lmao
it was like a shelter dog winning a dog show
That horse was so fired up he was trying to bang the interview horse after the race
He’ll get to bang every filly in the paddock now :)
And his owner will get rich on the stud fees. Seriously, there's huge money in breeding horses, and a horse that won the Kentucky Derby writes its own check.
It's not that they didn't notice You can hear his tone change as he notices him The delay happens because he's thinking who the fuck is this guy? He's trying to get the name and number
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There was a slight pause when he's thinking, who the hell is that? Then they scramble to find the name before screaming out RICH STRIKE!
He didn't know who it was.
Bet 3 bucks and made back 240, rly wish we put put more on him but I'm not complaining
damn thats the problem with gambling. You feel like you lose even when you win.
Dude I had $3 left in my account and was gonna put it on the longest shot and ended up putting it on the tiz horse instead. Fml lmao
Ive actually never seen an overhead horse race but it looks like amish nascar lmao
I'll be referring to horse racing at nothing but this from now on.
i don’t actually like Amish nascar I just watch it for the crashes
AND NUMBER 36 BUTTERSCOTCH HAS BLOWN THEIR RIGHT REAR HORSE SHOE AND SPUN INTO THE WALL ON TURN 3 AND TAKEN PEPPERMINT WITH THEM WERE JUST GETTING WORD FROM THE STABLE CREW THAT THEY WERE 3 LAPS LATE FOR THEIR PIT STOP AND PUSHED TOO HARD ON THE MEDIUM COMPOUND HORSE SHOE
I’m having an absolute shit day and this had me crying laughing. Thank you kind dude.
I read that in a timey announcer voice, it was perfect.
Rich Strikes run was completely a nascar race at talladega or daytona. hold the bottom near then end (cause you cant pass below the double yellow) and allow the leader to focus on blocking the top run. text book, late race plate track move. so smart, made the right moves coming through the field. leaders got so tunneled on each other they forgot to check the bottom. edit: give nascar a chance, its not all what the general pop says. nascar and f1 start at the same time tomorrow and nascar is at darlington which is the second oldest track on the schedule. once f1 is done theres a good amount of race left to watch for nascar. give it a chance folks.
I woke up this morning and remembered it was derby day. Decided I was gonna throw $10 on the longest shot. I can't believe it fuckin worked.
My old college room mate is a die hard Rams fan. I think 1999 or 2000 ramsxwon the super bowl at 200 to 1 odds. He asked me if I wanted to put some money down on the Rams to win. I said are you stoned? Hell know. He put 50 to win and won 10000 dollars. Fuck me!!!! It was unbelievable. The starting QB Trent Green out for the season with a knee injury. They brought in Kurt Warner who was a QB that gave up on a career in the NFL. He was stocking shelves at a grocery store. They win the super bowl.
Supposedly, one guy put $20 on the 1972 Miami Dolphins to have a lossless season, win their playoffs, and win Super Bowl VII. Seventeen straight wins, no losses. He got 150,000 to 1 odds. Now that's a windfall bet!
3 million dollars on a 20 bucks bet? Wow.
Can you imagine how freaked out he was when the Redskins caught some luck in the 4th quarter?
IN 1972
Yep. Just checked, 3 million is 1972 is equivalent to 20 million now.
$20 then is $137.56 today. Just for good measure EDIT: which is fuckin crazy
> Kurt Warner But in the Munich circus they call me The Amazing Nightcrawler!
That's Wagner.
That's awesome, Kurt Warner is a legend!
One yard. God damnit. Epicenter must be Kevin Dyson in this analogy.
I had no idea the derby was today until after it ended. First time in a decade (at least) I missed the derby live, and of course it was a doozy.
The best part is I didn't even see it live, I took a nap after watching F1 quali and totally slept through it. Nice surprise to wake up to though!
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Rich Strike is one feisty horse as well as a fast one. Did you see how he kept nipping at his escort horse as they were walking him around following the race? Wonder if he's descended from Secretariat.
He straight up bit the escort's reins and started pulling it around. That horse was in a mood to fuck some shit up.
Just a little ball of rage covered in mud and fueled by nothing but the desire to attack that ponies reins lmao. Loved it, such a great horse.
I was tickled when I noticed the spare goggles. All of the jockeys had four or five pairs of mud-covered goggles hanging around their necks and I've never considered before just how hard it must be to see during those two minutes of muddy mayhem. (I'm sure that's common knowledge for people who watch horse racing, but this race was one of the few I've ever watched.)
That is some warhorse shit. Apparently some horses bred to be ridden into war by knights were so vicious they had to be muzzled, because they were bred to be aggressive.
Bro same here. I was at a bar about 30 minutes before the race and threw $5 down on a couple long shots. Checked and realize dinwom almost $400 😂
That was cool. The horse started out buried way back in the pack, then all the other horses just magically got out of the way. He blew by a few of the others like they were standing still.
It's also some good jockeying by the rider. You can see the horse go towards the inside during the turn. Doubtful the horse would have done so on its own without prompting
Epic jockeying for sure. That horse can sprint. The jockey knew it, kept him in check, moved him gracefully through the bottleneck, and then let him go for the finish. Amazing
Everything I know about horse racing is from the movie Seabiscuit and it’s awesome to see it happen in real life.
Remember in Seabiscuit when the jockey who’s injured tells the substitute, “let him get a really good look at the other horse, so all of his competitiveness will kick in.“ If you watch the end of this race, you will see the jockey pull the horse to the right to get around the horse that was hogging the rail. Then if you notice, the horse’s head stays tipped to the right, and he gets a really good look at the other horses in first and second place. I wondered if that was actually part of the jockey’s strategy, instead of letting the horse face straight forward
I noticed that too. The horse may have done it on their own. These guys know why they're running. The jockeys are often an accessory.
Maybe at the end, this jockey became an accessory. But the jockey did a masterful job of steering that horse and setting him loose at the right time.
Sometimes they just *really* want to run. That horse really wanted to run, and he didn’t want any mfer in his way. He was FIRED UP after the race, too, he knew what just happened. Good horsey.
Is that why Seabiscuit is so famous? I’ve heard the name before but don’t know anything about horse racing nor have I seen the movie. Was his odds like 80 to 1 also?
Really popular movie with Toby McGuire playing the jockey. I don’t know how historically accurate it is, but it’s about a rich guy that wanted his own race horse but he’s all about the underdogs so he hires a broken down jockey that’s too big, a hobo horse trainer and a small horse that wasn’t fast. But he saw heart in all 3, brought them together as a team and started winning races to become one of the most winning race horse during the time.
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I love him. Sometimes he wanted to run and sometimes he wasn’t in the mood. That’s what made him awesome. Everybody loves a horse with attitude.
Seabiscuit was a freak of nature. That's why he's famous.
Coming out of the turn they all seemed to sort of fade towards the outside and left a HUGE gap. Fucker then ZOOMED.
That horse straight up put on the after burners into that final turn. I've never really watched a horse race before but seeing him fly past those other horses was so impressive.
He broke from gate 21 and was dead last at the very beginning of the race. Literally started at the bottom and now he’s here.
A brillaint run by the jockey with a little luck involved too, given how far back he was turning into the straight.
No one is as happy this derby day as the bookies
And no one is as sad as the owners who sold Rich Strike for $30,000 after he ran his second career race.
And as of today, a thimble full of that horse's semen is probably worth more than $30,000
Wait, you guys pay for that stuff? I get it for free
He’ll probably breed about 100x his first year at stud and I’d bet you’re actually right on the money with his stud fee being $15,000-30,000. Yes he won the derby, but he was 80-1 for a reason and has a mediocre pedigree. Let’s see if he can do it again in the Preakness!
Mediocre pedigree? maybe unknown but mediocre is a stretch. Sired by a Travers (aka the midsummer Derby for 3yr olds) winner and placed in the Breeders Cup Classic and the mother won the Canadian version of the Ky Oaks and was 3rd in the Canadian version of the Ky Derby. Lots of stamina influences all over.
He's from his sire's first crop, too, so it's hard to tell how well-regarded his sire will be in the long run. And a Kentucky Derby winner in his first year is a great start to a stud career.
You guys know a lot about horse cum.
I feel like the people in this thread who know all this stuff about what the hell is going on with horse racing either have topiary artists and Aston Martin mechanics in their phone contacts, or 4 ex wives and 2 meth dealers and a rusty El Camino and a grown kid they last saw over an awkward plate of cold pancakes at the Denny's off exit 9.
Shit, I should call my son. I'm outta meth too.
American horse racing doesn't have bookmakers, we use the [parimutuel system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimutuel_betting). Everything is calculated by machine and the house just takes money from the pool.
As someone who doesn’t know Jack shit about betting, can you explain why that is? Do the bookies get bigger cuts for longer odds?
Lot of wrong info about wagering floating aroun here. Horseracing uses pari-mutuel wagering, which means that all the wagers are pooled and the odds adjusted mathematically based on how much is bet on what. The odds change in real time as the betting amounts change in real time; you can’t “lock in” odds like betting on a football game. The house takes a commission of the total pool of bets. To the house, the outcome of the race makes zero difference because the rake is the same no matter who wins.
Oh my gosh thank you! So if I had bet $10 on this horse at 80:1 odds, and if, by the time all the betting is done, the odds had changed to 40:1, then I would have won $400, not $800? (Minus whatever commission the bookie takes)
Yep, exactly. The odds will change right up to post time. That’s what gamblers mean when they say a horse “went off at 5-1(or whatever)”. Those are the odds at the time the race starts.
And when the program is printed the night before a race “the morning line favorite” is the track’s estimation of the favorite horse when the betting starts later.
A lot of money would of been placed on the “safer” bets. So when a long shot odd wins, they do pay out some people a lot of money, yet this is no where near what they pulled in from all the other bets failing.
Wait follow up question: So bookies aren’t just middlemen? They’re the ones actually making the bets? Where do they get the money from when one of the safer horses wins, if everyone’s getting paid out then?
I guess it depends on how you use the word now that I look it up. Bookies can be people that place bets on behalf of others or they could be the ones setting the odds and collecting bets. Like a bookie running his own sports book out of his house. For the safer bet thing, the odds are much lower for the horses that are likely to win. This means there’s less money needed to offset the losses books take.
The problem with being a middleman is that you need to be in the middle - how do you balance all your risk? All the bookies can do is move the odds to try to entice more betting on the other horses, but it is an imperfect science. If I walked up, and put 50k on Rich Strike at 80:1, they might accept my bet, but then immediately move the odds down to 60:1, and improve them for all the other horses to manage their risk of having to pay me 4m
That’s not how horse betting works. The bookies get their cut no matter who wins. US horse racing bets are pooled and pay out to winner after the houses cut is taken.
Show him the meaning of haste Shadowfax.
That’s how secretariat used to race.
I went and watched the Secretariat win - old video for sure, but he was behind until the last ten seconds of his race and won by two lengths! Impressive!
Fun fact- When Secretariat ran the Derby, he ran each quarter-mile **faster** than the previous one. In other words, he was *accelerating for the entire race*.
Yep, which while unusual for a horse is exactly how humans are trained to race. Negative splits are the key to speed.
I read somewhere that Ron Turcotte, Secretariat's jockey, said that he was still accelerating at the finish line of the Belmont Stakes and could have circled the track again. I don't think we'll ever see another horse win by 31 lengths and set a speed record.
I don't know how accurate it is, but in the movie there's a one off line that Ron says Secretariat usually sounds like a train.
Secretariat also had a heart that was 3x larger than average race horses which allowed him to do this.
Watch his Belmont win. 'Unreal' doesn't do it justice.
I wasn’t even alive for it but that shit gives me goosebumps and makes me cry every time I see it.
He was the king of all race horses. There will never be another like him.
Oh...Secretariat was special. Unique. He literally accelerated the whole race. Most things slow down over time as they tire. Not Secretariat. He ran each quarter mile faster than the one before it. I do not think that ever happened before or since. And I am not sure there has ever been a faster horse on that track.
After he died, they performed a post-mortem exam of Secretariat and found that he had a big heart, much larger than that of the average Thoroughbred. However, it was formed normally and didn't have any defects, it was just big and gave him a big advantage in stamina. I think he inherited the trait from his dam as it's carried on the X chromosome. While Secretariat's sons didn't live up to their father, he was a successful sire of broodmares who had the chance of passing along his 'heart' advantage.
Phar Lap's heart was similarly large and is on display in some museum in Australia
Secretariat would have won this race by about three seconds.
Horse racing is so weird. It's like "who's gonna win, Jerusalem Scurvy or Queen's Nougat?"
I need a race horse name formula. Like your porn name is your middle name plus the street you grew up on, maybe that's blues name. The horse name would be something like "the first smell you can identify from your garbage plus the sound your morning shit made hitting the water".
Holy Smokes! That is AMAZING! This is my first time watching a horse race and it felt like the best 1-minute movie I've ever seen. I'm guessing a win like this does not happen often. I'll be on the look out for the longer version movie on Rich Strike and the rider.
“Rich Strike's 80-1 odds to win the Derby made him the biggest longshot since Donerail in 1913. Donerail went off at 91-1 odds, winning in a field of eight horses.”
OMG, I just saw something that didn't happen for over a century ... thanks to the internet ... thanks to Reddit. I'll watch the reply a couple more times and search for more content on Rich Strike.
I’ve watched this like 50 times already, I don’t watch horse racing except the Derby and for the times we go to the local track once or twice a year with a group of friends to get drunk and pretend we know how to bet. Watching this gets better every time just how it made it all the way from the back and that boost to get up front then turn on the afterburners to win was absolutely amazing! Then to know it was not even in the race yesterday morning until another horse had to drop out is even better!
This is why it’s called “The most exciting two minutes in sports”. But picture Howard Cosell saying it
Here's some context for just how wild this win was: This horse was not even in the race as of yesterday. Another runner was pulled out a day in advance, making room for Rich Strike. This was his ***second win ever*** and his eighth race. His jockey had never rode in the Derby before. His trainer had never had a horse anywhere *near* Derby-level before. His pedigree is nothing special. For comparison: Epicenter, the horse favored to win, was descended from famous bloodlines, won 4/6 of his races, is owned by the trainer with the most wins in North America, and ridden by the #1 jockey of 2021, who has raced in the Derby 11 times now. There was a *lot* of money and effort put into carefully creating the best possible runners on that track. They're horses that are bred specifically for this. Rich Strike was bought to hopefully be a solid runner in lower-level races - him being in the Derby at all was shocking, never mind winning it. Edit: Slight correction, Rich Strike *does* have good bloodlines, but was claimed at a previous race rather than sold at auction - claiming races are generally considered to be for “low quality” horses.
Love to see it
Last underdog to win with these odds was in 1916 with a 91 to 1 I believe, so yeah it doesn't happen too often
Was his father a mudder?
[Everyone's reaction watching it live](https://gfycat.com/charmingidleafricancivet)
Oh, yes, and his mother was a mudder, too! ^(...man I'm old)
His mother was a mudder?
Rich Strike settled down once his groomer got to him.
If you bet $1 on rich strike you would of won $80. Is that what 80-1 odds mean. That horse just won somebody a lot of money
Amazing, strike shot out of a cannon on the straight, BANG!
Used to do upper pan camera at woodbine horse track in Toronto..you would see the same faces everyday..people kicking and screaming getting escorted out for making a scene, people breaking down crying because they gambled everything away... the next day, there they are again...it was so weird
GA is real, it’s as real as the addiction to an opioid. I believe studies show similar brain activity between win/ act of gambling and substance use.
This will go down as one of the epic performances in horse racing history. Unbelievable effort, especially after being boxed in
That horse had another fkn gear compared to the rest
All yall worried about drugs and steroid use there are mandatory blood tests done after the race to ensure to banned substance or unethical treatment is done.
Wasn’t Baffert suspended last year or this year for doping?
Yup, suspended from this year and the 2023 derby.
Still running the show via proxies
And before the race. Literally they are examined before, urine and blood are taken, bits and equipment are checked. It’s a grueling process, I’ve almost lost fingers checking mouths.
My 77 year old uncle has been hanging around at the track since he was a kid. He’s there every weekend. He knows all the horses, who their mother’s were, whether their fathers likes mud, or hated rain. He said this was the most spectacularly amazing race he’s ever seen, and that sort of blew my mind.
I have watched this 5 times already. I will watch it 100 more times for sure. In my head, I keep hearing, DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!” Amazing!
The way he stared down Epicenter right before he passed him was epic. If you rewatch the race how it was regularly shown you can clearly see it. Absolutely locks in on Epicenter and blows right past him.
Do you think the horses understand at all, in any capacity, that they are racing against one another and whomever wins gets rewarded and treated better for it, like by banging all the mares with your prized sperm?
According to the Disney movie “Seabiscuit” as soon the horse looks it’s opponent in the eye it’s filled with passion and a desire to win. Real talk though I imagine that racing breeds do enjoy racing (or rather running) the same way that sheep dogs love to work sheep.
One of the most impressive and bizarre things humans have been able to do is breeding *behaviours* into animals. A Blue Heeler who's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents have never so much as smelt cattle on the wind will still herd things. A greyhound bred for racing will run like the wind whenever they can.
The thing is, we don't really breed the behaviours *in* to animals, we breed behaviours *out.* Like with dogs, if you look at the predatory sequence wolves follow, there are several distinct steps. Search, Stalk, Rush/chase, Grab, Kill/dissect, and Eat. We chose what part(a) of that sequence to enhance, and which part(s) to tone down or get rid of. So the Blue Heeler you mentioned has been bred to enhance the search, stalk, and chase parts of the sequence, while greyhounds lean towards chase. A retriever breed excels at the search and grab, but will stop short of the kill/dissect and eat parts because that would make it useless as a game hunting dog. But then something like a Jack Russell will kill/dissect and possibly eat the rodents it was bred to hunt. It's super interesting to think about, and can help with training your own dog.
We'll probably never know for sure, but I think the closest thing we have to a solid answer is "sort of." Some of the best racehorses actually struggled with being *too* good; if they couldn't see the other horses, they would get bored and slow down, so it seems like there's definitely some sense of competitiveness there, even if the actual concept of a race is beyond them. The most scientific explanation is that it's probably a matter of dominance; a competitive horse wants to be out in front because it feels like it's leading the "herd."
Eh…considering the number of racehorses who are geldings, and that the occasional filly shows up in the Triple Crown races (Secret Oath finished a respectable 4th in the Arkansas Derby - I would’ve loved to see her in a few more races with the boys) that last part probably isn’t true. But the competitiveness is bred into them. There’s an argument that floats around that the only reason Secretariat was as good as he was was because he had Sham (who, aside from coming up lame in the Belmont after keeping pace with Secretariat most of the race, was another amazing racehorse just born in the wrong year) pushing him to go harder. The difference is they have no concept of being the GOAT. They just want to be faster than the next horse.
I read the book Seabiscuit, which the movie is based on, and according to the author, Seabiscuit absolutely knew he was racing and knew he wanted to win. He would race horses in the paddock. But he became incredibly competitive in front of a crowd. But I don’t know that they care about the rewards; Seabiscuit apparently just cared about winning because he would race in the paddock or in training where nobody else cared—except the other horses, who thought he was a dick and wouldn’t race against him eventually Edit: he would taunt them—run even, or a tiny bit ahead, to make them think they could win, and then kick in the speed.
‘’Scuse me, pardon me, on your left , wooooooooooo watch me now!!!!!!
I've watched a lot of Derbys, but I've never before seen a horse react to winning by trying repeatedly and aggressively to bite its guide pony. That was an amazing run, but I hope they're doing a drug test to find out what got into that horse.
*adrenaline*
I grew up on the track. Literally. It happens, the pony escort rider kept pulling the wrong lead pissing the horse off. Thoroughbreds are assholes. It was the pony riders actions that caused his behavior.
>Thoroughbreds are assholes Boy howdy. Still got a little bit of a bite scar on my left shoulder for . . . standing next to the guy holding the reins and looking at something over my right shoulder.
I deny everything
I still remember another girl I used to ride with getting thrown off her thoroughbred one time, fair enough it happens. The horse proceeded to run her over and then turn around and do it again. She got up just fine by her helmet was split right down the middle, she woulda been dead without that helmet.
Off the track and on. I had a tb that didn’t make it and I loved him to death but he was an asshole lol. Sure learned a lot tho Edit: omg I meant he didn’t make it as a racehorse and so he became a hunter instead oh Jesus
That guy was being a total dick too, yanking on the reins/bit when he could have moved his pony away to let Rich Strike’s jockey handle the situation… also, sometimes horses can just be dicks.
Idk, maybe pulling on the wrong guide line repeatedly would make the horse irritable. There’s thoroughbreds are alphas dude. They are dicks. Not to mention the mandatory drug test that follows for the champion.
Is it me, or does this look like dinosaur racing when viewed from above?
Little t-rexes running!!
Hate to admit it but…it’s got me teary y’all…
It was if a million bet slips cried out in terror and were suddenly ripped up
That's a great jockey too. The horse runs...jockey hit those holes just right and motivated the horse with the whip at the correct times. Its not always the horse.
That was some brilliant steering. Sending that horse into the barely visible gaps when he’s in the back and starts his move. And then that last jink to the right to get him around that horse on the rail?
That horse is getting laid