Bill Haisten: Andrew Warren's 33-to-1 run at Kentucky Derby glory
Owned by a Tulsan, Andrew Warren, Raise Cain starts Saturday’s Kentucky Derby from the 16th post position.
Derby winners from the 16th gate: Thunder Gulch in 1995, Charismatic in 1999, Monarchos in 2001 and Animal Kingdom in 2011.
As a 13-year-old Cascia Hall student, Warren actually witnessed the Thunder Gulch victory. Warren was at Churchill Downs that day with his father — Tulsa icon William K. Warren.
Mr. Warren owned a horse — Knockadoon — that finished seventh in the 1995 Derby.
A William Warren-owned horse, Denis of Cork, started from the 16th position in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. At 20-1, Denis of Cork finished third.
Tournament director and longtime Cedar Ridge Country Club member Frank Billings says the May 12-14 LIV event will be a high-energy, great-golf experience for patrons.
On March 4 at Aqueduct in New York, Raise Cain prevailed in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes. For the Kentucky Derby, according to odds that were updated early Thursday evening on kentuckyderby.com, Raise Cain was at 33-to-1.
Longshot entries have gotten shocking results.
Last year’s outcome was unforgettable. Rich Strike was an 80-1 entry that had been added to the field only one day before the 2022 Derby.
Rich Strike trailed by 17 lengths at the half-mile mark but weaved through traffic and scored one of the more improbable victories in Triple Crown history.
Andrew Warren and his wife Rania have been in Louisville all week — primarily because Warren wanted to be in the room when post positions were drawn on Monday. He hoped for something within the 9-13 window but didn’t grouse when Raise Cain was assigned to the 16th position.
“I didn’t want 1 through 6,” Warren told the Tulsa World. “They’re all trying to move to the rail, to get into the first turn. With 16, the benefit is that you don’t have to use all of your speed early in the race. I think it fits (Raise Cain’s) running style — not going to the lead early, but making a late run.
“So for us, 16 isn’t bad. The favorite in the race (Forte) is in 15, the third choice (Angel of Empire) is in 14 and the fifth choice (Derma Sotogake) is in 17. So, we’re in good company there.”
The 41-year-old Warren was a Cascia Hall tennis athlete and graduated in 2001. He would go on, as is father had, to attend Notre Dame.
The Derby is televised on NBC. The 1¼-mile race begins at 5:45 p.m. Central time. Raise Cain is trained by Ben Colebrook and ridden by jockey Gerardo Corrales, who in 2023 has 50 victories, 43 second-place finishes and 43 third-place finishes.
When Andrew Warren was asked how he expects to feel during the final few hours before the Derby, he replied, “I’ll be freaking out all day. I’ll try not to. I’ll be trying to mitigate it as much as possible.
“This is one of those things you (might) do only once in your life. When would I ever do this again? I want to enjoy and cherish the moment.”
Warren shared statistics that underscore the difficulty in securing a place in the Kentucky Derby field: “Let’s say 20,000 (Thoroughbred) horses born a year. Let’s say 9,000 or 10,000 of them are colts. Only 20 of them can get into the gate at the Kentucky Derby.
“Odds-wise, unless you have a lot of horses to work with, it’s a rarity to be in the Derby.”
William Warren-owned Saint Liam prevailed in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Classic and was voted the Eclipse Award Horse of the Year. Another William Warren horse, City of Light, was a four-time winner in 2018. Those victories included the Oaklawn Handicap and, by nearly three lengths at Churchill Downs, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
Andrew Warren purchased Raise Cain for $180,000 in the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale — the horse racing industry’s most important sale of the year.
“Initially, I was more focused on the breeding side of the sport than the racing side,” the younger Warren explained. “I ended up flipping and getting deeper into the racing side than I expected.”
When Raise Cain won in the Gotham Stakes, that race took place on a muddy track. In Louisville on Saturday, there’s the expectation of cloud cover and a dry, fast surface.
