Mage wins Kentucky Derby as Churchill Downs waits to see if roller-coaster week lingers
This was a Kentucky Derby run-up that soured the race itself in ways the sport could not imagine, let alone afford. Did you get a gander of that hat, the one rivaling the Eiffel Tower? Did another horse die Saturday, after the second race?
another horse euthanized in the ashes of the eighth, pushing the stomach-turning toll to at least seven lost at Churchill Downs since last week?
An eye-catching seersucker suit dazzled in one direction. A Kentucky state veterinarian ousted race favorite Forte for health-concern headaches in another.
Horse racing already operates on fragile footing in the bruising colosseum of public opinion. The first week in May is earmarked for a regal celebration of the sport, linked this lap to the 50 anniversary of Secretariat’s riveting Triple Crown sprint.
A year from now, the center of the Derby universe becomes the 150 running of an American staple dating to Alexander Graham Bell’s days tinkering with a telecommunications game-changer in 1875.
Now this. Now here.
The fact that out-of-right-field, 15-1 Mage thundered home to snag the storied garland of roses in 2:01.57 will not be the lasting memory of this week, no matter the public-relationships gymnastics employed to knot a neat and tidy bow.
As everyone among the 150,355 held their breath while the race loomed, the least divisive thought was that all those with two and four legs sidled back to the barn healthy and whole.
You could feel stakeholders ranging from the track and television to owners and trainers vacillating between sharing some news, showing some concern, saying some of the right things without becoming perceived accomplices in damage amounting to a gargantuan ulcer for the industry.
At the precise moment the focus fixes on racing, including the mainstream’s annual two-minute check in, many covered their eyes and gingerly peeked between bunched fingers.
In Kentucky, the Mint Juleps will continue to flow as robustly as cigar sales and luxury suite passes. Memories can run remarkably short on the first Saturday in May.
Meanwhile the rest of the country outside of strongholds sprinkled from Saratoga to Southern California, those masses with untapped sway, are molding how they feel about all of this.
The sport has been tested recently, like few others.
In 2019, Maximum Security crossed the finish line first before a 22-minute inquiry into the objection of riders led to unprecedented fireworks that unseated a thought-to-be champion for the first time.
In 2021, Medina Spirit found the winner’s circle before 18 others until a drug-test violation disqualified the horse more than nine months later. That sparked a two-year suspension for trainer Bob Baffert and an ugly swirl involving the sport’s most controversial and high-profile name.
This week alone, five horses were scratched from the day’s most monied race. Saffie Joseph Jr., a trainer who had two horses die under his watch as the Derby neared, was benched by Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stewards. Then on Saturday, Chloe’s Dream was euthanized after the conclusion of Race 2. The same fate awaited Freezing Point at the close of Race 8.
The normally festive romance with the event felt hushed as those with the most skin in the game attempted to side-step the stains along the way.
The lens used to view those who clearly handle things by the book in the sport always is smaller, it should be stated. Perceptions of the good and uncomfortably bad volley back and forth like a long rally on Centre Court at Wimbledon. One of the cloud-lifting storylines was resilient Mage jockey Javier Castellano, who won for the first time in 16 Derby starts.
“When I was in the jockey room and NBC put ‘0‑15 Javier Castellano,’ in that moment, it (gave) me so much inspiration myself,” he said. “And I think, this is the year. … I’m going to win the race.”
Horse racing desperately needs more of that and less of, well, so much else.
Trainer and Del Mar regular Tim Yakteen sorted through some of the uncertainty of it all while discussing his emotional-but-admirable decision to pull one of his two Derby horses, Practical Move, after a fever developed Thursday.
“When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, you know that until you’re actually in the starting gates, at any point, something could not fall your way,” he said.
Yakteen’s other horse Reincarnate, a transfer from the sidelined Baffert, challenged the leaders until mid-race before the gas tank emptied and the colt faded to 13. Hit Show, a 24-1 shot for Gary and Mary West of Rancho Santa Fe, fought into contention late and finished fifth.
With the Derby in the rearview mirror, Yakteen reinforced an over-arching sentiment.
“It wasn’t our day,” Yakteen said. “The most important thing is the horse came out of it OK.”
When the crowds thinned, some asked: How much did Mattress Mack wager on the Derby? As the parking lots cleared, plenty surely thought: How much did this week stagger the sport, which is always fighting an uphill battle for support and acceptance?
Memories are fleeting at this place from one May to the next.
Should they be? That’s up to you to decide.
