It was an exciting but very rainy first Saturday of May, as they ran the 136th Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky at Churchill Downs. The day was full of some exciting races but none was as exciting as the main event with the field of 20 horses in the “most exciting 2 minutes in sports”. It was a wide field of owners of these fine animals from a group of everyday people from Kentucky, to baseball manager Joe Torre, to politician Jack Conway. This race shows that anyone can have a chance at owning one of the fastest and most beautiful horses in the sport of kings. The race began around 6:30 PM when the jockeys hop on their horses for an exciting ride but before starting they hear the state song “My Old Kentucky Home” which brings a tear to the jockeys and all Kentuckians. This is their super bowl their moment of greatness.
The story coming in to the derby was the record of horse trainer Todd Pletcher, who coming in to the race had not won with 24 different horses prior to this year’s run. Some people start to wonder about his ability to train a horse to get them ready for the derby, he is a great trainer and had horses win other stakes races but never the big one. This year his luck had changed at Super Saver made his way in to the winning circle with now three time derby winner Calvin Borel upon his back, this was also the first win for the Winstar Farm group.
How did Super Saver make it to be the one horse with the roses around its neck? Well Super Saver got a great jump out of the gate has he moves to the inside rail and seats in fourth place up until about the one mile mark as he passes only one horse and all of a sudden Borel kicks into another gear as he does like last he rides the rail to win. Borel has made a name himself as being a jockey who loves to ride the inside rail but he is also puts in the work. He works seven days a week at Churchill Downs watching horses and preparing for the run for the roses. He becomes the first Jockey to ever win three derby races in four years, and he says that this is his year to win the Triple Crown. He was one race away from being the first jockey to win the Crown on two different horses last year. I will him the best of luck in the Preakness Stakes race in Baltimore, Maryland on the 1 and 3/16th mile race on May 15th.
