Kentucky Derby 2022

The 2022 Kentucky Derby is here and looking to turn the page after two of the last three races were tarnished by disqualified winners.

In smaller field races, there’s an inside bias of establishing an inside position going into the first turn and having a shorter trip around the race track. Churchill Downs used a new starting gate in 2020 for the Derby, with all 20 gates on a single starting gate. Of note: Because superfectas are tricky to predict, they can offer big payouts in a race like the Derby ($51,400 in 2019), but they can get expensive. This allows you to put the heavy favorite on top, three horses that could finish second, and then a long shot or two in third. 🤔 Aloha West, who won the BC Sprint, is back off the layoff.— Katherine Terrell (@Kat_Terrell) https://t.co/cq1l1bFoHC May 7, 2022 His jockey and trainer, Joel Rosario and Steven Asmussen, will team up again with Kentucky Derby favorite Epicenter. Epicenter leads all horses with 13 percent bet on the No. 3 horse. In its simplest traditional form, a Mint Julep is made with fresh mint, bourbon (not whisky), simple syrup, and shaved or crushed ice. It’s all three bets on one ticket, and while it costs more (betting $2 across the board is a $6 bet), you could still get a chunk of money even if that longshot comes in third. Nobody has won from inside post since 1986, will have to drop back and avoid traffic to have a chance. The good thing about Derby Day is that so much money is being put in the pools, and a lot of it from casual betters, that you can often get a good price on a favorite. Twenty horses make up this year's field, led by favorites Epicenter, Taiba, Zandon and Messier. There will be no Bob Baffert; the six-time Derby-winning trainer was suspended after Medina Spirit's DQ from last year's race.

Rich Strike overcame the longest odds on the board to beat out race favorite Epicenter for a stunning victory in the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby.

Chad Brown, considered the best turf trainer in the country, was bringing morning line favorite Zandon to the race. The horse was lucky to even be in the race. Perhaps one of the most intriguing was Taiba, a horse that had run only twice. In fact, Asmussen is the sport’s all-time leading trainer for wins. Then surging on the inside came the little-known and respected colt Rich Strike, who blew past them to win by three-quarters of a length. The race started with Summer Is Tomorrow and Crown Pride going to the front with blistering fractions of 21.48 seconds for the first quarter and 45.36 for the half.

'I'm in shock': 250-1 outsider stuns in second biggest upset in Kentucky Derby history.

“We just knew that we had a shot because every time he went longer he got better. The colt, trained by Eric Reed and ridden by Sonny Leon, gained a place in the field when Ethereal Road was scratched. Rich Strike, an 80-1 longshot who only got into the field on Friday, pulled off a stunning upset victory in the 148th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

The Sporting News tracked live race updates and highlights for the 2022 Kentucky Derby. Follow along for complete results from Saturday's race.

According to Blood Horse, Rich Strike was claimed by Reed for $30,000 after winning a race at Churchill Downs in September. Sonny Leon was Rich Strike's jockey during the race. I'm so happy," trainer Eric Reed told NBC Sports after the race. 7:08 p.m.: The unofficial top four: Rich Strike, Epicenter, Zandon and Simplification. Rich Strike was at 80-1 odds to win the Kentucky Derby. According to the Pekin Daily Times, Rich Strike had the second-longest odds of any horse to win the Kentucky Derby at 80-1, behind only Donerail in 1913 at 91-1 odds. Reed had never had a horse in the Kentucky Derby prior to this race. Rich Strike was not even supposed to be in the 2022 Kentucky Derby. Ethereal Road was set to start in the No. 20 post, rounding out the field of horses in the race.

Eric Reed's horse pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Kentucky Derby.

The trainer was also stripped of the victory, fined $7,500 and forced to forfeit all the purse money. “This is the most unbelievable day ever … it’s like having a football team and winning a Super Bowl …with one player.” Rich Strike finished the “Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” with a 2:02.61 time to secure first place in the race. Leon, a Venezuelan native who started his career at 15 in Youngstown, Ohio, said after the race that the win was everything. “I kept him right because, I think I got this Kentucky Derby. ... I think I got this race. Reed’s horse pulled off the win against some of the other favorites like Epicenter, who entered the race with the best odds and finished second on Saturday.

"What a crazy Derby," said trainer Kenny McPeek, whose horses finished eighth and ninth. Jockey Sonny Leon aboard Rich Strike (21) wins the148th running ...

Reed typed, "I think our horse is cool and ready to run." "People I hadn't seen, people I haven't talked to in years, my best friends were there in the morning to pick me up," Reed recalled. "And so anybody that's in this business, lightening can strike." Last year's winner, Medina Spirit, was disqualified after nine months, having failed a post-race drug test that led to six-time Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert being banned from Churchill Downs for two years. "I about fell down in the paddock when he hit the wire," winning trainer Eric Reed said. Leon eventually guided his mount between horses and to the inside rail. Rich Strike earned USD$1.86 million for his first stakes victory. "We found out about 30 seconds before the deadline on Friday," owner Rick Dawson said. Rich Strike made a deft move around Messier in the stretch and went right back to the rail intent on picking off Epicenter and Zandon. But he matched wits with such veteran riders as Joel Rosario, aboard Epicenter, and Mike Smith, aboard Messier. The colt lost to Zandon in the Blue Grass Stakes last month and was beaten by Epicenter in the Louisiana Derby in March. "It put us in the race and really we always felt if we just got in we've got a shot."

Rich Strike etched his name in Derby history as one of the biggest surprises to ever win the race.

Ironically, owner Willis Sharpe Kilmer had initially bought Exterminator not to race, but to help train two year old Sun Briar, a U.S. Champion. He and jockey Bobby Ussery won the 93rd Kentucky Derby by a length, while also registering what was the third-fastest time at that point at 2:00.60. Apollo did not follow the usual path other Kentucky Derby winners have. If you could use a time machine to make a bet on any race, this would be the one. 7. Apollo (1882), 32-1 5. Giacomo (2005), 50-1 Although he was a longshot, the horse did have winning in its blood as his father was Birdstone, the 2004 Kentucky Derby winner. Maximum Security finished the race ahead by 1 3/4 lengths, but was eventually disqualified after Country House jockey Flavien Prat filed an objection. He claimed that the winning horse had come out of his lane in the final turn and made contact with another horse named War of Will, who then made contact his horse. Here is the full CBS Sports story on Rich Strike's win. Rich Strike pulled a huge upset during the 2022 Kentucky Derby by winning against 80-1 odds. Jockey Roscoe Goose, a Louisville native, had a successful career and went on to become one of the inaugural class of inductees in the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 1963.

Extreme long-shot and latecomer Rich Strike has taken the world, and the Kentucky Derby, by surprise. The 80-1 long-shot was only admitted to the race on ...

Altogether not as salubrious were the performances of the nineteen other more loved and highly touted contenders, which is diplomatic way of saying that Rich Strike did not just ‘win’ the Kentucky Derby, he put the favorites, every last one of them, in the shade. Seeming as stunned at the upset as the rest of the 100,000-plus Churchill faithful, the victor’s connections dutifully filed into the winner’s circle for the obligatory speeches and the trophy. On his spirited gallop out past the wire, the colt seemed to be saying he’d be ready for more. With four career starts to his name, none of which were in 2022, Rich Strike was arguably best known, and largely discounted, for his lackluster fifth-place run last December against Epicenter at Louisiana’s Fair Grounds. Epicenter won that race handily. The game chestnut colt delivered heartily down the lane to the wire. Rich Strike was trained by Eric Reed and ridden by his formidable jockey, Sonny Leon, both of whom will now become far better known than they were saddling up in the paddock, an hour ago at this writing.