Reed keeps Kentucky Derby dreams alive with Rich Strike
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eric Reed has a Kentucky Derby horse. Rich Strike might not become an actual Derby starter, depending on what happens in the next two weeks, but his name will appear on the Churchill Downs program as part of the field for the Derby on May 7 nonetheless.
It’s a scenario that has Reed excited. Rich Strike earned 21 points with a pair of distant third-place finishes in Turfway Park qualifying races, and as of Wednesday, the colt was No. 24 on the updated points standings. Churchill permits as many as four also-eligibles (Nos. 21 to 24) listed on the program in case of scratches from the 20-horse “main body” after post positions are drawn the Monday before the race (May 2). With no more qualifying races remaining, Rich Strike already has made the also-eligibles list, at the very least – and given enough defections before the May 6 scratch deadline, the late-running colt might actually make the starting gate.
“That’s great,” Reed said early this week from his Mercury equine center just outside Lexington. “We weren’t sure exactly how it all worked, but we’re happy about it. We’ll run any way we can.”
Reed, 57, has racked up 1,441 wins since he began training in 1985, with only one of those coming in a graded stakes. His stable is geared more toward Turfway, Belterra Park, Mahoning Valley, Horseshoe Indianapolis, and Mountaineer, but he does run occasionally at Keeneland and Churchill. Running in the Derby would realize a lifelong dream.
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“It’s almost unimaginable, to be honest,” said Reed, whose stable was ravaged by a tragic fire that killed 23 horses in December 2016. “I never thought this would even be a possibility. We just don’t have clients that go out looking for those kinds of horses.”
Rich Strike was claimed last September from an easy victory in a $30,000 maiden-claiming race at Churchill by Reed on behalf of a new client, RED TR-Racing, owned by Rick Dawson, an Oklahoma resident semi-retired from the energy business. After finishing third in a Keeneland allowance in October, the Keen Ice colt was scratched from the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill in late November, then “got a little sick,” said Reed, when failing to make his next intended race, the Springboard Mile at Remington Park a few weeks later.
His second start under new silks resulted in a distant fifth-place finish at 46-1 behind Epicenter in the Gun Runner on Dec. 26at Fair Grounds, after which he returned home to Mercury and then shipped to Turfway to run third in the Jan. 22 Leonatus, third in the March 5 John Battaglia (for one Derby point), and third in the Jeff Ruby (for 20 Derby points), all when ridden by Sonny Leon, who would have the Derby mount. His career-high Beyer Speed Figure is 84.
Rich Strike’s record pales in comparison to the Derby favorites, including Epicenter, and in fact the chestnut colt is still eligible for a first-level allowance. But Reed believes the Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles would help Rich Strike immensely.
“The farther the better for him,” said Reed, “and every race of his that got a little farther, he got a whole lot better. I truly thought we’d win the Ruby, but he got a little too far back” when rallying from 11th to finish 5 3/4 lengths behind the winner, Tiz the Bomb.
If Rich Strike makes the race, might he be the first 99-1 shot in the Derby in more than 20 years? The Derby hasn’t had a starter at triple-digit odds since 2001, when Startac was 10th at 102-1 and Arctic Boy was 12th at 101-1.
“I don’t know about any of that,” Reed said. “We’d just love to be in it.”
* Crown Pride, winner of the UAE Derby, breezed a half-mile in 49.80 seconds Tuesday at Churchill when accentuating the difference in standard training methods used in Japan versus those in America. The Japanese-bred colt worked six furlongs Saturday in 1:18.60.