Rich Strike suffers new injury, next 60 days will be crucial
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Rich Strike, the 2022 Kentucky Derby winner, has suffered another setback in his longshot attempt to make it back to the races and his future will likely be determined in the next 60 days, owner Rick Dawson said Sunday.
Rich Strike, who had spent the last two months in Saratoga and had four workouts under the tutelage of trainer Bill Mott, has a new injury to his left foreleg, Dawson said. The horse will be on medication for a 30-day period and then, following another 30 days off medication, an ultrasound will be performed to determine how the issue is healing, Dawson said.
Dawson said Mott sensed an issue shortly after Rich Strike’s most recent workout, a half-mile in 50.88 seconds over the Oklahoma training track on Aug. 7. An ultrasound showed a slight tear to the suspensory ligament, but in a different area than where the horse previously had an issue in the same leg, Dawson said.
“It’s in the same front left suspensory ligament, but it’s in a different location than his previous injury,” Dawson said. “In a sense I guess that’s good in that what we did heal and what we did treat had held up. In a different view, it’s not good.”
Rich Strike has been relocated from Saratoga to Margaux Farm in Midway, Ky., where he spent the better part of a year before being shipped to Saratoga in late June.
Rich Strike has not raced since May 2023, when he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs, his only start of his 4-year-old season. Dawson said when he had to stop on Rich Strike for the previous injury to his suspension, he said he was told there would be only about “20-to-25-percent chance” that Rich Strike would be able to get back to the races. Dawson said he does not plan another long, arduous rehabilitation process to get Rich Strike, now 5, back to the races.
“I can’t predict what I’ll do in 60 days,” Dawson said. “I do know that I’m not going to put him through a year of rehabilitation even though he likes to train, likes to go to the track. I would never train him in such a way he’s not happy about it. We’ll make a decision and if he can’t make it back, I’ll look to make a stallion deal.”
Rich Strike, who was trained by Eric Reed when he won the Kentucky Derby at odds of 80-1, is by Keen Ice out of the Smart Strike mare Brassy Gold, a four-time stakes winner. Rich Strike has a record of 2-1-3 from 14 starts and earnings of $2,526,809.
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