West proposes $5 million bet involving Maximum Security
Gary West, the co-owner of Maximum Security, the horse disqualified from first in the Kentucky Derby, has offered to wager $5 million head-to-head against the owners of four of the horses who raced in the Derby in any of Maximum Security’s next matchups with the horses.
The offer, which was outlined in a release from West’s public-relations representative on Friday, is contingent upon the owners of any of the four horses agreeing to the $5 million bet prior to the race. The horses that West said he would accept a $5 million head-to-head bet with were all impacted by Maximum Security when he veered away from the rail at the top of the stretch, including Country House, who was declared the winner of the Derby, plus War of Will (7th in the Derby following the DQ), Bodepxress (13th), and Long Range Toddy (16th).
In a release, West said that the offers “have no bearing and nothing to do with his horse’s disqualification in the Kentucky Derby.” West has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the disqualification, and he has publicly stated that War of Will was responsible for the incident, despite video evidence to the contrary and a unanimous ruling by the Churchill stewards.
Maximum Security was placed 17th in the Derby after stewards determined that he had impeded the progress of War of Will and set off a chain reaction among horses to his outside. The chart of the race states that Maximum Security “veered out sharply forcing War of Will out into Long Range Toddy and Bodexpress nearing the five-sixteenths pole.” Country House was outside of those horses at the time.
The release states that the bet would be accepted with “no restrictions as to the type of race, what racetrack it is held at, or the distance or the track surface.” However, it does state that the “offer is valid only for the next time Maximum Security meets any of the aforementioned horses in a race, whether it is the same race or in four separate races.”
West, who owns Maximum Security with his wife, Mary, is a billionaire who made his money in the telecommunications industry. He said he would donate any earnings from the head-to-head bets to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys’ Fund.