Eric Reed is a folk hero – and it took an 80-1 winner of the Kentucky Derby to finally bring that fact to light.
Only after Rich Strike became the second-longest-priced winner in race history with his $163.60 mutuel in the May 7 Derby has it become known what Reed overcame to get there as the winning trainer. His perseverance and inner strength away from the racetrack add to what was already an incredible tale.
ELMONT, N.Y. – He didn’t run in the Kentucky Derby. He didn’t run in the Preakness. And in his first stakes try, We the People didn’t do much running, finishing seventh of nine in the Arkansas Derby. The best horses from that race and the other final round of Derby preps all went on to races like the Derby and Preakness, while We the People was rerouted to the Peter Pan.
BELMONT PARK
Weather: Clear
Track: Fast
Temp: 65
ELMONT, N.Y. - Any notion that RICH STRIKE had emptied the tank with his monster performance a month earlier at Churchill Downs may have finally been dismissed once and for all here Tuesday morning. The Kentucky Derby winner turned in an eye-catching two-mile gallop over the main track shortly after the renovation break.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Be it going six furlongs or twice that far, speed, handicappers long have been told, is always dangerous.
So even though the Belmont Stakes is a testing 1 1/2 miles, the likelihood that We the People will be loose on the lead Saturday, over a track at which he just scored a front-running victory in the Peter Pan, propelled We the People to the morning-line favorite over the likes of Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike and six others when the field for the 154th Belmont was drawn Tuesday here at Belmont Park.
The Eclipse Awards ceremony honoring this year’s champions will be held Jan. 26, 2023, at The Breakers Palm Beach, a Florida resort, the administrators of the ceremony announced Tuesday.
The Eclipse Awards ceremony is held annually in Thoroughbred racing to present awards to the horses and individuals who have been voted champions in their categories. In addition, the winner of the Horse of the Year is typically revealed at the ceremony.
VIP pre-sale tickets will go on sale Nov. 7, and general ticket sales will begin a week later.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Before there was Rich Strike, there was Sarava.
Twenty years before Rich Strike became the second-longest shot to win the Kentucky Derby at 80-1, Sarava upset the 2002 Belmont Stakes at 70-1. The $142.50-win mutuel still ranks as the highest-priced winner in the 153 runnings of the race.
Ken McPeek was the trainer of Sarava, who under Edgar Prado beat Medaglia d’Oro by a half-length in the same race in which War Emblem was going for the Triple Crown.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer John Ortiz as a child attended Gotham Avenue School, about a half-mile south of Belmont Park and years later graduated from Elmont High School. His father, Carlos, a Colombian immigrant, galloped horses for some 15 years for New York legend Bill Mott after his jockey career came to an end. It was going to work for Mott at Belmont that steered a 16-year-old John Ortiz toward a life of his own in racing.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Bobby Flay is going back for seconds.
Five days before the 2016 Belmont Stakes, the celebrity chef purchased a minority interest in the 3-year-old Creator, who rewarded that investment with a nose victory in the Belmont.
Monday, Flay bought a minority interest in the colt We the People, who will make his next start – potentially as the favorite – in Saturday’s 154th Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The New York State Gaming Commission fined Frank Gabriel, the New York Racing Association senior vice president of racing operations, $4,000 for “failing to follow proper claiming protocol” resulting in the track stewards voiding the claim of the horse Battalion on May 28 at Belmont Park, according to a commission ruling posted Sunday on its website.
