USA: Eric Reed, trainer of shock 80-1 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike, has confirmed the colt is likely to run next in the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico in Baltimore on May 21.
UPDATE: Rich Strike to bypass Preakness Stakes
Lexington-based Reed, who is 57, spoke to media a little more than 12 hours after RED TR-Racing LLC’s Rich Strike and Ohio-based jockey Sonny Leon ran down favored Epicenter to triumph by three-quarters of a length.
“If Richie [Dawson, owner] is ready to go and I think it’s the right thing for him, we’re going to go,” Reed said of the Preakness. “I want to go – that’s naturally what we want to do. But I have to do what I’ve done from Day One with this horse, and that’s manage him and take care of him. Because he’ll take care of the rest if I do.”
Reed reported the son of Keen Ice in good form after his Derby exertions. “By 10 o’clock last night, he was wanting more,” he said. “He’s walking sound. His legs look great. No issues, no bumps, no bruises that we can see right now. I don’t think he’s dropped much weight either. He came out of the race in really good shape, thank the Lord.”
Rich Strike will be stationed at Reed’s Lexington base before being shipped to Baltimore, whee he could face a rematch with Epicenter, Zandon and Simplification – second, third and fourth at Churchill Downs – plus Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath.
“He’s a real good shipper,” said Reed, speaking to the Preakness media team. “He takes everything in stride. He’s very calm and relaxed about his training, so we won’t do a whole lot of anything. Go up there, give him a few days on the track, maybe give him a strong gallop.
“I’ve never been hard on him. I space my workouts 10, 12 days instead of seven. I don’t like to run him quick. This will be the first time we’ve had to do that, if this is where it goes. That’s why he’s been so fresh and getting better each race. We haven’t pushed on him.
One in a lifetime
“I don’t get these horses 10, 12 a year like him. I get one in a lifetime,” he added, “so I’ve got to protect him. I’d like him to be here a couple of years.”
Reed trains about 100 horses at Mercury Equine Center, with about 20 horses in Ohio and a few more at Keeneland. “I’ve raced every track in New York, California, Florida, but I’ve never been to Pimlico,” he said.
Reed, who returned to Lexington on Saturday night and then went back to Churchill Downs the following morning, said he didn’t sleep all night.
“It’s sinking in now,” he said of what was only the second career graded-stakes victory of his career. “I’m so proud of this horse and all of my guys, my jockey. It was a team effort from a long time ago. We were just trying to get here.”
It’s rare enough for a Derby winner to have been in a claiming race earlier in his career, but the fact that Rich Strike was taken out of a $30,000 maiden claiming race in his second start could be unprecedented. Reed said he liked Rich Strike’s works at Ellis Park leading up to the colt’s debut in a mile turf race and said he was undeterred when Rich Strike finished 10th, figuring he didn’t like the turf.
Rich Strike then won by 17 lengths the day he was claimed at Churchill Downs last September. That was his only victory until the Derby, though he ran respectably in four of five prior races for Reed and Oklahoma-based owner Rick Dawson, accumulating a trio of thirds and a fourth. His only poor effort came in the Gun Runner Stakes on Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds, when Epicenter beat him by 14 lengths.
‘I knew he’d show them he belonged’
The start that got Rich Strike into the Derby was his third-place finish in the Jeff Ruby Steaks over Turfway Park’s Tapeta surface. “When he got back on the dirt from the Tapeta [following three races at Turfway], his stride got better,” Reed said. “He started getting stronger. He was getting more cocky. I knew he’d show them he belonged. I never dreamed he’d be able to pass all the horses.”
Reed said he did not see the finish of the Derby until watching a replay. “When I saw that move at the quarter pole, I told my dad that might get us on the board,” he said, referring to former trainer Herbert Reed. “Then I don’t really remember what happened except my back gave out on me.
“I ended up on the ground before the horse even crossed the wire. All my friends and family just piled on top of me. They were shaking me and screaming, ‘You won the Derby! You won the Derby!’
“When they got me back on my feet – a couple of guys knew my back was bad, they helped me get up gently. They patted me on the back, wanting to carry me down the tunnel. I said, ‘I can walk now. Just get me back up.’”
Reed said he’d had such media attention only once before, in the wake of a tragic barn fire that killed 23 of his horses in 2016. “It wasn’t under these good circumstances,” said Reed.
“I’m so happy to be here with a bright sunny day and everybody happy. When I started training at 18, I never thought I’d be in the Derby. I watched it every year. I was never envious or jealous. I rooted for all the local guys that tried to win it, that I grew up with training. We were all the same age, and they all got here [to the Derby] and had horses run well. I was so happy for those guys.
“Just getting into the Derby, to me, was like a win. I can’t put into words how it feels. “But, I was so happy for my wife [Kay], my crew and to have my dad beside me. That was the best part for me,” he added.
‘Do not let this take you out'
“I truthfully thought the day after the fire that all the stuff I had done over the years – and I’d been very successful for what we had started with – that maybe it was time to take a break, or telling me maybe it wasn’t meant to be anymore.
“I had some big-time trainers – the guys who get talked to [by the media] every day – send me texts and kind words, and offer money, clients and horses to keep me in this. There’s one – I’m not going to mention the name, but he’s in California – who said, ‘Do not let this take you out.’
“Between that and the kindness from everybody and my help – who the day after that tragedy, cleaned the stalls and fed the horses and went back to the track with the horses that needed to train – that let me know that I wasn’t going to go out that way. That I would go out on my own terms.”
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