While other news outlets have upbeat reports on the Kentucky Derby, leave it to Fox News to post a negative story. The headline reads: 4 horses have died at Churchill Downs ahead of 149th Kentucky Derby. It focuses on the negative side of horse racing at the one time during the year that the general public shows interest in the sport. No one wants a horse to get hurt during a race. But any racing fan knows it can happen when you least expect it. There have been a lot of changes in the last few years to improve safety. But despite new rules, you are never going to eliminate every risk to horse and jockey.
Two of the horses were injured during training and two got hurt while racing. The story says that two of the horses had the same owner and trainer. That is suspicious. They also say that Luis Saez was the jockey on both horses, but he was only on one of them for the same owner/trainer. It feels like an attempt to put blame on Luis Saez who is scheduled to ride Tapit Trice for trainer Todd Pletcher in the derby on Saturday. Saez is known for being an aggressive rider. He has an 18%-win rate and 46% of the time finishes in the top 3. But every ride isn’t going to end well if you are riding 1500 races per year. His closest attempt at winning the derby was in 2019 when riding Maximum Security. He was disqualified from first and placed seventeenth for veering out in the stretch and causing other horses to stack up.
The Kentucky Derby is an event that celebrates horse racing. It entices people with the chance to win big money. But with 20 horses in the race, it is very difficult to handicap. I will only be playing a few exacta, trifecta and win wagers. My favorites to win are Forte, Angel of Empire, and Practical Move. My long shot win bets are: Derma Sotogake (JPN) and Verifying (KY).