He considered leaving the horse business after tragedy struck. Now this trainer just won the Kentucky Derby
2 min read“When we drove up on that that night, I explained to my wife, I said, ‘we’ve almost certainly missing every thing,’ ” Reed recounted this week. “The following morning, when we noticed the devastation … I just imagined of all the yrs and all the things we experienced completed to get this lovely farm and to have this happen, that anything could be telling me it is the close of the line.”
That was 2016.
Reed didn’t give up, and with mates — and in some cases strangers — who confirmed up to assistance, he continued education. “I just made a decision, I wasn’t heading to enable it choose me out.”
Rich Strike, the horse he trains, entered as the biggest extended shot in the race (80-1 odds) and surged forward in the house stretch to cross the finish line initially with a 2:02.61 time.
The victory was all the a lot more amazing since Wealthy Strike wasn’t even in the industry until finally Friday, when derby officers announced a different horse pulled out. Reed instructed reporters he introduced his crew down a couple times right before the race, on the possibility the horse might get a chance to run, to start out preparing “in opposition to all odds.”
“No one thought we could get in,” he stated. When the horse arrived in first location, Reed nearly passed out. Prosperous Strike is his first profitable horse in the derby.
“Every person would love to gain the Derby. I often would, but I under no circumstances believed I would be in this article, at any time,” Reed reported.
CNN’s Kevin Dotson contributed to this report.
