The colt’s jockey, trainer and owner are anything but racing royalty, but they are the kind of story the sport needs right now.
By Sunday afternoon, Eric Reed’s eyes were hooded, and his voice was as scratchy as a transistor radio. He had been unable to sleep, thanks to the entirely welcome replay loop of his colt Rich Strike scooting up the rail of Churchill Downs and into the history books as the 80-1 winner of the 148th Kentucky Derby. Reed was the sole spokesman — for now at least — of this impossible dream. The horse’s jockey, Sonny Leon, who was equally little known before Saturday, was on his way with his family to Florida for a vacation that was on the calendar long before Rich Strike became an 11th-hour entrant in the Derby. When you crisscross Ohio and Kentucky to ride more than 1,100 races a year, you take days off where you can find them. Leon was fine bringing his wife and 2-month-old daughter to Churchill Downs for a slight detour. After all, the Derby is the race that defines American thoroughbred racing. Perhaps only the most dedicated railbirds knew Leon’s name at post time. Leon had never won a graded stakes race, considered the majors of the sport, before Saturday. He never had a mount in the Derby. No worries. A 32-year-old Venezuelan, Leon treated it like the fifth race at Belterra Park or at Mahoning Valley, casino racetracks in Ohio where the patrons come more for the ding, ding of slot machines than to watch thoroughbreds run around in a circle. Leon was going to give Rich Strike the same effort that made him the 11th-ranked jockey in the nation when it came to victories in 2021.
