War Emblem led from the start and pulled away at the finish to win the 128th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, becoming the first wire-to-wire winner of America's greatest horse race since 1988.
War Emblem led from the start and pulled away at the finish to win the 128th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, becoming the first wire-to-wire winner of America's greatest horse race since 1988.
The colt ridden by Mexican jockey Victor Espinoza was a 20-1 longshot at post time who paid 43 dollars for the triumph, the first start-to-finish victory over the 1.25-mile race since Winning Colors 14 years ago.
"By the half-mile pole, I knew I had more horse than everyone behind me," Espinoza said.
Proud Citizen settled for second, four lengths back, with Perfect Drift third, another three-quarters of a length behind.
The fifth largest crowd in Derby history, 145,033 spectators, watched the seventh-fastest Derby in history, completed in two minutes and one second.
War Emblem's fifth victory in seven career starts gave veteran trainer Bob Baffert his third Derby triumph even though he only began working with the horse three weeks ago, when Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Salman bought the son of Our Emblem.
The price bought War Emblem after his Illinois Derby triumph and went to Baffert, who did not have an entry planned otherwise. Together, they made the prince's dream of victory come true in a wide-open field of 18 three-year-olds.
"It has been a dream of mine to win this race for so many years," Salman said. "I would like to thank Bob Baffert. He is the genius."
Baffert has won three of the past six Derbys, also taking the roses with Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in 1998.
Baffert's advice to Espinoza was simply to get the lead clean, control the pace from the front and wait as late as possible before making the final full-speed run.
"He must have said, 'Don't move until the last minute,' about 100 times," Espinoza said. "I said, 'What do you want me to do, not move all the way around?' Finally I listened to him. It wasn't that hard. It was kind of easy."
War Emblem can become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to sweep the American "Triple Crown" by winning the Preakness in two weeks and the Belmont Stakes next month.
"I'm not thinking about the Preakness," Espinoza said. "I'm thinking about celebrating."
There was a brief concern that War Emblem might have blocked Perfect Drift at the start of his breakaway run to the finish, but third-place trainer Eddie Delahoussaye saw no grounds to protest the result.
"He had so much horse," Delahoussaye said. "If he had beaten me by a neck, maybe I would. But that horse had me all the way around there. He just kept going."
Harlan's Holiday and Saarland, both starting at 6-1, were the highest-priced betting favorites in Kentucky Derby history. But Harlan's Holiday finished seventh and Saarland was 10th.
Johannesburg, the Irish-bred favorite with did not arrive at Churchill Downs until the morning of the race, settled for eighth after going off at 7-1.
The mystery horse had won seven of eight starts and more than one million dollars in earnings after taking last year's Breeders' Cup, but finished second at the Gladness, a seven-furlong Irish turf event that was its only race since the Breeders' triumph.
Only 18 of the original 20-horse field started. Wood Memorial winner Buddha was scratched after turning up lame and Danthebluegrassman was scratched after suffering muscle spasms in a Saturday morning run.
AFP