Preakness? Belmont? After Derby upset, Rich Strike’s team faces chance, and choice, of a lifetime

Someday round 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, about seven hours after his horse had pulled off the best Kentucky Derby upset in a century, Eric Reed lastly stretched out on his mattress. However sleep on Sunday was as uncatchable as his horse Wealthy Strike had been on Saturday.

Reed, who’s skilled Wealthy Strike since final September, couldn’t cease working the race in his thoughts, even after watching it dozens of occasions on the Churchill Downs screens and, later, at house with pals who had waited till properly previous midnight for him to return. Each time, Wealthy Strike bobs and weaves via site visitors, coming from actually the again of the pack, sliding via 17 different horses like mercury, then recognizing daylight and slicing to the within, outrunning the 2 overwhelming favorites with solely a scant few yards to spare.

Reed remembered embracing his father Herb, a horse-training legend, because the horses got here down the stretch, shouting, “My God, Dad, we’re going to win the Derby!” He choked up on the considered it, after which obtained up. Sleep wouldn’t be coming that evening, and after one other battery of celebrations and interviews, Reed would solely get a pair hours on Sunday evening.

The weekend was all about celebrating Wealthy Strike’s achievement. Now, it’s time for Reed to consider the encore.

“We wish to go be part of historical past,” Reed says. “Once we gained the Derby, we needed to cease and have a look at the entire image. It’s not so simple as it as soon as was. We’ve got to do what’s finest for Richie.”

The Kentucky Derby is the primary jewel in horse racing’s Triple Crown, and the second two observe in fast succession. Lower than two weeks from now, the Preakness Stakes will happen at Pimlico Downs in Maryland, and three weeks after that, the Belmont Stakes in New York will full the trifecta.

Nevertheless, scheduling out the racing slate of an elite horse isn’t so simple as loading him into the trailer and rolling east.

“Belmont is probably the most life like race to win subsequent,” Reed says. “The Preakness has tighter turns and a shorter distance [1 3/16 miles versus 1 ½ miles]. Belmont has huge, broad, sweeping turns, and we gained’t should cross 19 horses.”

Story continues

Belmont is such an ideal race for Wealthy Strike, in reality, that Reed and proprietor Rick Dawson had been eyeing the June race all alongside. They’d deliberate to maintain 5 weeks between Wealthy Strike’s begins — the Derby and the Belmont Stakes — and including the Preakness in there provides an entire new layer of complexity.

“It’s not that we will’t compete,” Reed says, “It’s, does that shoot [a chance at winning] Belmont utterly?” The chance of harm, the danger of overtraining, the danger of a nasty end … all of it performs into the query of whether or not to chase historical past.

Reed and Dawson will watch Wealthy Strike’s exercises this week and make the decision, most likely someday on Thursday.

It’s the form of nice-to-have downside that Reed couldn’t have imagined whilst not too long ago as Friday morning. In a story that’s already taking up the hue of a legend, Reed and his group have been making ready to ship Wealthy Strike to New York to coach for the Peter Pan Stakes, a race held this coming weekend at Belmont. It was apparently going to be a irritating finish to per week the place the horse had run terribly properly in coaching periods.

“I used to be considering how I hate to take a horse coaching this good and wait one other week,” Reed remembers. “We have been going to do the Peter Pan, after which it could be a month to the Belmont.”

However at actually the final minute, Ethereal Street scratched and made room for Wealthy Strike, a kind of minor moments that finally ends up essential on reflection.

It was considered one of so many moments in Reed’s profession that needed to happen at exactly that on the spot, in exactly that method.

Take, for example, the second that Reed and Dawson first related via a mutual buddy. Dawson had been experiencing a run of inordinately dangerous luck, and was ready to stroll away from the horse racing enterprise totally. Reed knew the right way to get Dawson pointed again in the suitable path.

“I instructed him, ‘You want good luck with out spending a ton of cash,’” Reed stated. “I knew we would have liked to assert some younger horses, win, and let him see the fun of being a winner.”

That was the second second: when Reed and Dawson first laid eyes on Wealthy Strike. They’d been in search of flippantly raced 2-year-olds, and Wealthy Strike, competing at Ellis Park in Henderson, Kentucky, match the invoice. Racing on turf final August, Wealthy Strike ran lifeless final, however Reed may see that the horse had extra talent on filth. So he put in a $30,000 declare for the horse previous to a race on Sept. 17 — at Churchill Downs, simply so as to add to the fairy story — and Wealthy Strike dominated the competitors.

Reed introduced Wealthy Strike to his Mercury Equine Heart in Lexington, the place the horse may prepare in peace. Mercury is Reed’s horse Shangri-La, an unlimited, quiet coaching floor with room for a five-furlong monitor, an equine chilly spa, and paddocks to let the horses run free when their coaching is over for the day. Reed bought the middle in 2005 after lengthy years on the highway away from his household, and it quickly turned a refuge for him in addition to his horses.

“I assumed I’d reached the top of my profession,” Reed says. “All of the barns have been full. I had nice shoppers. Issues couldn’t have been higher. I assumed, I’ve made it. I’ve obtained no extra hills to overcome. I simply have to maintain.”

After which all of it almost vanished.

Within the early hours of Dec. 18, 2016, a hearth, possible attributable to lightning, started in one of many stables. Rescuers managed to avoid wasting a few of the horses, however many extra have been misplaced to the flames.

“I can’t describe, I by no means need anybody to see what we noticed,” Reed says. “These have been 23 lifeless infants, my horses, my youngsters … Anger set in. Damage. Disgust. I by no means questioned the Lord, however I requested why. Why did I get knocked down?”

Within the hours after the fireplace, Reed thought he was ruined. “All people stored saying, ‘Don’t exit this fashion. You’ve nonetheless obtained 65, 70 horses to coach,’” Reed remembers. “I didn’t know if I had it in my coronary heart to maintain going, man. It was so tragic, I assumed I may by no means recover from the harm of what occurred.”

That was the third second that led to the Kentucky Derby victory, the second when Reed may have given up endlessly.

A number of days after the fireplace, with the rubble of the barn nonetheless smoldering, Reed stood on the rail and watched different horses prepare. And a realization came visiting him.

“That love began rising once more,” he says. “I instructed myself, ‘When you stop, these 23 horses died for nothing.’ At first I used to be simply going to complete that crop out. After which it obtained higher. Every single day, I look again on that day.”

His voice, uncooked from days of celebrating and interviews, rings sturdy. “I understand how low the lows may be,” he says, “and now I understand how excessive the highs are.”

He was already forward of the sport, and now he’s enjoying with home cash. That’s what occurs when an 80-1 lengthy shot pays off.

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Jay Busbee is a author for Yahoo Sports activities. Observe him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.