Sometime around 2:30 am on Sunday morning, nearly seven hours after the greatest Kentucky Derby horse uprooted in a troubled world, Erik Reed finally reached his bed. The sleep on Sunday was as incomprehensible as the Riche-Ste horse had been on Saturday.
Reed, who was hit by a rich confrontation last September, couldn’t run on his mind, even after just watching Churchill Downs on screen for the season, and later staying at home with friends who were up for him until midnight. to return home. Whenever, Rich Strike bobs and weaves through traffic, coming from the back of properly crooked men, sliding through 17 other horses like mercury, then spotted the light and cutting inside, crushing two loves by surpassing them with only a few arms to spare. .
Reed remembers his father’s embrace of the grass, the fable of the equestrian discipline, that the horses were going down the stretch, shouting: “My God, Father, we’re going to win Derby!” he was choked at the thought of it, and arose from thence. He would not sleep that night, and after another celebrations and conversation, Reed would only get two hours Sunday night.
The weekend was all about celebrating the fact Rich had to beat. Now is the time to think about reedo.
“We want to be part of the story,” Reed said. “When we won the derby, we had to stop and look at the whole picture. Not as simple as it once was. What we have to do is the best for Richie. “
The Kentucky Derby is the first gem in a triple-crown racing horse, and second in a row with two consecutive races. Less than two weeks from now, the Preakness Staki will take place at Pimlico Downs in Maryland, and three weeks later, it will complete the Belmont Stai in New York.
However, scheduling out a chosen horse’s racing table is not as simple as loading it up on the trail and turning it east.
“Belmont is the most reliable way to win the next race,” Reed said. “The Preakness has tighter turns and shorter distances” [1 3/16 miles versus 1 ½ miles]. Beaumont has great, broad, sweeping turns, and we will not cross over 19 horses.
The Belmont Strike race was perfect for Rich, as Reed and Reed’s boss Rick Dawson were all in for the June race. They plan to save five weeks between the start of the Rich Strike – Derby and Belmont Stakes – and have added a Preakness spot where the entire combination adds a new layer.
“There’s nothing we can’t compete,” said Cala [a chance at winning] Belmont at all? “The risk of injury, the risk of burning, the danger of a bad ending… All players are questioning whether to pursue history.
Reed and Rich Dawson will look to striking performances this week and will probably be making the call sometime on Thursday.
You have this kind of witty problems that you couldn’t have thought of as Pen or Friday morning. In a play that already has a play on color, Reed and his team were preparing to hit Rich to send to New York to train for the Peter Pan Stakes, a race that has held on since Belmonte’s arrival. It seems to be going to be frustrating at the end of the week, where the horse ran extraordinarily well during training sessions.
“I was wondering how I hate to catch this good horse and wait another week,” Reedi recalls. “We are going to be on our way to Peter Pan, and next month in Belmont.”
But literally last minute, via ethereal tracked and expanded Rich Strict , one of those minor moments that are crucial in retrospect.
It was one of so many moments in Reed’s career that had to happen at that moment, in this way.
For example, the moment that Reed and Dawson got together through a mutual friend for the first time. Dawson had experienced bad luck running out of order, and was ready to walk completely from horse running. Dawson knew he had to get the pen pointed in the right direction.
“I said to him, ‘You need a fortune without a ton of money,’ ” said Reed. “I knew we needed to run for the young team to win and see the winner being suspended.”
That was the second moment when Reed and Dawson first laid eyes on Rich Strike. They searched for a slightly runner 2 year, and Rich Strike, while contending at Ellis Park in Henderson, Kentucky, fit the bill. Running on the turf last August, Rich was hit dead in the final run, but Reed could see that the horse had more skill in the dust. Accordingly, the horse raised over $30,000 before driving on Sept. 17 — at Churchill Downs, I will add the story soon — and Rich struck and dominated the contest.
Rich’s baton brought the Lexington Mercury Equinum to its narrow center, where horses could practice in peace. Mercury Horse Shangri-La is a reed, vast and quiet area of five furlongs, a cool horse spa, and feeding horses that run freely during the training day. Reed purchased the center in 2005 after a long year on the road from his family, and soon after, he and his team became a refuge for him.
“I thought it was the greatest moment of my life,” said Reed. All the barns were full. I had great customers. Things could not have been better. I thought, I did. I don’t have hills to overcome. I just need to hold off. “
And then nearly all disappeared.
In the early hours of December 18, 2016 the fire, most likely by lightning, began in one of the stables. He saved some of the veterans and some of their horses, but many were lost to the flames.
“I refuse to describe it, I’ve never seen anyone see it,” Reed says. “These were 23 dead infants, my horses, my sons… Anger. Distaste I never asked the Lord, but why. Why get knocked down?”
Hours after the fire, Reed thought he had perished. They all said therefore, “Do not depart.” You have yet to train 65, 70 horses,’ Reed recalls. “I don’t know if I had in my heart to go, man. It was so tragic, I never thought that harm would happen.
That was the third moment that led to the Kentucky Derby victory, a moment when Reed could not last forever.
A few days after the fire, while the rubble of the barn was still smoldering, Reed stood near the cloister, and was watching the other horses. And knowledge was made upon him.
“That, he says, the love is unfinished. I said, “If you are quiet, those horses are dead without cause.”
Her voice, raw from festivals and conversations, sounds strong. “I know how low prayer is,” he said, and now I know how high they are.”
It was before the game, now he plays with money. That’s what happens when an 80-1 throw pays off.
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Jay Busbee’s Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or touch him at [email protected].