Manitoba mare strikes it rich with Kentucky Derby-winning offspring

When three-year-old colt Rich Strike stunned the horse racing world on Saturday, it sent tremors through the dirt track and empty seats 2,000 kilometres away at Winnipeg’s Assiniboia Downs.

“There was a lot of yelling and screaming — and even that was from people who didn’t cash a wager. It was simply pride here in Manitoba. saidDarren Dunn is the CEO of Downs at the city’s western border.

“Beyond excited. It was like a capital OMG in my head. It shocked everyone out here, and we’re delighted.”

Rich Strike is a Manitoban once-removed. His mother is Gold Strike, a thoroughbred mare who was born in 2002 in Brunkild, just southwest of Winnipeg.

“We have never seen a Manitoba horse run in the Derby. This is close enough. It is rare to have the Kentucky Derby winner’s mother. [for Manitoba],” said Dunn.

“It’s probably one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to us.”

Blair Miller, an Assiniboia Downs trainer, was one of those who got a horse.

“Every racetrack person watches the Kentucky Derby. It’s almost like watching Superbowl. He said, “It’s the largest single race of the year.” said.

Miller was the first to tap into and refine Gold Strike’s natural talents. She also made a name for herself at the local track.

“She was a great horse and a smart, classy filly from day one. He said, “We knew she was going be a good horse.” said.

Bred and raced by Harlequin Ranches — owned by Dick Bonnycastle, the former owner and publisher of Harlequin Enterprises — Gold Strike started racing in 2004.

She won two of her three starts at Assiniboia Downs before moving to Canada’s big leagues at Woodbine Racetrack just outside of Toronto, where “she really took it to another level,” said Dunn.

She won the 2005 Woodbine Oaks — the most important race for three-year-old fillies — then finished third in the Queen’s Plate against a field of colts, which are typically bigger and stronger that the average filly.

Gold Strike’s performance that year earned her the nod as Canada’s champion three-year-old filly and the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Manitoba-bred horse of the year.

According to Jim Lawson (CEO of Woodbine Entertainment Group), she won $565,000 in nine races, three at Assiniboia Downs, and six at Woodbine.

Gold Strike was retired to become a broodmare in 2008 and Rich Strike was born in Kentucky in 2019.

“It’s quite cool to know that I trained the mother a Kentucky Derby winner.” Not many people have done that — nobody in Manitoba, that’s for sure,” Miller said.

“It’s awesome to be part history.”

At first, Miller didn’t know it was Rich Strike completing the improbable come-from-behind upset victory as an 80-1 long shot.

He had the No. 2 horse in a backstretch pool. When Rich Strike, No. 21, made his move Miller misread the number.

“I see the horse coming and I’m going. Then he passed me and I saidHoly crap! That’s Gold Strike’s 21-year old baby. He said that it was quite exciting, and stood in Gold Strike’s old stall at Assiniboia Downs.

It’s a fairytale story for the horse that wins that race. It doesn’t happen.

Rich Strike won with a time of 2 minutes 2.61 seconds, rewarding those who bet on him to win with a $163.60 payout on $2. It was the second-largest upset in Kentucky Derby history, after Donerail in 1913, who received $184.90.

During a 15th-to-first surge, and in the final stretch, Rich Strike actually had to decelerate slightly and shift around a slower horse on the inside lane, before kicking past the two front-runners and winning by three-quarters of a length.

“What an amazing rally. It was amazing to fly up the rails like that horse. said Dunn, the track announcer when Gold Strike ran at Assiniboia Downs.

“They call it, “The fastest two minutes in sport” and “the most exciting two minute in sports.” It was for everyone in Manitoba, that I can confirm.”

If Rich Strike’s finish wasn’t unlikely enough, consider the fact he wasn’t initially on the race card at all. Rich Strike, number 21 in the race card, was present at the track but another horse was scratched.

The day before the derby, a horse named Ethereal Road was pulled and Rich Strike drew in.

Dunn stated, “We were just proud of this horse being in the race and having a Manitoba connection. Not by a mile did this horse think he was going to win.” said. “And that was pretty much in synch with all the rest of the [horseracing]world, and letting it go off as 80-1, the longest shot of the race.”

Lawson noted the result was so shocking and sudden that Rich Strike’s name wasn’t uttered by the race announcers until he was nearly to the finish line.

That name will now be among the first to be mentioned when it comes to monetary worth.

Purchased last fall for $30,000, Rich Strike earned $1.8 million for his Derby win. But his value, for future earnings and breeding purposes beyond that, has gone through the roof.

“Let’s just say, today you couldn’t come close to buying him for 100 times that … or maybe well north of that,” Lawson saidRich Strike’s Canadian bloodlines are the reason Rich Strike was able to do this.

“We are world leaders at horse racing and when such an event happens, I think there is a little bit ‘I said you were good in Canada’,” he stated. said.

Triple Crown

Rich Strike is now being treated to a few days of well-deserved R & R before resuming training for the 147th Preakness Stakes on May 21.

It’s the second jewel of horse-racing’s Triple Crown — the first being the Kentucky Derby and the third being the Belmont Stakes on June 11.

Only 13 horses have won The Triple Crown since 1875 when all three races were created.

There were back-to-back triple crown winners in 1977 (Seattle Slew) and 1978 (Affirmed) but it would take another 37 years for another horse to accomplish that grand slam. American Pharoah did it in 2015 and the last horse to win all three was Justify in 2018.

Manitoban roots were the inspiration for the Kentucky Derby winner

Sheila North, CBC, reports from Assiniboia Downs (Winnipeg), where Gold Strike, the mother to Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike was trained. 2:27