A suprising 'King' in the Tampa Bay Derby
March 12th, 2020
"I'm the king of rock, there is none higher
Sucker MCs should call me sire
To burn my kingdom, you must use fire
I won't stop rockin' till I retire"
It's 1985. You turn on MTV. Who are you expecting to start their video by sassing a rock and roll museum security guard and declaring themselves the King of Rock? An old-school act, like the Rolling Stones? A metal group with big bravado and bigger hair, like Van Halen?
Sometimes the king is a surprise; that self-proclaimed King of Rock was rap group Run-DMC.
We saw an even more surprising king in the Tampa Bay Derby (G2) Saturday afternoon.
King Guillermo had not raced on the main track since his dirt sprint debut, in which he raced far off the pace and plugged on to pass a few and split the field. The Juan Avila trainee had not raced at all since November, when he won a maiden turf mile and then ran third to Sole Volante in the Pulpit Stakes.
How would his return to the main track after a three-month break look? The public wasn't ready to crown him, letting him off at 49-1 odds.
To almost every spectator's surprise it went far better than his first main-track try. King Guillermo, in the hands of Samy Camacho, tracked the pace and drew away with authority to win by 4 3/4 lengths. He turned the tables on favored Sole Volante. In his three-year-old debut King Guillermo showed a pair of Kentucky Derby must-haves: dirt ability and tactical speed.
As for Run-DMC? Their invasion of a rock and roll museum at the beginning of the "King of Rock" video proved prescient: their years of riff-infused rap carved them a place in history. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, becoming bona fide kings of rock.
King Guillermo? In the Tampa Bay Derby, they could not touch him with a ten-foot pole. But for him truly to say that there is none higher, he has to back up that form on the first Saturday in May.
Read more related Derby Remixes below:
Coming home: Cafe Pharoah and "North"
Ete Indien comes out of the shadows
History repeating with Mr. Monomoy and Modernist
Sole Volante and the myth of Icarus
The reboot: Beavis and Butt-Head, Funny Cide, and Tiz the Law
Derby Remix is a weekly series that crosses the lines of culture and Kentucky Derby contenders.
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