Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem Nov. 28, 2022

A good Monday morning to you all! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday. I spent the day doing work around my house and watching racing from Churchill Downs and Aqueduct. We just ended a very long racing weekend. So much of our racing in the U.S. is focused on big Saturday cards, and the stakes action tends to be best then. But Thanksgiving weekend, it seemed like each day from Thursday to Sunday had some kind of big racing going on.

I wanted to write about Rich Strike today. His sixth-place finish in the Clark Stakes at Churchill was obviously a bummer to his fans, and he just looked kind of flat once the real running started. He’s been a very fascinating study this year in how Kentucky Derby (G1) winners are thought of, especially when they are a longshot winner.

In my lifetime, the two biggest longshots in the Kentucky Derby I remember were Giacomo in 2005 and Mine That Bird in 2009. I don’t remember a lot about how people reacted to Giacomo after his Derby triumph, but Mine That Bird seemed to have a very specific reaction. When he won the race, it seemed like everyone got excited about the "story" of the horse as well as his rail-skimming trip to win. He had taken the van ride out and been a total no-hoper who somehow got the trip of a lifetime and ran the race of a lifetime to win the Kentucky Derby. Sounds a lot like Rich Strike, huh?

Mine That Bird ran a decent closing second in the Preakness S. (G1), and I remember everyone saying how that validated his Kentucky Derby win. Even in defeat, a strong effort there seemed to make fans feel better about him winning the Kentucky Derby.

I think there was a little of that for Rich Strike when he finished second in the Lukas Classic (G2) to Hot Rod Charlie, a race he probably should have won. Even after his fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), where he was beaten 11 lengths by Flightline, some folks were shouting from the social media clouds, “How about Rich Strike now!”

I tend to come from the perspective of just letting the horse be what he is. In the grand scheme of horse racing, he’s clearly a very nice horse. But because he had his best day on the biggest stage in U.S. racing, he’s always going to carry around that crown and therefore be judged because of it.

Winning the Kentucky Derby changed the lives of everyone associated with Rich Strike. And it also changed how he will be looked at, discussed, and thought of by racing fans. Whether fair or not, wearing those roses in May leads to a horse forever being analyzed, judged, and dissected by us who follow racing. I think those are circumstances that almost every owner, trainer, and jockey would be thrilled to have to deal with.

Rich Strike doesn’t have to be anything other than what he is. Nothing he does or doesn’t do on the track takes away winning the Kentucky Derby. I know if I was an owner, I’d take a Kentucky Derby win and a bunch of last-place finishes any day of the week. I think it’s an overall plus for racing if the Kentucky Derby winner not only runs after the Triple Crown series, but runs regularly.

Anytime Rich Strike shows up, it’s going to be news and will be debated. He’s likely always going to get over-bet as well, so if you don’t think he stands a chance, enjoy the takeout reduction for that race.

Have a good week, everyone!