Kentucky Derby GRADE 1

JUST when it appeared the Kentucky Derby gave everything it could – the launch-pad of eventual recent Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify, improbable fairytale winners Canonero II, Mine That Bird and Giacomo and even a cooked-up controversy involving 2003 winner Funny Cide – along comes Kentucky Derby 145.

Here comes a race that will no doubt be remembered for more than the mud and the muck and for more than being the race that received an unsolicited tweet from President Trump.

The 2019 Kentucky Derby goes into history as the first with a disqualification of the winner after stewards took down Maximum Security and put up Country House in a move that proved just or controversial, depending on who you asked.

Bill Mott, the Hall of Fame trainer seeking his first Derby win and represented by Country House and Wood Memorial winner Tacitus in this year’s edition, found himself in the middle of a crush of media as stewards deliberated whether Maximum Security impeded other horses on the way to his one and three-quarter-length win.

Surrounded by a crush of reporters and TV cameras, Mott explained the situation from what he saw, deadpanned a bit and then explained some more.

“I’ll say this, if it was a maiden-claimer on a weekday the winner would come down,” Mott said. “It’s not supposed to matter, the Kentucky Derby or whatever it is. There are a couple riders that nearly clipped heels and went down. I’m going to wait and let the stewards decide that.

“I know what I naturally would like to happen but I have no control over it at this point. I’m just a bystander as you are right now.

“Believe me there are over 100,000 people here and I know they don’t want to have to make that call. The stewards are probably wishing they didn’t have to make that decision right now, but it’s their duty to do the right thing and I hope they do.”

Country House, a son of Lookin At Lucky, finished almost two lengths behind Maximum Security in second for Mott and jockey Flavien Prat.

They were largely unaffected by Maximum Security failing to keep a straight path, but War Of Will, Long Range Toddy and others were not so fortunate.

“I’m proud of my horses, I was second and fourth, they ran well,” Mott said. “Country House ran a great race. It’s up to the stewards now. I think the stewards will take a good look at it and decide. … When you’re in racing you get both sides … sometimes it works out for you and sometimes it works against you. You just never know for sure. … Makes for an interesting day.”

Interesting indeed.

The stewards disqualified Maximum Security, placed him 17th and behind Long Range Toddy and those among the 150,729 rain-soaked crowd that didn’t agree with the decision let the boos fly.

Others cheered the decision, the first time the Kentucky Derby winner was taken down for an incident on the track and only the second disqualification in the race’s long history.

Dancer’s Image held that distinction to himself for more than four decades after he was taken down in 1968 for a positive drug test.

SURREAL

The cheers and jeers provided a surreal backdrop to the next sequence of events that saw the connections of Maximum Security – owners Gary and Mary West, trainer Jason Servis, Saez and the horse himself – depart from the space on the turf course where they awaited the stewards’ ruling.

They crossed paths with the jubilant connections of the adjudged winner Country House, who walked on the track during the inquiry with his groom Angel Barajas, exercise rider Marianne Scherer, Mott’s son and assistant Riley and Mott’s Kentucky-based assistant Kenny McCarthy.

They all eventually filed into the infield winner’s circle, the most coveted piece of real estate in American racing used only once a year.

Mott beamed from the stand a few minutes later, introduced as a Kentucky Derby winner for the first time in his legendary career. He’d attempted to win the race on six prior occasions with eight horses.

The best finish came last year when Hofburg finished seventh behind eventual Triple Crown winner Justify on a muddy track very similar to Saturday.

Country House and Mott’s other Derby runner, adjudged third-place finisher Tacitus, handled the off going well after impressing onlookers during morning training in the weeks leading up to the race.

Mott loved what he saw in Country House, a multi-generation homebred of the late Jerry Shields that came into the Derby with a maiden win and three decent efforts in graded preps for the main event.

“A week ago … I was sitting on the pony, and I was talking to Wayne Lukas and I said, ‘Man, I wish they would run this thing tomorrow,’ ” Mott said. “You get that feeling when things are going really well, really well, and you haven’t had any hiccups or bumps in the road. It seemed like, man, I just want it to get here.

“Then I woke up this morning and I said, ‘Oh, shit. This is here.’ You know what I mean? It’s finally here and, all of a sudden, it just snuck up on us. … And it’s happened so many times before when you’re getting ready for a big race.”

Mott added the Derby to his other American classic win in the 2010 Belmont Stakes with Drosselmeyer.

Country House added the Derby to his only other victory – an impressive maiden score in mid-January at Gulfstream Park – and placings in the Grade 2 Rebel and Grade 1 Arkansas Derby this winter and spring. He returned $132.40 to become the second highest payout in the race’s history, only behind Donerail’s $184.90 in 1913.

Owned by Maury Shields, the widow of breeder Jerry Shields, Guiness McFadden and LNJ Foxwoods of Larry, Nanci and Jaime Roth, Country House won’t make next weekend’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. He coughed in the days after the Derby and Mott, sensing the son of Lookin At Lucky might be on the verge of illness, ruled him out of the second leg of the American Triple Crown.

Maximum Security also won’t make the Preakness, his connections opting to take him back to Monmouth Park to prepare for a possible run in the Belmont Stakes June 8th or the Haskell Invitational on July 20th.

Fans clamoring for a potential rematch might get it in the Haskell. And before that they’ll be like everyone else – even those intimately involved in the Derby – and left to digest the outcome wrought with controversy.

“It’s bittersweet. I would be lying if I said it was any different,” Mott said.

“You always want to win with a clean trip and have everybody recognise the horse as the very good horse and for the great athlete that he is.

“I think, due to the disqualification, probably some of that is diminished. But this is horse racing.”