Whether you watch horse racing or not, the 2022 Run for the Roses was not only one for the record books but one chock full of life lessons for all who got to watch one of the greatest sports upsets in history.
The 148th running of the “greatest two minutes in sports” at the famous Churchill Downs in Kentucky saw a field of 20 horses race to the finish line, with the favorite Epicenter at morning odds of 4-1. There were other favorites in the field, including Zandon and Mo Donegal and a crowd favorite, Simplification. However, no one, absolutely no one could have prepared for what was to come when a horse named Ethereal Road, trained by the legendary Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, was a late scratch the Friday before the Saturday race.
Taking Ethereal Road’s place was a chestnut colt named Rich Strike, trained by Eric Reed, ridden by jockey Sonny Leon, and owned by Richard Dawson. Racing for RED Tr-Racing, LLC, which purchased the horse for a cheap $30,000. With little time to lose, the team brought Rich Strike to the Derby grounds and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dan Wolken of USA Today was quoted in his post-race analysis on May 7,
The trainer with the blue jeans and garish red jacket was so stunned, he fell to the ground in the paddock at Churchill Downs. The groom ran onto the track, barely able to breathe. The owner was dabbing at a cut on the left side of his face, afraid that it had burst open in the excitement.
And 147,294 people on the racetrack and millions more around the world had been thunderstruck by an 80-to-1 longshot that didn’t have a spot in the Kentucky Derby until Friday and hadn’t shown anything in his six-race career that suggested he belonged on the same racetrack with the best 3-year-olds in the sport.
Rich Strike, the horse that everyone thought “never should” became the horse that not only “could, but did”. Living up to his name by striking a blow to the two battling lead horses as he blew past them just yards from the finish line to win the Kentucky Derby in the second greatest long-shot victory the race had ever seen. The honor of the first going to Donerail in 1913 who carried 91-to-1 odds and won the race by ½ length.
Not only was Rich Strike’s victory a celebratory and momentous time for those directly involved with the horse, but for everyone attending the race and watching it on television or other formats. This was one of the greatest “come-from-behind” success stories in sports, with so many life lessons to teach us all.
Here are the 7 life lessons we learned from Rich Strike’s victory:
1) Believe in yourself. No matter who does or doesn’t believe in you, you must believe you can do it.
2) Always be prepared. Luck is nothing but opportunity meeting preparation and even though Rich Strike was not supposed to run the race, his team decided to prep him anyway…just in case. Smart move.
3) Stay in the race until the end. You never know what the final moments will bring, and many great victories are achieved late in the game of life.
4) Run your own race. Don’t get distracted by the competition and keep your eyes on your goal, in this case, the finish line.
5) Never, ever, ever rule out the long-shots in life, especially if that long-shot is you.
6) The odds may be stacked against you. Go for it anyway.
7). Nobody defines your worth but you. Rich Strike cost $30,000 in a race filled with million-dollar horses. He beat them anyway.
We can learn a lot from this race. The story of a horse and his team that was counted out from the start but believed in themselves, their horse, and the goal, and went on to make sports history and bring joy to a lot of people now asking themselves…what am I capable of doing even with the odds stacked against me?
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