The Lexington-based trainer of last year’s 80 to 1 Kentucky Derby winner will be back at Churchill Downs Friday with the same horse. Lexington-based Eric Reed will run Rich Strike in the $600,000 Alysheba Stakes. Life has not been the same for Reed and his Mercury Equine Center employees since “Richie,” as he calls him, became the second-longest shot to win the Derby.
“I think the biggest change for everybody was, you know, they got a, they got some pep in their step, they got a little satisfaction out of all the years of hard work. And they got a year of spin with, you know, a champion, like Richie. So it's picked the spirits up out here a lot.”
Reed said he’s been a whole lot busier since last year’s Derby win, but he’s had a lot of opportunities to meet new people – and that’s been a lot of fun. Going into last year’s Run for the Roses, Richie was a longshot of longshots – and, one might argue, so was Reed. Not only had he never won such a race, but he also nearly left the business he’d spent his adult life in after losing 23 horses in a barn fire a few days before Christmas of 2016. Reed kept going. So has Rich Strike, whose owner, Richard Dawson, decided to let him keep racing rather than put him out to a lucrative career at stud.
“He's going to be a better four-year-old if he stays healthy. And this race by no means is the race, we're going to think he has to win -- it's the wrong distance. It's a five-month layoff against these horses that are all fit and going. But it sets him up for the Stephen Foster at the end of June.”
The Stephen Foster will also be run at Churchill Downs, which Reed said is Rich Strike’s favorite track. As for Reed, he’ll be at the track Saturday, hoping this year’s Derby-winning trainer enjoys it just as much as he has.
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