![]() "It's a very difficult subject to touch upon," said Ramiro Restrepo, part of Mage's ownership and a blood stock agent. He paid $4.70 to show.Įarlier in the day, Chloe's Dream, a 3-year-old gelding, and Freezing Point, a 3-year-old colt, were euthanized after being injured in their races, becoming the sixth and seventh horses to have died at the track in recent days. "Man, he tried so hard and ran his heart out," said Larry Rivelli, who trains Two Phil's.Īngel of Empire, the 4-1 favorite, was another half-length back in third in front of a crowd of 150,335 on a warm and partly cloudy day at Churchill Downs. The colt earned $1,860,000 for the biggest win of his brief career. "This is the dream I have, a year-and-a-half ago, I wrote a note: 'We're going to win the Derby next year.'"įorte, the early favorite, was scratched in the morning with a bruised foot, one of five horses that dropped out in the run-up to the race. "Everything went according to plan," Delgado Jr. Mage passed him at the eighth-pole and went on to victory. Mage swung to the outside and took aim on the leader. Two Phil's stormed to the lead at the top of the stretch. "Turning for home, he had a lot of heart," Castellano said. Castellano and Mage began picking off the competition and on the far turn launched their run. Going into the backstretch, Mage was ahead of just three horses. Canonero II won the Derby and Preakness in 1971. Mage joined Canonero II as Derby winners with Venezuelan ties. I finally got it."Ĭastellano and trainer Gustavo Delgado are from Venezuela. "I always try hard to do the right thing. The 45-year-old Castellano snapped an 0-for-15 skid in the Derby. The colt was in the skilled hands of Javier Castellano, a Hall of Fame jockey who hasn't been as in-demand lately. "He proved today that it didn't matter," assistant trainer and co-owner Gustavo Delgado Jr. ![]() Mage joined Justify (2018), Big Brown (2008) and Regret (2015) as Derby winners with just three previous starts. Mage, who didn't race as a 2-year-old, ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.57. Still, he made a gutsy stretch run, overtaking Two Phil's to his inside and winning by a length. Mage, a 15-1 shot, had only one win in his career, giving little indication that he could triumph against 17 rivals in a race that is not kind to the inexperienced. After seven deaths raised questions about the future of horse racing, Mage earned a surprising Kentucky Derby victory on Saturday, capping a nerve-rattling day that included two more fatalities ahead of the 149th edition of the world's most famous race. Javier Castellano celebrates after riding Mage to win the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 6, 2023, in Louisville, Ky.
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