kentuckyderby - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Horse racing needs a stoppage, not a change of sceneryOne of the rebuttals to Churchill Downs’ suspension of horse racing after this weekend was that officials couldn’t find proof of the venue’s role in the dozen horses who’ve died there this year. While that logic comes off like an amusement park owner saying “Nothing to see here” as kids get launched...

A fix for horse racing that’s more than an ‘emergency meeting’Horse racing regulatory and safety officials, along with representatives from Churchill Downs, are holding an emergency meeting today in response to two more horse deaths at the famed track in Louisville, Ky. this spring. The reason I’m writing this before the actual meet-and-greet is that nothing i...

Kentucky Derby winner Mage doesn’t disrespect horse racing by saying yea not 'neigh' to PreaknessLast year, Rich Strike won the Kentucky Derby at 80-1 odds, like a kamikaze to horse racing. Not honoring the tradition of the sport was the team behind the emeritus Kentucky Derby champion, who decided to sit the winner out of the second leg of the sport’s Triple Crown. The biggest prize in the spo...

Is horse racing worth saving?

The discussion of the future of horse racing seems to be popping up more regularly these days. The greater regularity of the topic probably started in 2019, when Santa Anita Park in Southern California had an unprecedented rash of horses suffering fatal injuries, with 42 horses dying and shutting do...

Quick, what hat says, ‘I’m fun but also grieving 7 dead horses’?

Here at Deadspin, we take a wait-and-see approach to covering horse racing. Every year, someone will pitch a Kentucky Derby preview and either get laughed out of the writer’s room or ignored. The only reason we wrote about the 2022 iteration was because long shot Rich Strike won at 80-1, and his tra...

So Derby winner Rich Strike was a heart-warming story for less than a week

I wish Vegas would’ve given the public odds on how long Rich Strike’s feel-good story remained feel-good. While it didn’t take a turn to Cancel Town in the first 15 minutes after the race, it did get there during trainer Eric Reed’s 15 minutes of fame, so my unders bet would’ve hit....

80-1 shot Rich Strike wins Kentucky Derby

Rich Strike wasn’t in the Kentucky Derby field when head trainer Eric Reid woke up Friday morning. After a late scratch to Ethereal Road, a spot opened up for a 21st horse in the 20-thoroughbred field. And one of the longest shots in the field at 80-1 at post time just won the 148th Kentucky Derby....

Horse racing should be put out of its misery

In yet another measure of how irrelevant horse racing has gotten, Kentucky Derby “winner” Medina Spirit collapsed and died at Santa Anita yesterday. He had a heart attack after a workout, which 3-year-old horses don’t tend to do. It does happen, though, but is rare. ...