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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- John Velazquez won the Kentucky
Derby by a broken nose. An injury to Animal
Kingdom's regular rider, Robby Albarado, cleared the way for Velazquez
to pick up the mount on the 20-1 long shot. Once he took the reins
Saturday, he rode his good luck all the way to the winner's circle.
"For once, I'm on the good end of it," Velazquez
said. "All of a sudden I pick up this one and he wins the Derby, so it
was meant to be."
The last three years, the New York-based jockey
came to Churchill Downs with a colt considered a leading contender, only
to have it withdrawn.
This time, he was supposed to ride early second
choice Uncle Mo before the colt was scratched due to a lingering stomach
problem. Then Albarado broke his nose when he was thrown off his horse
and kicked in the face before a race three days ago.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Animal Kingdom, who had never raced on dirt
before, reacted to his new rider the way a champion should, charging
down the middle of the stretch to win by 2¾-lengths in front of a crowd
of 164,858, the largest in Derby history.
He ran 1¼ miles in 2:02.04 -- well off
Secretariat's track record of 1:59.40 in 1973 -- and paid $43.80, $19.60
and $13.
Nehro returned $8.80 and $6.40, while Mucho Macho
Man was another neck back in third and paid $7 to show.
"It's words that you can't describe," Velazquez
said. "But I do really feel really bad for Robby. I hope he's winning
the Derby with me here. I know he got hurt, so this is for both of us,
buddy. I know you're not on it, but I know you're with me."
"I'm not happy," said Albarado, despite winning a
$345,600 stakes race on the Derby undercard. "Barry Irwin decided he
didn't think I was fit to ride; he didn't know my status or situation.
This just wasn't my time today."
Animal Kingdom is owned by Team Valor
International, a partnership syndicate headed by Irwin, a former writer
for the Daily Racing Form, the industry's bible.
Irwin decided to switch riders when Albarado took
Friday off to recuperate.
"It was a tough call because I really like Robby.
He's won a lot of races for us, but we got 20 partners in this horse,"
Irwin said. "We got a large investment and I had to do what I thought
was best for the partnership."
Like Velazquez, Irwin said he would make it up to
Albarado.
Like his jockey, trainer Graham Motion got lucky,
too.
His top Derby horse, Wood Memorial winner Toby's
Corner, never even made it to Louisville. He had a leg injury and never
left Motion's barn in Maryland.
"Somebody said, 'Are you surprised to win with a
second-tier horse?'" Motion said. "I said, 'I'm not sure we would
categorize him as a second-tier horse.' He's been an extraordinary horse
to train. I was so impressed with how he handled everything."
Dialed In went off as the 5-1 favorite for
two-time Derby-winning trainer Nick Zito, but finished eighth.
Mucho Macho Man's finish for Kathy Ritvo tied her
for second-best result by a female trainer in the 137-year-old race.
Shelley Riley saddled Casual Lies to a second-place finish in 1992.
Rosie Napravnik was ninth aboard 8-1 second choice
Pants On Fire in her bid to become the first female jockey to win.
Still, her finish was the highest of the six women who've ridden in the
Derby.
"I couldn't have wished for a better trip," she
said.
Neither could Velazquez. The day was clearly his
after going 0-for-12 in previous Derby tries.
"It was a loss for Robby, obviously, having the
accident he had, and a win for me," Velazquez said. "Obviously, it
turned out to be a great thing for myself."
Animal Kingdom won the Spiral Stakes on the
synthetic surface at Turfway Park in his previous start. Though this was
his first race on dirt, the winner had an easy trip, and Velazquez did a
masterful job despite his unfamiliarity with the horse. They avoided
trouble in the 19-horse field while running in the middle of the pack
most of the way.
"Right about the quarter-pole he got really
comfortable as soon as he got to the clear," Velazquez said. "He gave me
that feeling that, man, he was running. He got to the lead and kept
running. So very proud of the way he did everything."
Animal Kingdom swept past the leaders on the final
turn and came flying home.
"I didn't have to do very much," Velazquez said.
"He was going well the whole way around, so he gave me a lot of
confidence to be where I was and when I asked him to do something he was
there for me. A good horse gets you out of trouble."
Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch, who started
from the rail, sustained a fracture to his left front leg on Saturday,
but on-call veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said it was not a
life-threatening injury.
"He's in no distress at all," Bramlage said. "He
walked right on the ambulance. He was lame when he pulled up but it
wasn't a situation where he was in that much trouble."
Jockey Jon Court said the horse struggled over the
dirt at Churchill Downs. Archarcharch started from the rail and finished
15th, well behind winner Animal Kingdom, then was quickly loaded onto a
van and taken for X-rays in the barn area.
"In the final sixteenth of a mile he was just
gimping a bit," Court said. "He was walking on it but he just wasn't
comfortable."
Bramlage said the horse will require surgery but
"it is not an emergency situation." But co-owner Val Yagos said it would
happen soon to keep the fracture from breaking the skin.
It's too early to tell if Archarcharch will race
again.
"We could see he wasn't stretching out," Yagos
said, "so we could tell something was wrong."
Pacesetter Shackleford was fourth, followed by
Irish import Master of Hounds, Santiva, Brilliant Speed and Dialed In.
Pants On Fire finished ninth, followed by Twice
the Appeal, Soldat, Stay Thirsty, Derby Kitten, Decisive Moment,
Archarcharch, Midnight Interlude, Twinspired, Watch Me Go and Comma to
the Top, who chipped his left ankle and will be sidelined for at least
two months.
Information from The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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