Kentucky Derby 2019.
© USA Today Images/Jamie Rhodes
By Shane Anderson
For the first time in the race’s 145 year history, the winner of the Kentucky Derby has been stripped of victory through interference in a decision that has baffled many fans of world racing.
The previously undefeated Maximum Security, ridden by Luis Saez for trainer Jason Servis, has been stripped of his win in the US$3 million feature at a rain-soaked Churchill Downs after a stewards inquiry for interference entering the home straight, despite winning by the considerable margin of one and three-quarter lengths.
In doing so, stewards promoted outsider Country House, who began from the widest draw, to a controversial win in one of the world’s most famous races.
After setting the pace, Maximum Security began to shift away from the inside rail approaching the home turn which Saez attributed to the noise of the crowd of 150,729 fans unnerving the horse.
Stewards took close to 20 minutes to review the race replay vision, which showed Maximum Security veering away from the inside rail around 500m from the finish, causing interference to War Of Will, Long Range Toddy and Bodexpress.
At the same time, Country House was making a run to the outside of the lead while Code Of Honor pushed through on the inside of Maximum Security.
The horses came together, albeit briefly, before Maximum Security asserted again and cleared away to win. Country House, trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Flavien Prat, finished second and was three-quarters of a length in front of Code Of Honor in third.
In one of the most dramatic decisions in the race’s long history, stewards chose to disqualify Maximum Security and promoted Country House as the winner. Code Of Honor moved to second and Tacitus to third.
While it could be argued that Country House would have unlikely finished in front of Maximum Security, the connections objected to the result for the interference caused, as did Jon Court, the rider of Long Range Toddy who finished 17th.
“There was definitely a foul in the race,” Hall of Fame trainer Mott told the media pack.
“If this was a maiden claimer on a weekday the winner would come down.”
Yet it wasn’t a maiden claimer, it was the most important race in the United States so the decision by stewards was always going to be heavily scrutinized and will be for years to come.
The result now stands that Country House, a 65-1 outsider, as the winner of the 2019 Kentucky Derby. It is the first win in the race for Mott and Prat, and the son of Preakness Stakes winner Lookin At Lucky will now attempt to emulate his sire by winning the second leg of the US Triple Crown.
The disqualification highlights vast differences in how stewards in jurisdictions around the world handle interference. While it would be unlikely for a horse to be relegated for that level of interference in Australian racing, the US take a different approach.
If the objection solely came from the connections of Country House, it would appear that interference from Maximum Security to that horse was minimal at best and would not have turned over the result. Even if it was accepted that the interference was enough to impact the result, Maximum Security should have been demoted to second.
Instead, the stewards in Kentucky worked to the rules of US racing around fouls, which states:
“A leading horse if clear is entitled to any part of the track. If a leading horse or any other horse in a race swerves or is ridden to either side so as to interfere with, intimidate, or impede any other horse or jockey, or to cause the same result, this action shall be deemed a foul… If in the opinion of the stewards a foul alters the finish of a race, an offending horse may be disqualified by the stewards.”
In other words, because War Of Will, Bodexpress and Long Range Toddy were impacted from achieving their best positions, Maximum Security had to be disqualified. This is despite the fact that any of the three horses would have beaten Maximum Security home.
Chief Steward Barbara Borden explained it to the media.
“The riders of the 18 (Long Range Toddy) and 20 (Country House) horses in the Kentucky Derby lodged objections against the 7 (Maximum Security) horse, the winner, due to interference turning for home, leaving the quarter pole,” Borden said in a statement.
“We had a lengthy review of the race, we interviewed affected riders. We determined that the 7 horse drifted out and impacted the progress of the number 1, in turn interfering with the 18 and 21. Those horses were all affected, we thought, by the interference, therefore we unanimously determined to disqualify number 7 and place him behind the 18, the 18 being the lowest placed horse that he bothered, which is our typical procedure.”
Maximum Security is now listed as finishing 17th, despite being a convincing winner of the race known as the ‘Run to the Roses’, and reducing his value as a stallion prospect spectacularly.
The international standard would need stewards to believe that the horse that received the interference would have finished in front of the horse that caused it.
That is not the case in the US and their racing is poorer for it.
This article first appeared on Racing.com and is reprinted here with their kind permission. To find out more about Racing Victoria’s Off the Track program, visit rv.racing.com/the-horse/off-the-track.
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