Derby Day redefined

One of the iconic twin spires at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky | © Andrew Sgroi. All Rights Reserved

All the usual pageantry on the first Saturday in May in Louisville, Kentucky will be absent this year, courtesy of the postponement of the 146th Kentucky Derby until Labor Day Weekend because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was—in light of the circumstances—the most prudent decision when it was rendered by organizer Churchill Downs just over six weeks ago.

But it’s also ironic, to say the least, considering another fateful decision regarding the fabled race just last year.

If you weren’t paying attention at the time, that edition marked the first time a winning horse — named Maximum Security — was disqualified for an on-track violation by the three race stewards assigned by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

The merits of such a decision are muddy at best, much like the sloppy track that Max used to coast to a virtual wire-to-wire victory. And because of it, that decision will be debated by horse racing enthusiasts in perpetuity.

As well it should.

You don’t pull down a winning horse in the Kentucky Derby, especially when the “foul” in question was as ambiguous as it was. Maximum Security’s rider, Luis Saez, was hardly negligent as he brought the lead horse off the final turn on an off-track. That’s not easy work, as my friend, neighbor and retired jockey—Abel Castellano—would attest to during our own watch party.

Maximum Security, and his connections, deserved better. And frankly, so did we.

But the decision was made, much like this year’s.

Oh, we’ll still get some championship level Thoroughbred racing today, thanks to stacked, dual-division fields in Oaklawn Park’s Arkansas Derby. This first-Saturday-in-May placeholder was, itself, rescheduled for our benefit once Churchill Downs made its historic decision. And, as always, the winners of the two-race showdown will earn significant points to qualify for this year’s Kentucky Derby.

So—unlike the rest of America’s sporting culture paralyzed by COVID-19—horse racing has provided us a worthy contingency plan.

Which is actually a fitting outcome for this first Saturday in May. For it wasn’t COVID-19 that forever changed Louisville’s seemingly peerless tradition…

It was a DQ by three stewards this very day one year ago.