On an overcast afternoon beneath the Twin Spires, both in terms of the weather and the shadow cast over the track by a total of seven equine fatalities in the past nine days, it was a little horse with a big heart that brought happy tears to the eyes of hundreds of connections in the Kentucky Derby winner's circle.
In just his fourth career start, Mage ran down 17 other rivals to win Kentucky Derby 149 by a length. The joy on his connections' faces was palpable: from Venezuelan jockey and trainer Javier Castellano and Gustavo Delgado, co-owners and Miami natives Ramiro Restrepo and Sam Herzberg, to the 382 partners brought together by Commonwealth Racing for a chance at Kentucky Derby history.
“The dream is alive,” said Chase Chamberlain, founder of Commonwealth Racing, which allows fans to purchase a share of a racehorse for as little as $50. “This is what horse racing is all about.”
Mage, a chestnut son of Good Magic sent off at 15-1 odds, was squeezed back at the start but wound his way between rivals to find clear racing room in the stretch. Just the third Derby winner to not race as a 2-year-old, the inexperienced colt put everything on the line to run down Two Phil's in the final sixteenth of a mile. Mage ran 1 1/4 miles over Churchill Downs' fast main track in 2:01.57, providing the first Kentucky Derby victory for both Hall of Fame jockey Castellano and trainer Delgado.
Delgado, a 65-year-old member of the Caribbean Hall of Fame and three-time winner of the Venezuelan Triple Crown, had saddled two prior starters in the Run for the Roses since moving to the United States in 2014. Majesto finished 18th in 2016, and Bodexpress was 13th in 2019.
“When I come to United States, my first dream is to go to the Kentucky Derby,” Delgado said. “When I run two times, longshots. Very bad. This time I was sure that the horse was very, very good.”
It took a few extra tries for Castellano, a four-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey, to add the Kentucky Derby to his trophy collection. In 15 previous mounts, his best finish had come aboard Audible in 2018, when he finished third.
“This is the dream for any jockey, any trainer,” Castellano said after being congratulated on horseback by fellow Venezuelan rider Junior Alvarado. “I never give up, I always try hard, do the right thing, and it took me a little while to get there but I finally got there.
“He got a lot of dirt in the face, coming from behind, but he's little horse with a big heart.”
In the days leading up to the 2023 Kentucky Derby, five of the 23 entrants were scratched, leaving a field of 18 to contest Saturday's race. Santa Anita Derby winner Practical Move was first, scratched with a fever by trainer Tim Yakteen.
Then, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ordered the scratches of all runners trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr., following public outrage when two of his trainees suffered “sudden death” episodes during the first two days of racing at Churchill Downs; Joseph had planned to run Lord Miles in the Kentucky Derby.
Out next was Japan's Continuar, his trainer telling the publicity department that the colt had “not been able to reach peak fitness.” Skinner followed, with trainer John Shirreffs also citing an elevated temperature.
Following wide social media speculation on Friday, it was Saturday morning of the Kentucky Derby that KHRC state veterinarians made the decision to scratch morning-line favorite and juvenile champion Forte due to what co-owner Mike Repole called a foot bruise.
Then, two horses were catastrophically injured during the Kentucky Derby undercard races at Churchill Downs, and a third was vanned off but later reported to have suffered no major injuries. That led to a total of seven equine deaths at Churchill Downs since April 27.
The scratches and fatalities cast a heavy shadow over this year's Run for the Roses, so it was with great relief that racing fans and a crowd of 150,333 watched all 18 runners return to their connections under their own power after the race.
Mage was squeezed back at the start, but the late-running colt was not hampered at all and settled well off the pace, fourth-from-last but on the rail around the clubhouse turn. Castellano bided his time, but began asking Mage for about the five-furlong pole on the backstretch as he angled off the rail and began picking off rivals.
At the front, despite what many thought would be a slow early pace, it was Verifying leading Kingsbarns and Reincarnate through quick fractions of :22.35, :45.73, and 1:10.11. Those set the stage for the Chicagoland hope Two Phil's to make his move from fifth up the rail at the quarter pole, taking the lead and drawing off by about two lengths under Jareth Loveberry.
What Loveberry couldn't have seen coming was that a six-wide Mage was full of run down the center of the track. Castellano gave Mage the target, and the colt responded bravely, racing up to Two Phil's and putting it all on the line to hit the wire in front. Two Phil's was valiant in second, while post-time favorite Angel of Empire (4-1) was up in time to finish third.
Mage returned $32.42, $14.58 and $9.08. Two Phil's returned $10.44 and $6.52 and finished a half-length in front of favored Angel of Empire, who paid $4.70 to show under Flavien Prat.
The full order of finish was as follows: Mage, Two Phil's, Angel of Empire, Disarm, Hit Show, Derma Sotogake, Tapit Trice, Raise Cain, Rocket Can, Confidence Game, Sun Thunder, Mandarin Hero, Reincarnate, Kingsbarns, King Russell, Verifying, Jace's Road, and Cyclone Mischief.
Bred in Kentucky by the Grandview Equine of former Three Chimneys Farm owner Robert Clay, Mage is out of the stakes-winning, graded stakes-placed Big Brown mare Puca. The colt was purchased for $235,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, then headed to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old in training sale.
At $290,000, Mage was a bit outside the budget of Restrepo and the trainer's son, Gustavo Delgado, Jr., but the two liked the colt so much they put together a partnership to afford him.
“He had an eye-catching breeze,” Restrepo told Nick Luck in March. “I remembered the dam (Puca, by Big Brown) clearly; she broke her maiden by like 17 lengths at Belmont, and had a terrible trip in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, but could have won it with a better trip.
“We wanted to swing for the fences with one, and we were fortunate to get this one.”
Mage broke his maiden at first asking, though that start didn't come until Pegasus World Cup day in late January of 2023. Delgado put the colt in the deep end for his second career start, and Mage managed to finish fourth behind champion Forte in the G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes. The colt improved even more in his next effort, finishing a close second to Forte in the G1 Florida Derby.
After his Kentucky Derby triumph, the “little horse with a big heart” has won two of his four lifetime starts for earnings of $2,107,200. He is the fourth horse to win the Derby in his fourth career start, following Justify in 2018, Big Brown in 2008 and Regret in 1915.
The post ‘Little Horse With A Big Heart’: Mage Provides The Magic In Kentucky Derby 149 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
