Owner Rick Dawson announced on Facebook this weekend that Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike has been moved from former trainer Eric Reed's Mercury Equine Center to the Blackwood Stables training facility on the other side of Lexington, Ky.
“Today marks the end to this chapter of my horse racing life and the start of new chapter,” Dawson wrote. “We all hate change at first but often change is good. Time will tell. I'm excited about the future & what is in store for Rich Strike & my other horses. GO RICHIE!”
No new trainer has yet been named for Rich Strike, who has yet to find the winner's circle in six starts since his 80-1 Kentucky Derby upset.
Last week, Dawson revealed that he and Reed would no longer be working together due to a disagreement over movie rights.
Dawson was referencing an announcement that former NFL star quarterback Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions plans to create a documentary about Reed and Rich Strike. Sports Business Journal indicated that the production company talked with Reed via Zoom about the project last fall, at which time Manning had heard rumors Reed may be considering deals from other companies. The Omaha Productions project was slated to be distributed by Amazon Prime Video.
Reed told Paulick Report that the planned documentary was not about Rich Strike, but a “family story” that begins with his father's “chaotic” childhood as told by Pat Forde last year in Sports Illustrated. Passed along from one bad situation to another after his mother died when he was five years old, Herbert Reed hitchhiked from Powell County, Kentucky, to Versailles at age nine, found work at the track at 14 after lying about his age, and eventually would carve out a blue-collar career as a trainer.
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