I'll Have Another was victorious in the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday in front of a record crowd of 165,307 at Churchill Downs for leading Vancouver jockey Mario Gutierrez and former standardbred owner J. Paul Reddam
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Leaving from Post 19, Doug O'Neill trainee I'll Have Another ($36.20, $13.80, $9.00) got away seventh on the outside with 25-year-old first-time Derby starter Gutierrez aboard. Down the stretch, the duo emerged from the pack to catch the leading Bodemeister ($6.20, $5.60) for the rich victory over 1-1/4 miles in 2:01 4/5. Dullahan ($7.20) finished third.
"He broke sharp, as he usually does," commented Gutierrez in a post-race press conference. "He's such a professional horse. He's a really calm horse. I know he was going to help me 100 per cent through the first part. In the end, he just gives 100 per cent all the time. As soon as you ask him, he throws everything on the race, and he didn't disappoint today. I know my horse was reaching every single step of the way, but I wasn't going to stop riding until I was passing the wire. That is when the horse race is finished.
"Like all jockeys, we all dream that one day [we will] be in the Kentucky Derby," he said. "At that time I was at Hastings Park and of course like a joke I had the dream, but I wasn't thinking it was going to be the next year."
I’ll Have Another -- who was accompanied to the starting gate by the O’Neill-conditioned $5 million earner Lava Man -- was the first horse in the history of the Derby to win from Post 19.
The son of Flower Alley, winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes before his $2 million triumph, was purchased for just $11,000 as a yearling.
Owner Reddam, President of financial lending company CashCall, was introduced to horse racing on the standardbred side in the early 1980's. His glorious Derby victory came just one day after the announcement of the closure of Windsor Raceway where his interest in the sport began.
"Horse racing is the most dangerous kind of addiction because it has intermittent reinforcements, right? Every once in a while something good happens, and that keeps you gambling or buying horses," said Reddam at the press conference. "It started for me in high school when a friend of mine was a groom at the local harness track. We used to skip school a little bit and go bet. When I came out to California in 1979, I was working on my doctorate. I went to Santa Anita one day and, oh, my God, look at this place. I was fortunate enough to see, the first year I was there, Spectacular Bid, his run. I was hooked. I never really dreamed that I would be in a position to own racehorses, but I got very lucky in my life and it happened. I guess I'm still pretty lucky."
I'll Have Another will head to the Preakness in his pursuit of the Triple Crown.