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| Staff Writer |
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"As they turned for home, when I saw him making the run down the stretch, it was like I left; it was almost like an out-of-body experience."
Eric Reed will be etched in the history of horse racing for years to come as the trainer who prepared the second-longest shot for the Kentucky Derby.
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, he would grow up and remain there, proud of his roots and growing up in America’s heartland for horse racing.
His father was a trainer for over four decades, and Reed was born into the sport. He grew up knowing this was the place he wanted to be.
"Well, that's the only reason I'm a horse trainer." He was so well respected and so good at what he did, and as a kid, I just kind of idolised my dad like most people.
"At age 12, I just wanted to be like him, so I had already really decided what I was going to do."
Reed was never going to do anything else because of his deep love for the animal and his father's respect.
"I always loved horses. I loved the way that my father specialised in developing young horses and getting them to the races.
"So I got to watch the horses as they grew up, learned, and progressed through the training. It's really just a fascinating thing to watch these horses get better and better, and then he would naturally send them off to other trainers.
"My brother and I would watch the horses a year or so later, on TV and at big races. I just kind of fell in love with horses, and I always wanted to be a horse trainer."
Looking back at career highlights
Reed has now been training horses for forty years, with Native Drummer winning the Forego Stakes in 1986.
He has trained a range of horses over his time training, but as he said, although he has photo albums filled with stablemates of days gone by, only two ever made it onto his wall.
"There's been a lot over the years. It's kind of funny because, as I was recollecting after Rich Strike won the Derby, I only had one other horse picture that I kept on the wall. I have a scrapbook with all the pictures, but only one other horse, and it was a horse that we purchased as a yearling.
"When we ran her, she won quite a few races. Then she was taken away from us, and she was gone for about six months. The guy couldn't get any information out of her, so he called to ask if we wanted her back. We paid a thousand dollars to buy her back. She won seven races in a row as soon as we got her back.
"She is buried in the front yard of our farm with a little monument. She was just a little thousand-dollar horse, but it was amazing how much she meant to us. Out of all the horses that I've trained, she was the only one on the wall, even though I’ve had a number of horses in many big races and we’ve won some nice races too.
"Now there's Rich Strike, so you're talking about diametrically opposed characters."You've got the Derby winner on one side, and on the other side, you have a little five-claimer, but she meant the world to me. Her name was Kathy Polly March.
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The Long Shot Derby Horse
You cannot have a conversation about Eric Reed without discussing Rich Strike. The horse was a last-minute inclusion in the Kentucky Derby, going on to win at 80-1, the second-longest odds in the history of the race, which still sends shivers through the body of any race fan.
"It was almost unbelievable to me." When the race was running, I was just watching him in the back, waiting for him to make his run.
"When he got to the far turn and started, he got in that big group of horses. So, I thought, he's going to show up, and he's going to run pretty well.
"As they turned for home when I saw him making the run down the stretch, it was like I had left; it was almost like an out-of-body experience."
"I could hear myself repeating to myself, "There's no way," and the closer he got, it was just like I was dreaming.
"I lost focus on what was going on in the race, and I kind of had tunnel vision." He had gotten to third, and I was just making sure nobody could pass him so I could tell people we finished third in the Derby.
"I remember telling my dad, "Dad, we're going to hit the board," and then my friend Ken Tyson, you know, just starts screaming repeatedly, "Oh my God," and that's when I kind of opened my eyes to what was really happening and I could see that he was catching Epicenter.
"By the time they got near the wire, everybody saw him but couldn’t see him cross the finish line, but I knew he had won."
The story is spine-tingling, intensified by knowing that the horse was a last-minute inclusion after Reed and his team had been told that very same morning that they had missed the cut.
"Yeah, actually, he was the last horse to get in, and that was the morning before the Derby; nine o'clock was the deadline." We were informed at quarter to nine that he would not be admitted.They called the security guard that was assigned to us, and she got off the phone, saying she could leave her post.
"She gave me a big hug and said, "I'm sorry," and we were all pretty down in the dumps. But I'm trying hard not to let my crew know how disappointed I am."I figured I could do that later when I was by myself," Reed says, clearly emotional about his decision.
"Just a few minutes before the deadline." I got the call saying that he was going to get in, and I just couldn't even speak when it happened. "I was so shocked and so excited."
Bringing Rich Strike into the Fold
The colt was claimed from Joe Sharp and Calumet Farm in September at Churchill.
"He had had one start, and this was his second." Rick Dawson was trying to decide whether he wanted to stay in the horse business or not. We were just going to claim a few young horses that might have some upside and just see if he wanted to hang in there. We figured if he had some luck he wouldn't leave; if not, he knew it wasn't for him. So, when Rich Strike came to me through a mutual friend of ours, it was to help him (Rick Dawson) make a tough decision.
Reed saw potential in the son of Keen Ice, but at the end of the day, it could never have been predicted what the horse could be capable of.
"Rick Dawson was wanting to try it again, and I wanted to get him a young horse that maybe didn't have so many issues or problems like most of the older claimers have, and this horse when he ran his first start naturally, Joe Sharp is a good trainer, and he was four to one in a maiden special."
"He had fantastic workouts leading up to that race, so everything said that they all thought he could run, but the only thing that didn't make sense was on the turf."
"When I looked at the pedigree, it really didn't scream turf." The workouts on the dirt were so good that I told Rick that it didn't matter that he finished last. I said everything in my gut tells me he's much better than that, and I said for $30,000 he was well worth the money, and that's why we dropped it."
Strike On Dubai Is Now Off The Table
Rich Strike was being prepared for a tilt at the Dubai World Cup after 13 starts, and even though trainer Reed was confident of his chances in the UAE, the trip has now been taken off the table.
"He had a little break." We ran him in the Breeders' Cup, and we were going to stop and give him a break at that point. But we had the Clarke handicap looking us in the eye three weeks later, and we thought a win might keep him in contention for the Eclipse Award.
"We never ran him back in three weeks, but we went and took the gamble, but it didn’t work out." He actually had a respiratory infection that we didn't know about until after the race. But we gave him a 40-day break over at Hillandale in Xalapa.
"He got a nice vacation, and he came in super fresh." He just looked as good as he had ever looked, and he kind of grew a bit more; he’s plenty big enough.
"He’s had three workouts now and is about to have his fourth, so he’s really moving forward with his training, and he is training as well as ever."
In what Reed says is his final year racing the plan will now be for the Derby winner to race five or six times before his retirement is announced, with a start in the Kentucky Cup Classic on March 25 likely.
"Right now, this should be the last year that he races, and we'd like to win a couple of really prestigious races, and if not, at least get those earnings up there for him before he goes to stud."
The Stable Looks Forward
In a stable that now houses 160 horses, Reed said that he is impressed with the potential outside of the pair of Rich Strike and Oriana Do Iguassu.
"We have a large crop of 3YO fillies that we're just getting ready for, but we have a filly named Shewillghostyou for whom we have some pretty ambitious hopes if things go well."
"Then we've got a lot of nice-bred fillies from Mr. Jim Goshen that are about to make their starts, so the spring is going to be real busy for us."
"We have Common Bond, who is Rich Strike’s workmate, but he's a really nice horse." It runs some good races, and an up-and-comer called We All See It actually ran in some of the early Derby races against some early Derby horses last year. He has come back and had a couple of really nice races, so I look forward to seeing what he can do this spring and summer.
"We are rather lucky because we have a lot of turf sprinters, we have some dirt sprinters, and we have some horses that can run up to a mile and a half on either surface." So yeah, we've got the barn, which is very diverse.
Over his forty years of training, along with the knowledge that was handed down from his father and his further forty years of experience, I asked what the biggest lesson learned by Reed was.
"The biggest lesson that I've ever learned is that you don't know everything." You can learn from anybody, and I was told that when I was just a kid trying to follow in my dad's footsteps, the older horsemen would always see that I was like a sponge and would try to tell me things, and I remembered a lot of the stories that they told me and how they came through as I grew along in my career.
"Also, the horse comes first, always." "The money is always not what you look at because the money won't come if you don't take care of the horse."
The Great Dreamer
As Rich Strike heads into what is likely his final racing season, Reed admits there are races on home soil where he would love to win.
"The Breeders Cup is always a big race, and then there's the Steven Foster, the Whitney, the Oaks there are so many races out there that I'd love to participate in, and of course, I'd love to win."