Mage came on strong in the final stretch to claim the 149th annual Kentucky Derby, with jockey Javier Castellano winning the race in his 16th attempt.
Mage finished the “Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” with a 2:01.57 time to secure first place. The three-year-old colt had 16-1 odds to win the race—the eighth-best—minutes before the start of this year’s Kentucky Derby.
In winning the race, Owner Gustavo Delgado’s horse beat out favorites like Angel of Empire, Tapit Trice, Derma Sotogake, Two Phil’s and Kingsbarns. Behind Mage, Two Phil’s finished second, Angel of Empire third and Disarm, who had the 12th-best odds to win Saturday’s race, finished fourth.
Javier Castellano, the 45-year-old Hall of Fame jockey for Mage, was overcome with emotion after the race and thrilled about Mage’s performance.
“I never give up,” Castellano said. “I always try hard to do the right thing. It took me a little while to get there. I finally got it. Turning for home, he [Mage] had a lot of heart. He’s a little horse with a big heart.”
Castellano, a Venezuela native, became the second Kentucky derby winner with Venezuelan ties. In 1971, Canonero II won both the Derby and the Preakness Stakes. The 1 1/4-mile race marks the first leg of the Triple Crown. The next races in the trio include the Preakness on May 20 and the Belmont Stakes on June 10.
Mage’s win comes on a day where two horses—Chloe’s Dream and Freezing Point—were euthanized leading up to the big race at Churchill Downs.
Freezing Point suffered a left ankle injury during the backstretch of Saturday’s Grade 2 Pat Day Mile. Joe Lejzerowicz, the trainer of the three-year-old colt ridden by jockey Corey Lanerie, told the Associated Press that Fort Bragg came over and slammed into Freezing Point during the race.
On NBC’s broadcast, Dr. Al Ruggles, an on-call veterinarian for the American Association of Equine Practitioners, said Freezing Point was placed in an ambulance and taken to the Churchill medical center for more examination by his private veterinarian approximately 60 minutes before his death, per to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Chloe’s Dream was vanned off and euthanized after not finishing the second race on Saturday due to a right front knee injury. The deaths of Freezing Point and Chloe’s Dream came hours after the favorite to win this year’s Kentucky Derby, Forte, was removed from the race due to a bruised foot.
