Big Brown wins the Kentucky Derby
Big Brown took the first US Classic of the season this Saturday (3 May) winning the 134th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky.
The Richard Dutrow jnr-trained three-year-old became the seventh unbeaten horse to win the race and the first horse since 1915 to win it having had just three previous starts.
It was a first Derby win for Mr Dutrow jnr and a third for jockey Kent Desormeaux — who won on Real Quiet in 1998 and Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000.
Having won the first leg of the US Triple Crown connections are now looking towards the second leg — the Preakness Stakes held in Maryland in two weeks time.
Mr Desormeaux said of Big Brown: “Talent-wise, he is the best horse I’ve ever ridden.”
The 24-10 favourite won by nearly five lengths ahead of the lone filly in the race, the Larry Jones-trained Eight Belles, who sadly fatally fractured both of her fore ankles pulling up on the turn. The stable had been hoping to record a double as only the day before her stablemate Proud Spell took the Kentucky Oaks.
In third was Denis of Cork, trained by David M Carroll and Tale of Ekati was fourth. All 20 ran.
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.