Derby winner has a Manitoba mother

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This article was published 08/05/2022 (1307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When 80-1 Rich Strike came charging home to win the 148^th Kentucky Derby on Saturday he made some scintillating romantic racing history for Manitoba. His mother was born and raised here.

Not only was Rich Strike the longest shot on the board in Saturday’s Derby, paying $163.60 to win for a $2 ticket and topping a mammoth $1 Superfecta of $321,500.10, but he was also the second longest shot in history to win the Kentucky Derby, behind only Donerail in 1913, who paid $184.90.

Rich Strike also became the first ever claimed horse to win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. He was haltered for $30,000 by trainer Eric Reed for RED TR-Racing, LLC in his second lifetime start as a 2-year-old at Churchill Downs on September 17, 2021.

A 3-year-old colt by Travers Stakes (G1) winner Keen Ice, Rich Strike is out of the Manitoba-bred mare Gold Strike, who was bred by Winnipeg born and raised Dick Bonnycastle, the former owner of Harlequin Enterprises, the world’s largest publisher of romantic fiction.

Gold Strike was foaled out by former top Assiniboia Downs trainer Tom Dodds on Janet Cruz’s farm in Petersfield, Manitoba on March 30, 2002, on the same farm where Dodds stood the stallion Shrike. Dodds then took the filly to his farm in Brunkild, Manitoba, where he and his wife Jane raised her and readied her for racing.

“She was the last horse I broke before I got my knees fixed,” said Dodds. “She was just one of those special horses. She was big and stout but didn’t have any spectacular look to her at the time, she was just a plain brown package. But she was really smart, kind to break, and just a nice horse to be around.”

Transferred to trainer Blair Miller at Assiniboia Downs to begin her racing career, Gold Strike made her racing debut at the Downs on July 1, 2004, finishing second beaten a neck in a Maiden Special Weight race. “She was a great horse,” said Miller, who was training a number of horses for Bonnycastle’s Harlequin Ranches at the time. “From the day she stepped on the track we knew she was a good one.”

Gold Strike won her next two starts at the Downs including the Debutante Stakes and the Buffalo Stakes. In the Buffalo Stakes the big bay was sent off as the third choice in a five-horse field, but she forgot to read the tote board, romping by 15 ¾-lengths under jockey Jerry Pruitt.

“She was pretty damn nice,” said Pruitt. “I loved riding her. She never really made any mistakes. She was a true racehorse, and very easy to ride. I remember looking behind me in that race and thinking ‘Oh my God, this is crazy.’ I had tons and tons of horse under me.”

Gold Strike was named the CTHS Manitoba-bred Champion 2-Year-Old Filly for her 2004 season and took the winter off before being sent to trainer Reade Baker at Woodbine for her 3-year-old season. Gold Strike continued to improve and lived up to her pedigree potential with a victory in the Selene Stakes (G3) and the prestigious Woodbine Oaks. She also finished third in the Queen’s Plate, and second in both the Star Shoot Stakes and Hendrie Stakes (G3).

For her stellar 3-year-old season in 2005, Gold Strike was named Canada’s Champion 3-Year-Old Filly and Manitoba’s CTHS Manitoba-bred Horse of the Year, but that would be her last year at the track. Her well thought out pedigree would now come to the fore in the breeding shed.

Rich Strike was uniquely inbred 3 x2 to Canadian Hall of Famer Smart Strike, the sire of 2007 Preakness (G1) winner and American Champion 3-Year-Old Curlin, a son of Mr. Prospector. Smart Strike is also a half-brother to Canadian Horse of the Year and American Champion Dance Smartly. 

“If you look back at history, it’s the best way to take the genes, move them forward and concentrate them,” said the 87-year-old Bonnycastle from his home near Calgary.” You just don’t breed that way with horses that have negative traits.”

Gold Strike has produced seven foals to date, the best being Natalma Stakes (G2) winner Llanarmon and Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike. Now 20-years-old, it’s unlikely she will be producing any more runners. The fact that she foaled a Kentucky Derby winner at the age of 17 says something for her superior quality, and for Manitoba’s exceptional horse country. It doesn’t get any better than the Kentucky Derby.

Bonnycastle received a ton of congratulatory phone calls after Rich Strike’s Kentucky Derby win, including one from Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye. No stranger to the big time, Bonnycastle bred, raced and campaigned numerous stakes winners over the course of his career in horse racing including 1978 Classic 1,000 Guineas winner Enstone Spark in England, and 1972 Manitoba Derby winner Nice Dancer.

Bonnycastle was excited by the fact that the mare he had bred in Manitoba foaled a Kentucky Derby winner, but he was careful not to overdo it. “My heart stopped for nine minutes a few years ago,” he said.

The Kentucky Derby just gave it a boost.