Country House, A 65-1 Long Shot, Wins Kentucky Derby After Historic Disqualification
Flavien Prat rides Country House to victory during the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby.
Matt Slocum/AP
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Matt Slocum/AP
Updated at 9:05 p.m. ET
In a stunning and historic Kentucky Derby upset, the horse that crossed the finish line first was not the one that was declared the winner.
Maximum Security, the favorite entering the race and the only undefeated horse in the field, outpaced the competition on the muddy track at Churchill Downs and appeared to have won the 145th Kentucky Derby with a time of 2:03.93.
Then an objection was lodged. For several tense minutes in Louisville, some 150,000 people in rain-soaked ponchos and fancy hats waited for a verdict.
About 20 minutes after the race ended, the race’s stewards announced that Maximum Security had been disqualified for impeding the path of at least one other horse in the race. The decision handed the victory to Country House, which started the race at 65-1 odds, and a first-time win to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
It’s the first time a horse has been disqualified for interference in the history of the race. The result also ended a six-year streak of favorites winning the derby.
Code of Honor finished second (13-1) and Tacitus (5-1), also trained by Mott, took third.
An explanation of Maximum Security’s #KyDerby disqualification. pic.twitter.com/vf8AN4qvD2
— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) May 4, 2019
“It’s amazing,” Country House’s jockey Flavien Prat, told NBC Sports after the result was announced. “I really kind of lost my momentum around the turn, so I thought that I was going to win, but it cost me, actually.”
At a press conference after the event, Mott said he was happy with the way his horse and jockey performed.
“As far as the win goes, it’s actually bittersweet,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said it was any different.”
He acknowledged that the stewards had to make a challenging decision but said the disqualification was warranted because of Maximum Security’s impact on other horses.
Maximum Security’s trainer, Jason Servis, and the horse’s jockey, Luis Saez, had already begun to celebrate what they believed were their first Derby victories before the stewards began reviewing the objection.
Mott said he expected that the controversy surrounding the incident would reverberate for a long time. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this race shows up on TV over and over and over a year from now,” he said.
It was also a bittersweet victory for co-owner Maury Shields, whose husband, Joseph “Jerry” Shields, died last year. The prominent thoroughbred owner-breeder had served on several racing boards and was a founding member of the National Thoroughbred Association, according to the horse racing website the Paulick Report.
Only one other horse has been disqualified after finishing first in the race. Dancer’s Image, who ran in the 1968 Derby, was disqualified years later for a failed drug test.
Maximum Security was the race favorite heading into the Run for the Roses, with odds at 4-1 by the evening.
A light drizzle, which followed hours of overcast but dry skies, turned into heavier rain just in time for the race and drenched the main track. Shortly before the race began, the track was downgraded from fast to sloppy.
Last year, several inches of rain also made for a sloppy track. Justify, the favorite, took home that victory.
How High Medical Bills Can Take A Toll On Both Patients And The Nurses Who Care For Them
NPR’s Scott Simon speaks with Hilary Valdez, a nurse who wrote in after our last Bill of the Month story. She tells us about how high medical bills can affect nurses’ relationships with patients.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
NPR’s recently run stories about high medical bills and people who struggle to pay them in our Bill of the Month series in collaboration with Kaiser Health News. After our most recent story, we heard from a nurse who says high bills affect her relationship with patients, and perhaps their care.
Hilary Valdez is a cardiac nurse at a hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo. She joins us now. Ms. Valdez, thanks so much for being with us.
HILARY VALDEZ: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: As you see it, what are the effect of high bills on some of your patients as you deal with them?
VALDEZ: Well, initially, I wrote in because I was frustrated. These stories aren’t sensationalized. And because of these crushing bills, the public has become, I think, less trusting of health care providers. And so I wanted to speak from the perspective of nurses and other clinicians who work directly with the patients because we hear their frustrations the loudest.
I had a patient who had a heart attack. And he called me from the hall. He was sweating and short of breath, and his chest pain had returned. And protocol dictated that I get the 12-lead EKG machine. And as I was placing the leads on his chest, he looked at me almost suspiciously and asked me what that was going to cost.
And that was a teaching moment for me because I think of that machine the same way I think of a blood pressure cuff or a stethoscope. It’s a way for us to assess our patients. And it shocked me that in this situation that could have been life-threatening, he was mostly concerned about his bill.
SIMON: Has it happened that your – I don’t know – you’re about to take care of someone, doing one of the amazing things that nurses do, and a patient looks up and says, wait; I don’t know if I can pay for that?
VALDEZ: It has. And patients have the right to autonomy and transparency. And it’s important that we help them navigate the system so they can be more comfortable making their health care decisions. And nurses – you know, patients need to utilize us. And we advocate so much for them. They need to think of nurses as multitools. We have the doctors’ ears and the social workers, case managers, pharmacists. And patients, I think, need to be aware that we can help get them resources that they might not know exist.
SIMON: From your perspective, what worries you the most about health care in this country?
VALDEZ: Oh, I don’t quite have the answer to that. My concern, though, is that patients become fearful of seeking health care. And not all situations require hospitalization, but when someone puts off a nagging pain for years and years because they think they might lose their home, they end up in a lot worse of a situation than if they had sought help earlier.
SIMON: Yeah. I have been told that you have to struggle with some of these questions in your own personal life, too.
VALDEZ: Yes, I have a chronic illness, actually – epilepsy. And since I was a child, I have dealt with hospitalizations and diagnostic tests and, more recently, even surgery. And the medications that I have to keep me seizure-free so I can work – they’re expensive and have become more so. If I wasn’t in a dual-income household, I don’t think I would be able to make those payments.
SIMON: So you’re a nurse with a chronic condition, and you’re not certain you can afford the medication you need to keep you going.
VALDEZ: No. And I have great health benefits, too. But, in fact, benefits change, sometimes from year to year, and a medication that I would get at a certain price from a certain pharmacy might change with next year’s benefits. So it’s hard for me to navigate, even as someone who, I think, does have health care literacy.
SIMON: Hilary Valdez is a cardiac nurse at a hospital in Colorado Springs. Thank you so much for being with us.
VALDEZ: Well, thank you for having me.
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