Can Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike replicate performance for Belmont Stakes?

The 80-1 long shot was looking the part, stuck in traffic at Churchill Downs, running behind 16 horses on the final turn.

And then Sonny Leon’s ride of a lifetime really began on the back of this horse — finding a crease through the middle, getting to the rail, picking up speed, weaving slightly through some more traffic and chasing down Epicenter and Zandon.

Rich Strike, who was claimed last fall and was competing only because of a scratch the day before, struck gold. He traveled the mile and a quarter from the outermost post, No. 20, to win the Kentucky Derby by three-quarters of a length — second to Donerail from 1913 on the list of biggest upsets in the 148 runnings.  

Leon took Rich Strike over to the winner’s circle. The jockey hopped off. There was the horse’s owner, Rick Dawson.

“Sir, he’s not tired,” Leon said to Dawson. “He’s still not tired.”

“That’s exactly what you want to hear,” Dawson said, flashing back to that great day in early May. “And so now we’re thinking Belmont. It should be right in our wheelhouse. So we’ll find out.”

Rich Strike isn’t 80-1 anymore. He also wasn’t the morning-line favorite to travel the 1.5-mile distance faster than the rest at Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. We the People was at 2-1. Mo Donegal was the second choice at 5-2. Rich Strike, who was given rest time and didn’t run in the Preakness, was third at 7-2.

Beyond that, what are the chances that Rich Strike can strike again and claim a second Triple Crown race?

“I think they’re as good as they can be,” trainer Eric Reed said inside the Triple Crown Lounge at Belmont Tuesday after he and Dawson saw Rich Strike draw the No. 4 gate. “He’s trained well. He’s doing good at the distance. He’s going to be fine.

“If there’s any kind of pace and he’s able to be within two or three lengths turning for home, then I think he’s got a really good shot at that point. … He seems so much more aggressive after the Derby that I have a feeling that he won’t be as far back.”  

It seemed incredible that Rich Strike went from a low claiming race to Derby champion, the first for Dawson, Reed and Leon.

“It’s not supposed to happen that way,” Reed said.

So why did it happen that way?

Calumet Farm ran him in that Churchill Downs claiming race in September. Dawson’s RED TR-Racing claimed him for just $30,000 after Rich Strike won, and it wasn’t close.

“I just think that he was probably better than the 30,000 claimer he was in,” Reed said. “Circumstances put him in that race.”

“The previous owners had chosen to run him on the turf the first time,” Dawson said. “He ran very badly. I think he was last. But we looked at his workouts on dirt and it was pretty good.”

Dawson and Reed ultimately thought he had a shot to win at Churchill Downs. Now Rich Strike is a celebrity at Belmont, drawing the attention.

“He loves it,” Reed said. “I think he notices it because when the cameras are out and he’s getting a bath, he stares at them a lot. He perks his ears up for them.”

No matter what happens Saturday, Reed, Dawson and everyone else involved with this horse will always have the Derby.

“Every now and then, I get an hour or two and I can reflect back,” Reed said. “It’s an amazing thing that’s happened to us, just a blessing from God.”