In case you missed it, there was a huge upset at this year’s Kentucky Derby.
A horse called Rich Strike wasn’t even supposed to be in the Saturday race. There had been an outside chance it might get a spot if someone else scratched, but nothing had happened by Friday morning.
Then the call came: there had been a scratch after all and Rich Strike would run in the Kentucky Derby the next day.
Great things were not expected, and the odds of the three-year-old colt winning were set at 81 to one.
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Everything appeared to be going according to plan when the race began Saturday afternoon. Rich Strike was at the back of the pack and no one was paying much attention.
And then, after the first half mile, with the colt third last, things begin to move, and out of nowhere, Rich Strike blew past the competition and won. Pandemonium ensued.
Normally, this historic event wouldn’t have registered much on my radar, considering that I’ve never watched a horse race on TV in my life.
However, in a happy accident, I actually managed to be in front of the television that Saturday afternoon to watch the momentous occasion. Call it happy serendipity.
We were visiting the in-laws in Regina that weekend, and it turned out my wife’s parents have become horse racing fans. Who knew?
So there we were, in the living room on a Saturday afternoon with me trying to studiously ignore all the pre-race chatter emanating from the telly by figuratively burying my nose in my iPhone.
However, things got a bit more interesting when we discovered that our daughter’s boyfriend had actually put a $10 bet on one of the favoured horses. Now we had something to root for.
So the race started and all eyes were on our new favourite horse, which eventually let us down by fading into the middle of the pack.
As the race was winding down, and my interest began waning again, we started to notice a horse streaking through the field to cross the finish line. It was Rich Strike.
For once in my life, I was in the right place at the right time for a momentous sporting event. It was a winning day all the way round.
