Mage’s 15-1 winning odds in the 2023 Kentucky Derby were nothing like Rich Strike’s 80-1 shock of 2022, but there were still plenty of gamblers who, having bet the house on a highly touted horse who failed to fire.
And while most of the post-Derby attention will naturally fall on the chestnut withers of the son of first-crop sire Good Magic, there are still seventeen other horses who tried in the race and fell short of immortality. Each one plotted a different path in the race, and each one had a different finish as a result.
What happened to the most heavily backed horses in this year’s Kentucky Derby?
Forte
This one is easy.
The morning-line favorite at 3-1, Forte had lost the Derby long before the horses even reached the starting gate.
Indeed, a foot bruise that bloomed during Derby week evidently continued to nag the Eclipse Champion Two Year Old Male. The Churchill Downs veterinary team observed him after his morning exercise on the day of the big race and noticed that he seemed off.
They examined his legs more closely, and a wince when the vet touched the offending foot sealed his fate. Forte was scratched, eventually being placed on the vet’s list for fourteen days, and his performance in the Run for the Roses will forever be relegated to “what might have been.”
Nonetheless, he is likely to be part of the contenders in the last Triple Crown event, the Belmont Stakes, that happens on May 10th. So he might aim for achieving at least the best Belmont Stakes results possible.
Tapit Trice
Tapit Trice, believed by both Randy Moss and Jerry Bailey to be the most talented horse going into the Derby, shared a negative trait in common with Mage: both horses were notoriously slow to break from the gate.
While Mage was able to overcome this and attain a decent position, the huge gray son of Tapit fell back to last. He attempted to rally by shifting wide, but instead slammed into Mandarin Hero. Pushed further wide in an attempt to get clear, he had no energy left to launch any sort of serious bid for the lead.
Derma Sotogake
Many had hoped that Derma Sotogake would become both the first Japanese-based Derby winner, as well as the first to complete the UAE- Kentucky Derby double. Alas, it was not to be.
Derma Sotogake had been thought to be a potential pacesetter in the race, based on his wire-to-wire win in the UAE Derby. Instead, the son of Mind Your Biscuits never hit or really approached the lead. He broke badly, hitting the gate, and raced in midpack throughout the opening fractions of the race. While he made a mild bid leaving the far turn, he did not get close enough to the leaders to have a serious impact on the finish.
Angel of Empire
Angel of Empire had favored status thrust upon him after Forte’s defection. The Arkansas Derby winner did not add the Kentucky Derby to his resume, but he finished a creditable third. He finished the race with ground-gobbling strides and may well have won had the race been a sixteenth of a mile longer.
However, the Kentucky Derby is ten furlongs and ten furlongs only, and Angel of Empire was as far back as sixteenth in the opening stages of the race. He saved ground initially, but ended up having to go seven wide to launch his bid. He was gaining with every stride once he straightened in the stretch, but in the end, he had too much to do.
Two Phil’s
While Two Phil’s didn’t take home the roses, the Jeff Ruby Steaks winner proved capable of translating his talent from a synthetic to a dirt track. Indeed, he looked a winner for much of the stretch before Mage collared him in the end.
Perhaps more impressive, for most of the race, Two Phil’s had been laying close to a pace that was much faster than many expected it to be. While pacesetters Verifying, Kingsbarns, and Reincarnate wilted and finished far back, the Illinois-based son of Hard Spun proved he has stamina to back up his speed. While Mage gets the glory as the winner, Two Phil’s certainly earned respect in defeat.