Sit back, relax (got your hat?), take a mint julep or your Kentucky Bourbon neat, have a cigar, and watch the fastest horse since Secretariat pound down the track. If you were smart, you'd have had that winning ticket in your hand last Saturday as you kept out of the heat of Churchill downs and watched the Kentucky Derby.
Monarchos? John Oxley's horse, trained by John T. Ward, Jr.; definitely wasn't the highest selling, but even in his early years, a good eye could have seen he had potential. His first sale won his breeder $90,000; Oxley bought him in February of 2000 at the Fasig-Tipton two-year-olds in training sale for $170,000. Not a bad price, really; Monarchos' pedigree runs a mile long. So far, his career earnings are over $1,600,000.
Exciting race; he ran against the old favourite, Point Given (who finished a dismal 5th), and last year's 2nd place finisher, Congaree. Ridden by the jockey Jorge Chavez, he finished first in the Kentucky Derby on May 5th, 2001, with a time just 2/5ths of a second short of Secretariat's record.
His career is far from over; Oxley plans on racing him on May 19 in the Preakness Stakes. He'll probably come in 3rd. Finished with that Julep yet?