Long-time Aiken trainer shares what it takes to win the Kentucky Derby
AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - We are days away from the Kentucky Derby.
Derby 149 is on the clock, and Churchill Downs is wrapping up their final preps. Millions tune in every year for the race.
The Derby is the longest-running sporting event, and the field is limited to only 20 horses, so the cut is tough.
We talked to a long-time trainer who works in Aiken about what it takes to win the coveted blanket of roses.
The Kentucky Derby is called the greatest two minutes in sports. while that time is short, It is the pinnacle of a trainer’s career. Imagine reaching that moment eight times over.
“The hands are old and I’m a little slower, but I’m still here,” said Ron Stevens.
Stevens was never planning to be here.
“I got a degree in education and thought I could have the summers to play with the horses. And I started racing,” he said. “I quit my teaching job, my wife quit a good government job, and we went to the racetrack.”
He turned a hobby into a life.
“It would be my job to try and decide which horses might be Derby candidates. The top trainers at the top tracks. And which ones need to go somewhere where they can just make a living,” said Stevens. “He was an undefeated two-year-old. He should have, could have won the Derby. And he had competed against Unbridled, and we ran six times against him and beat him four times. He went to the front coming out of the turn, and 100,000 screaming people got his attention. He looked at him and Unbridled went by him, and he couldn’t get going again. He was the first big horse that really got everybody’s attention,” said Stevens.
There’s Wallenda, Smilin Singin Sam, Jack, Flash ...
“The town would wear green and yellow on the Derby day that we were running with one of these horses,” he said.
Impeachment, Trippi, Limehouse ...
“We would be replaced with computers if they could figure out how big the heart is, how big much try they have, how determined they’re going to be,” he said.
Almost as determined as their trainer.
“We have not won the Derby yet. We say yet because it’s always a dream,” he said.
Steven says most of the Colts win a race in the Triple Crown. Owners retire them and use them as studs for the next generation of racehorses.
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