Kentucky Derby 2022 Payout: Dissecting Prize Money Purse and Final Race Results
Rich Strike, jockey Sonny Leon and trainer Eric Reed are still celebrating their historic and stunning triumph at the 2022 Kentucky Derby on Saturday night.
This was a year with no overwhelming favorite in the field. Epicenter and Taiba were co-favorites with 5-1 betting odds (bet $100 to win $500) on the official Kentucky Derby website before the race began. Messier was the No. 3 favorite with 6-1 odds.
With a wide open field of 20 horses vying for history, Rich Strike (80-1) was able to stand out in the pack by passing Epicenter down the final stretch to steal the win. The thoroughbred's victory also resulted in a $1.86 million payout for owner RED TR-Racing.
The total purse for the 2022 Kentucky Derby was $3 million. This marks the fourth consecutive year the total purse was that amount.
2022 Kentucky Derby Payouts (via NBC Telecast)
1. Rich Strike: Win ($163.60), Place ($74.20), Show ($29.40)
2. Epicenter: Place ($7.40), Show ($5.20)
3. Zandon: Show ($5.60)
It's not an understatement to call Rich Strike's win one of the most unexpected in Kentucky Derby history. The horse wasn't included in the original field scheduled to compete at Churchill Downs.
Rich Strike was the first alternate after trainer D. Wayne Lukas decided on Friday to scratch Ethereal Road from the race. He hadn't won a race since September and hadn't finished higher than third in each of his past five events.
Per the Kentucky Derby website, Rich Strike had the fewest amount of bets placed on him with a total of $501,135. Tawny Port ($503,084) and Classic Causeway ($512,947) were the only other horses in the field with fewer than $600,000 in bets placed on them.
Cameron Teague Robinson of the Louisville Courier-Journal did note Rich Strike comes from good bloodlines as the son of Keen Ice.
"Keen Ice won two graded stakes in his career and was a third-place finisher in the 2016 Breeder's Cup and fourth-place finisher in the 2015 Breeder's Cup," Robinson wrote. "He also placed third in the 2015 Belmont Stakes."
Saturday was a huge moment in Reed's career.
According to Rory Carroll of Reuters, Reed at one point considered leaving the sport altogether in 2016 after a barn fire resulted in 23 of his horses being killed.
This was the first career Kentucky Derby win for Reed. He has been training horses professionally since 1985 and has 1,444 career victories.
The next step on Rich Strike's journey figures to be the Preakness Stakes on May 21. The last horse to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in the same year was Justify en route to winning the Triple Crown in 2018.
