LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The racing gods owed him.
Never mind that John Velazquez had plenty of reasons to think otherwise, even after a fellow jockey’s misfortune cleared the way for him to climb aboard Animal Kingdom on the eve of the Kentucky Derby.
“I guess when it’s meant to be for you, it’s meant to be for you,” Velazquez said, his grin for once, nearly as wide as he was tall. “No matter what.”
That rarely rang truer than it did across this aging racetrack for two minutes on a cool, overcast late afternoon. Velazquez has been at the top of his trade for at least a decade, but he was an unlikely and even more unlucky 0-for-12 in the one race that mattered most.
For three years running, Velazquez arrived in Louisville with a mount that had favorite written all over him, only to see each one erased days before the race. This time around, it was Uncle Mo, the juvenile champion sidelined by a bad stomach just 36 hours before the gate was set to open. The year before, it was Eskendereya, an impressive beast felled by a leg injury that turned out to be a career-ender. The year before that, it
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
