Co-favorite Orb won the 139th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, winning his fifth consecutive race as jockey Joel Rosario guided the horse to what he called a “perfect race.” Golden Sol and Revolutionary finished behind Orb in muddy and sloppy conditions.
The win gave Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, a Kentucky native, his first ever Kentucky Derby win that he has sought all his life.
“It means everything to me,” Mc Gaughey said after the race. “I’ve always dreamed of this day and it finally came.”
Rosario guided the horse perfectly, as he started out in the middle of the pact as Palace Malice and Oxbow set the early pace.
“He showed today he’s the man,” Rosario said of the thoroughbred. The jockey said the horse has just gotten better after breaking his maiden.
He said he thought he had the horse too far back to make a run down the home stretch, but the horse had plenty in the tank on the muddy track.
The thoroughbred will try to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 when he races at the Preakness Stakes in two weeks in Baltimore in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Orb paid $12.80 to win.