West Saratoga is a Kentucky Derby long shot. But so was his trainer

The Athletic has reside protection of the 2024 Kentucky Derby, the a hundred and fiftieth anniversary.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Larry Demeritte bends over and unwinds the wrap circling West Saratoga’s proper rear leg. He does the identical to the left after which scoots underneath the horse’s stomach to assist Donte Lowery, his assistant, with the animal’s entrance wraps. The job completed, Demeritte stands in entrance of the horse and subsequent to his brother Patrick, who helps with the horses, and smiles broadly.

A row of photographers squat subsequent to Barn 42 and video cameras circle Demeritte as a growth mic stretches from its handler to poke in on Demeritte’s dialog. He is completely unbothered by the manufacturing, as if one way or the other this consideration is typical for a man who has two Graded Stakes wins all through his four-decade profession.

Preternaturally optimistic and armed with a quip for each event, Demeritte is the feel-good story of this Kentucky Derby, and a story, frankly, horse racing might use. A yr in the past, the game’s premier race went off underneath a shadow after 12 horses died within the week main as much as the Derby and 5 entrants have been scratched by publish time.

Now right here is Demeritte, a native of the Bahamas, in a career through which Black trainers are a rarity; who has most cancers for the second time whereas additionally within the throes of a uncommon coronary heart illness; with a horse bought for the value of a well-used Hyundai operating in a subject that features a one-time yearling purchased for $2.3 million; competing in his first Kentucky Derby 48 years after chasing a dream that took him out of a safe job within the Caribbean to the Churchill Downs barns.

But Demeritte, 74, is greater than a man with a good story and a willingness to inform it. He’s a man who understands this is all about so far more than him. “I always say,’’ Demeritte begins, using a favorite segue to deliver a message, “when you look on a tombstone, you see when you are born and when you die and the dash in between. That dash? It all depends on what you do in life in that dash.’’

A simple wrought-iron gate opens off of East 7th Street in Lexington, leading not so much to a road but a pathway created by the ruts of tire tracks worn into the grass. African Cemetery No. 2 has functioned as a burial place since the early 1820s, and was turned over to the Colored People’s Union Benevolent Society No. 2 in 1869. Some 600 markers fill the 7-acre space, with plaques created to tell the stories of the names on the headstones. One, devoted to African-Americans in the horse industry, includes a list of 24 men who worked as thoroughbred trainers.

In the early years of horse racing, Black trainers were commonplace, though many only learned their trade while tending to the animals of their slave owners. The first Kentucky Derby, in 1875, was won by Aristides, a horse trained by Ansel Williamson, who was emancipated 10 years earlier. But Reconstruction combined with Plessy v. Ferguson drove Black men out of their professions, many unable to get good horses or good rides. Most were forced backward in their career arcs, becoming grooms and exercise riders rather than trainers and jockeys. Demeritte is the first Black trainer with a Derby entrant since Hank Allen in 1989, and only the second since 1951.

He has climbed here the hard way, arriving in the United States from the Bahamas in 1976, buoyed by his late father’s horse knowledge and his grandmother’s positivity. Before Thomas Demeritte was killed while breaking a horse, he taught his son all he knew about horses, but it is really Mayqueen Demeritte who guided her grandson on his impossible dream. The family had no money – Demeritte spins a great tale about gathering cooked rice into a ball, wrapping it in a paper bag and then placing the makeshift ammo into a slingshot to kill a pigeon, which he’d then barbecue on a spit made out of a hanger. But they had each other and they had their faith. That, Mayqueen told the 13 grandchildren she raised, was more than enough to see them through. Her lone requirements were that the boys learn at least two trades, the girls secure an education, and they take care of one another for life. (They listened. Twenty of Demeritte’s family members will come from the Bahamas for the Derby.)

Horses were more of a calling than a trade for Demeritte. So strong was his love for the sport, he gave up being a trainer in the Bahamas to work as a groom in the U.S. Hired by Lexington-based trainer Oscar Dishman, Demeritte joined a circuit that ran from Chicago to Florida and, eventually, to Churchill Downs.

Demeritte, now standing near his Derby entrant, motions over his shoulder to the barns behind him that doubled as his home for two years, admittedly amazed at how far he’s come. In 1981, Demeritte went out on his own as a trainer. Well aware that the color of his skin made him an anomaly, he refused to view it as anything other than an opportunity. “I always say, if I could be linked with the negative side of my race, why don’t I want to link somebody with the positive side?” he says. “It’s not about me. It’s about bringing everyone of my race with me, so they could feel proud.”

He says this as Lowery, his Black assistant trainer, winds up West Saratoga’s tub. Lowery began working for Demeritte in 2015. His mom had died and, very similar to Demeritte, he longed for one thing larger in horse racing. He left Charles Town monitor in West Virginia and headed to Kentucky. He began galloping for trainer John Mulvey, however when Mulvey went on to Florida, Lowery opted to remain behind and dig roots in Kentucky. He met Demeritte on the Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, the 2 bonding shortly over their love for horses and Lowery discovering greater than a boss in Demeritte. “That’s why I do what I do,” Demeritte says. “I don’t want Donte or my other (assistants) at the barn to have to wait this long to go to the Derby as a trainer.”

By 1996, Demeritte had amassed simply 25 wins (for comparability’s sake, Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Derby favourite Fierceness, has received 67 races this yr), however he was content material. He was within the sport, even when it was on the fringes in claiming and maiden races.

That yr docs identified him with bone most cancers. The chemo remedies have been excruciating and the prognosis grim. He joked with the docs, arguing in the event that they couldn’t inform him precisely what number of rounds of chemo it will take to be cured, he’d resolve when sufficient was sufficient. But he additionally admits that the illness sometimes tempered his optimism. His physique racked with ache, he remembers going to sleep at night time, questioning if he’d get up the following morning. “I’m so sick and my prayer is, if I don’t wake up on this side, God will wake me on His side,” Demeritte says. He beat the most cancers, solely to have it return in 2018.

Six years later, he nonetheless receives month-to-month chemo remedies – one as not too long ago because the week earlier than the Derby. He’s additionally been identified with amyloidosis, a uncommon illness through which protein builds up within the organs; in Demeritte’s case, it’s affecting his coronary heart. It helps that he lives shut by. In 2000, he purchased a 30-acre farm in Frankfort, about an hour’s drive from Louisville. He’s commuting every day to Churchill, and the prospect to relaxation in his personal mattress is a blessing. So, too, is the normalcy of his routine. On Sunday, six days earlier than the most important day of his life, Demeritte went to church after which to Sunday faculty. He dismisses questions on his stamina, “I don’t have time to sit and worry about it,’’ but those close to him know the toll the illnesses are taking.

“He’s been through some stuff, definitely,” says Harry Veruchi, West Saratoga’s proprietor. “This horse, it gives him a reason to go to work.”

Veruchi met Demeritte in 2000, when Demeritte picked out a $3,000 horse for the Colorado-based proprietor. Daring Pegasus grabbed a second-place end in a race for 2-year-olds on Derby day that yr and went on to earn Veruchi $212,518, a moderately candy return on his funding. “We’ve been going ever since,” says Veruchi, who is retired from operating a used automotive dealership.

Veruchi grew up in Littleton, Colo., in a neighborhood that bordered Centennial Race Track. Most of the streets have been named for tracks – Monmouth, Pimlico, Tanforan. Veruchi grew up on West Saratoga. As a 10-year-old, he sneaked into Centennial – you have been imagined to be 16 – and gamely tried to persuade somebody to rent him. They shooed the pipsqueak away, although they gave his a lot older-looking and taller buddy a shot as a groom. Doug Peterson would go on to coach Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew after the good horse’s storied 3-year-old run.

Veruchi ultimately pivoted to horse possession, shopping for his first horse, Melb, in 1982. Like Demeritte, Veruchi largely competed away from the game’s highlight, in small stakes races. He and Demeritte have partnered on and off since Daring Pegasus, and the proprietor has discovered to worth his trainer’s integrity and belief his intestine. “He’s a humble person, a religious person and a great trainer,” Veruchi says. “He really takes good care of this horse. He’s very in the game, making sure everything is right.”

Three years in the past, Demeritte made his annual go to to the Keeneland yearling sale. He is aware of what he likes in a horse, however he additionally is aware of what he can’t afford. “I always say, ‘I have Champagne tastes on a beer budget,’ so I buy good horses cheap, but that doesn’t mean I buy cheap horses,” Demeritte says. “I can’t afford the horses that have the papers, so I try to buy the horse that can make the paper.” He’s had good luck. Along with Daring Pegasus, Demeritte has turned different good investments, corresponding to Lady Glamour – bought for $1,000 and incomes $126,000.

But by the final day of the 12-day 2021 sale, Demeritte nonetheless hadn’t discovered a horse, and an anxious Veruchi stored calling, asking if something had caught Demeritte’s eye.

Finally, because the sale neared its end with solely 20 horses left, Demeritte spied a grey colt. Hip 4146, as he was listed, is the son of Exaggerator, the 2016 Derby runner-up and Preakness winner. The public sale began, Demeritte bid after which fretted. “I kept saying, ‘Close the auction, man.’” Demeritte remembers with a chuckle. “You selling this horse longer than any other horse come through here.” Demeritte bought the yearling, which Veruchi named after the road on which he grew up, for $11,000 – or $2,289,000 lower than the possession group paid for Derby contender Sierra Leone.

West Saratoga is 50 to 1. The everlasting optimist Demeritte brushes off the oddsmakers’ opinions. As he at all times tells Veruchi, there is no Plan B. The solely plan entails crossing the wire first, and fulfilling Demeritte’s grasp plan – to encourage. Inspire younger individuals who maintain desires pricey even when the trail in entrance of them is bumpy; to encourage younger Black males in horse racing by offering a acquainted face to emulate; to encourage most cancers survivors to disregard prognoses and diagnoses and simply reside.

Those who love and take care of Demeritte, although, wish to tweak the plan. Just this as soon as they’d prefer it to easily be about Larry Demeritte. “I’m so happy to see he’s made it so far,” Lowery says. “Just being here is his dream come true, but Larry always says, ‘Nobody remembers who finishes second in the Kentucky Derby.’ I want him to have it all. I want him to win the Kentucky Derby.”

The horse is a long shot. But then once more, so was Larry Demeritte.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; picture: Matt Stone / USA Today)