Joe Clancy

Rain forced a rare cancelation of a steeplechase meet in Delaware Sunday as saturated course crossings at the Winterthur Races created unsafe conditions for horses. The races will not be rescheduled, though the race committee will pay shipping stipends to owners who supported the meet with entries.

Whew. How was your weekend? Thoroughbred racing went to Churchill Downs for the 145th Kentucky Derby and somehow came away with more than a winner. Great, heaping quantities of rain fell from the sky, turning the track to slop, Maximum Security ran like 2-9 favorite (instead of 9-2 second choice) and won by 1 3/4 lengths to complete a five-month revelation from $16,000 maiden claimer to winner of the most famous race in the country.

And then, and then, everything changed.

The world got an idea during a workout at Churchill Downs Sunday morning, but Win Win Win is nothing if not competitive. His people have known since the beginning.  

At about 7 Saturday morning, trainer Joe Davies took race favorite Senior Senator out of the barn and turned him loose in a paddock. The move went against the instructions of Davies’ wife Blythe and assistant Ashton Williams, but the horse loved it.

In 2011, Julian Pimentel won a maiden race aboard a 2-year-old first-time starter for trainer Michael Matz at Delaware Park. The jockey was impressed, but also disappointed and realistic.

“We will never ride this horse again,” he told his agent Ronnie Gerardo. “This is a freak.”

Beep. Mike Trombetta, standing at the top of the steps to the clocker’s stand at Fair Hill Training Center on a sunny Easter Sunday suited for a postcard, started his stopwatch while holding binoculars to his eyes and a walkie talkie to his mouth. Out on the track, Kentucky Derby hopeful Win Win Win and workmate Two Swords lengthened stride as their trainer narrated eighth-mile splits to riders Mel Williams and Sarah Shaffer.