It is a four-letter word, and only one person is going to say he liked the rain in horse racing: the winner.
Saturday, on an off track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., veteran rider John Velazquez was the difference in the Kentucky Derby. He refused to let the mud make a difference.
With great focus, he broke Always Dreaming second out of the No. 5 post and sat just outside early pace-setter State of Honor, who went out really fast, posting an opening quarter of 22.89 for the 1¼-mile race.
But Velazquez, who had positioned his mount to not get mud kicked in his face, settled the winner of the Florida Derby into a relaxed stride in the run down the backstretch as the pace slowed, close but not too close to the lead.
All week the "experts" had called this an open race, and it was, for second and third. As the NBC broadcasting team hailed McCraken most of the day and pretty much ignored the favorite, it turned into more of the same.
For the fifth year in a row the post-time wagering favorite won the Kentucky Derby, something that hadn't happened in more than 25 years.
The previous two Derbies were won by 2-year-old champions: Nyquist last year and Triple Crown winner American Pharoah the year before.
But this year's reigning 2-year-old champion, Arkansas Derby winner Classic Empire, went from morning-line favorite at 4-1 to a 7-1 shot at post time and seemed to garner no respect.
Classic Empire broke behind a large part of the 20-horse field, ate mud until the head of the stretch and when asked to rally made a move only to get T-boned in the stretch and knocked off stride.
At that point he probably wasn't caching the winner, but he was all out to finish fourth, which wasn't bad considering how the first 7 furlongs went for him.
Oaklawn Park runners, though, would not be shut out.
Arkansas Derby third-place finisher Looking At Lee was firing at the end -- and no, he wasn't catching the leader, either -- got up for second, and he became one of the two long shots who hit the board, paying $26.60 and $15.20 as the place horse.
Battle of Midway, 40-1, held off Classic Empire for third and rewarded his followers with a $20.80 show ticket.
Always Dreaming, who became the favorite almost as soon as the windows opened on the Derby Thursday, has not lost a race since breaking his maiden in his third outing, which was his first try at two turns.
He won that race by 11 lengths, followed that with a 4-length victory in an optional claiming race -- although the $350,000 yearling purchase was not eligible to be claimed -- and then went into the Florida Derby, which he won by 5 lengths.
That's three victories by 20 lengths, which explains why smart handicappers jumped on him at the longest odds of his career, a little less than 5-1. He'd been favored in every race of his career until the Florida Derby, when he was the second choice to Fountain of Youth winner Gunnevera.
Always Dreaming, a son of 2012 Arkansas Derby winner Bodemeister and trained by Todd Pletcher, ran a 102 Beyer speed figure in the Florida Derby and was under a hand ride down the stretch.
Saturday was his first race at Churchill Downs, but he had worked really well in preparation for the Kentucky Derby.
His time of 2:03.59 wasn't fast, unless you factor in the mud, the same thing that knocked heavy favorite Paradise Woods out of the money in the Kentucky Oaks the day before.
Saturday, though, the difference was the experience and poise of a rider who had won this race in 2011 on Animal Kingdom, who was trained by Graham Motion.
Pletcher's other Derby victory came in 2010 with Super Saver, who was the second-place finisher in that year's Arkansas Derby.
Velazquez, a 45-year-old native of Puerto Rico and a 2012 Racing Hall of Fame inductee, put his horse in the best possible position out of the gate, made his move early in the turn to home and ended up with a bed of roses in the winner's circle.
Sports on 05/07/2017