MIKE SMITH IN LINE TO BREAK A KENTUCKY DERBY RECORD & CLAIM ANOTHER EXTRAORDINARY HEADLINE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, April 23, 2022

Talk about longevity.

A jockey who was already inducted into the United States Racing Hall of Fame as far back as 2003 could add another major headline to his extraordinary career on the first Saturday in May, Kentucky Derby Day … a full nineteen years after he received that prestigious Hall Of Fame honour.

Mike Smith has previously won the Kentucky Derby on two occasions … aboard Giacomo in 2005 and Justify in 2018 … and if he were to salute aboard Taiba on May 7, it would not only be his third win in America’s biggest race, but at fifty-five years of age, he would become the oldest rider to win America’s showpiece event. (The late Bill Shoemaker was fifty-four years old when he won the Derby on Ferdinand in 1986).

Smith already holds the distinction of being the oldest rider to win the Triple Crown, a feat he achieved with Justify in 2018.

The list of quality horses that Smith has ridden since he launched his licensed career in 1982 is simply too long to mention … but it would be amiss not to mention the name of the mighty mare Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse Of The year, in this context.

Smith rode Zenyatta on seventeen occasions, winning sixteen of those races, including the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic with a supreme effort that is still talked about. Never shy to give ground away early and to swing very wide in the running, Zenyatta’s racing pattern thrilled her audience and Smith played his part in that exceptional scenario.

The only defeat came in Zenyatta’s very last race where, as was customary, she was flying late, when coming from more than twenty lengths off the pace, only to be beaten by a whisker in a tight, heartbreaking, dramatic photo-finish which denied her the chance to retire with a perfect record. As it was, she had won nineteen straight races and finished with a nineteen out of twenty winning score.

“I was hoping she would stick her tongue out,” said Smith at the time. Smith blamed himself for the loss and was devastated at the result, so he does know only too well the fine line between claiming glory and being an also-ran.

But Smith’s career is not only rich in history, it is rich in numbers that most riders can only dream about.

Equibase statistics currently show Smith to have had 34 051 starts for 5649 wins (at a 16.60 percent winning strike rate – an incredible number to have maintained from that amount of rides) with his runners earning US$339,645,945 in prize-money.

The Kentucky Derby, with its twenty-horse field, is always spectacular theatre and there will be a host of another stories in play on the day, but, make no mistake, Mike Smith’s tilt at knocking the late Bill Shoemaker off as being the oldest jockey to win the Derby will attract plenty of focus.

Oh, and one other, not so small, point.

Smith’s Kentucky Derby mount Taiba will have to re-write history on the actual racehorse front himself if he is to carry Smith to a landmark victory.

Taiba has only had two career starts to date and, according to the Daily Racing Form, only one horse has won the Kentucky Derby after only having had two starts going into the event … and that was Leonatus in 1883 – that’s right, a whopping one hundred and thirty-nine years ago!

Taiba has won both of his starts, last time saluting in a six-horse field in the Santa Anita Derby, but that experience will be a far cry from the hurly-burly of competition in a twenty-strong field in which his rivals can call on far more experience than he has himself.

Smith merely shrugs off that supposed disadvantage. In fact, he rather focussed on the positive going so far as to suggest that Taiba reminds him of Justify both in terms of the horse’s ability and intelligence.

“He's a really intelligent horse on top of having that kind of ability,” Smith said, speaking to the LA Daily News. “That's what makes 'em special. Those type of horses, not only are they so talented, but they have the mind to go with it. Imagine if he moves forward off that (last) race? If he does that, no telling what he's capable of.”

It should be an epic struggle and a massive result if Smith and Taiba get to the line first but, then again, racing always has stories waiting to be told and records waiting to be broken and this year’s Kentucky Derby is no exception.