LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This has not been horse racing’s finest hour: dead horses at Santa Anita Park and consternation among horse people that they can treat their athletes better but have failed to do so. It’s little wonder then that the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday ended in astonishment, controversy and confusion. The Kentucky Derby, much like the Super Bowl, has become a place to see and be seen. Celebrities and wealthy people are everywhere, making the weekend a party with a race as the main distraction. On Saturday, Maximum Security won America’s most famous race on the track. Until he didn’t. For the first time in the history of the race, the horse who crossed the finish line first was disqualified for interference and stripped of his title, before a stunned crowd of more than 150,000. By all appearances, Maximum Security had outrun the field, remaining unbeaten and giving a hard-knocking trainer from the Mid-Atlantic, Jason Servis, and his up-and-coming jockey, Luis Saez, their first Derby victories. [A day later, people are still trying to figure out how horse racing moves on] But there was a problem — a big one. Maximum Security had jumped a puddle on the rain-soaked track and slid to the outside, not only impeding the progress of a rival, War of Will, but also forcing that colt’s rider, Tyler Gaffalione, to squeeze his knees and wrangle the reins just to stay aboard.<doc-sep>(CNN) Longshot Country House crossed the finish line second at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday but was declared the winner after second-favorite Maximum Security was disqualified for interference. It was the first time a Derby winner was disqualified because of a foul on the track. In 1968, Dancer's Image won but failed a drug test and was disqualified. "(Country House) was traveling well the entire race. Once I got him outside and I started to make my move, Maximum Security kind of drifted out and kind of turned us sideways," winning jockey Flavien Prat told reporters. He said the two horses -- War of Will and Long Range Toddy -- between them had more trouble but his horse felt the effect of Maximum Security's move. He said he filed an objection with the stewards. Chief steward Barbara Borden read a statement to the media but took no questions. She said jockey Jon Court, aboard Long Range Toddy, also objected. Read More<doc-sep>LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Perhaps the most amazing part of horse racing’s decline into relative obscurity among major American sports is that it manages to still pack 150,000 people into Churchill Downs every year for the world’s biggest party on the first Saturday in May. It happens rain or shine, no matter how much they jack up ticket prices, regardless of how many $15 mint juleps it takes to get a comfortable buzz. And it only grows like that year after year apart from the sport’s typical sinkage for one reason — the Kentucky Derby is special. It’s less special today. Every now and then, the best horse in the Derby doesn’t win. It should never be robbed. The history books will say that long shot Country House was the 145th Kentucky Derby winner on Saturday. But anyone who watched and remembers the race years from now will know that Country House was little more than the recipient of an egregious decision by the racing stewards at Churchill Downs, who disqualified the horse that finished under the wire first and was much the best running 1-1/4 miles around the famed oval. That horse was Maximum Security, and now he’s the poster boy of the biggest controversy in the history of American horse racing — an outcome horse racing didn’t need amidst a months-long public relations debacle resulting from 23 horse fatalities in California over the winter, and, frankly, wasn’t warranted under the circumstances of the race. Then, about 2 1/2 hours after the race, the three people who made that decision didn’t even bother to defend it. Instead, they chose the gutless route by reading a prepared statement in the media center at Churchill Downs and refusing to answer questions about the biggest overturned result in the history of the sport. “They’ll be talking about the result of this race from now until they run the next Kentucky Derby and the next 10 Kentucky Derbys and the next 20 Kentucky Derbys,” said Bill Mott, the trainer of Country House. “There’s always a lot of controversy in this sport, and we’re probably going to be involved in it from now on, but you know, I’m going to take it.” Don’t blame Mott for thinking that justice was done by taking down Maximum Security and placing him 17th due to an incident halfway around the final turn that compromised the chances of the two horses who were racing between Maximum Security and Country House. Mott, like every trainer who has been successful in this business, has been on both sides of these situations dozens of times. For him, it’s just part of the business. But there’s a reason the Derby, which is always a roughly run race with plenty of bumping and jostling throughout, has never had a winner disqualified due to interference: Unless the foul was egregious enough to clearly change the result, the horse that finished first under the wire should stand. That standard wasn’t met on Saturday. Not by a wide margin. PAYOUTS:Kentucky Derby payouts after Country House's shocking victory STUNNER:Country House wins Kentucky Derby after Maximum Security is disqualified OBJECTION:What's an objection? Here's what happened with Country House and Maximum Security REFUNDS:TwinSpires will refund some win bets on Maximum Security Look, there’s no doubt that a few seconds before Maximum Security hit the quarter pole on Saturday, he veered out to the right a bit, perhaps responding to crowd noise. In doing so, he forced War of Will racing next to him to swing wide, which in turn caused Long Range Toddy to check up to avoid a collision. You can argue, as Mott did, that both Long Range Toddy and War of Will lost momentum and a chance to finish in the top three based on that interference. He may be right. But the Kentucky Derby, with 20 jockeys fighting for every inch of space, is rarely run without complaints. Racing luck was, is and always will be part of the story. What Churchill’s three racing referees — called “stewards” — had to figure out was whether that incident was egregious enough to warrant changing the result. And, perhaps in a sense, they had to determine if they should do it in the Kentucky Derby, given the fact that they were imposing a judgment call on the one race watched and bet on by millions. “We had a lengthy review of the race, we interviewed affected riders and we determined the 7 horse (Maximum Security) drifted out and impacted the progress of No. 1 (War of Will), in turn interfering with the 18 (Long Range Todd) and 21 (Bodexpress),” Chief State Steward Barbara Borden said. “Those horses were all affected, we thought, by the interference, and therefore we unanimously determined to disqualify No. 7 and place him behind No. 18.” Notice who wasn’t affected by the incident, according to the stewards? Country House. He was just a bystander, and frankly, one who had his chance to pass Maximum Security in the stretch and instead fell two lengths behind at the wire. In other words, stewards disqualified the best horse over an incident that impacted two also-rans while giving the victory to another horse who was never going to win on his own. How does that make sense? “I don’t think it changed the outcome of the race,” said Jason Servis, the trainer of Maximum Security. “It’s tough. It hasn’t sunk in yet, but it will.” Unless you had a ticket on Country House at 65-to-1, making him the second-biggest long shot to ever win the Derby, what happened Saturday was nothing to celebrate. If anything, it only highlighted the notion that horse racing is a sport operating without a centralized regulating body and an embarrassing lack of transparency. And it brings up questions like this: Would these three people have made the same decision if Maximum Security was trained by a star like Bob Baffert and not a relative no-name like Jason Servis? Servis has been dogged by whispers from inside the industry that an uptick in winning percentage the last two years was the result of something other than his training methods. “People are talking a lot of (expletive),” Servis told Horse Racing Nation last summer amidst a big hot streak, “and I’m really not happy about it.” Did that factor into the thinking of the stewards? Who knows. They didn’t bother answering any questions, so for now, millions of Americans who had an interest in the race are left with little more than a few sentences on a sheet of paper about a decision with major ramifications that wasn’t anywhere close to an open-and-shut case. It’s bad enough that a large segment of the general public thinks horse racing is a sport rife with animal cruelty, trainers trying to cheat drug tests and racetracks that are squeezing bettors by taking between 15 and 24 percent of every dollar bet for the house. Now, even the sport’s showcase event can’t avoid contributing to horse racing’s woes.<doc-sep>
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the first time in the history of the Kentucky Derby, the winner of the race did not finish first. Maximum Security, sent off as the tepid top choice at 9-2, bolted to the early lead and held it all the way to the wire, seemingly winning the 145th run for the roses, finishing a few lengths ahead of longshot Country House. However, Country House jockey Flavien Prat and Jon Court of Long Range Toddy both filed an objection immediately after the race, claiming Maximum Security impeded the run of another horse. Replay shows Maximum Security did step out from his line near the rail, veering in front of War of Will (who ultimately crossed the line in eighth). The scene at Churchill Downs was surreal as the three stewards examined footage for more than 15 minutes, with jockeys, horses and their connections standing on the muddied track waiting for an official result. During the wait, Country House trainer Bill Mott acknowledged that his horse’s race was not impeded (later saying it might have been slightly), but said that if this were a normal race on a Thursday, Maximum Security’s win would be vacated and, as Mott noted, it shouldn’t matter if it’s a Thursday race or the Kentucky Derby, they should all be judged the same. "If this was a $10,000 race on a Thursday, it's a no-brainer," Mott said. In the century-plus long history of the race, no horse that finished first has ever had the run overturned. Until Saturday, when the stewards came back with a stunning decision: Maximum Security’s win was overturned. With Maximum Security disqualified, the victory went to the horse that finished second — Country House, which went off at 65-1, the second-largest longshot in the history of the race. Only Donerail at 91-1 in the 1913 Derby had longer odds. Code of Honor wound up second, followed by Tacitus. Prat said afterward that while Country House was not contacted directly by Maximum Security, his horse was hit on the hip by another horse on the left hip, causing him to lose “momentum.” Story continues Flavien Prat on Country House, left, races against Luis Saez on Maximum Security, third from left, during the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 4, 2019, in Louisville, Ky. Maximum Security was disqualified and Country House won the race. (AP) More from Yahoo Sports: