This one’s for the Big Dog Daddy…
When news broke that Toby Keith’s horse, Render Judgment, was tapped to run in the 151st Kentucky Derby this weekend, country music fans were absolutely fired up, as many knew that it was a long time dream of his to have a horse run in The Run for the Roses.
Toby established a 300-acre Thoroughbred breeding and racing operation named Dream Walkin’ Farms in 2001. Over its two plus decades, it has been pretty successful, winning 848 times and taking in $18 million in earnings over 6,587 starts. Toby remained deeply involved throughout his life and was often seen as sales and participating in breeding decisions.
Just a few years before his untimely death, Toby partnered with Danny Caldwell, also an Oklahoma native, to form Country Bro Stables (interesting name for such a prestigious hobby). They brought in nearly $1 million in winnings and took home 39 victories in the short time in operation.
So yeah, not only was Toby one of the biggest country artists of the late 90’s and early aughts, he was a pretty big player in this whole horse racing thing.
Render Judgment is a longshot to win, there’s no question about that. Trainer Kenny McPeek admitted as much to Paulick Report:
“It’s going to be deep water for him, but we’re going to take over a horse that’s very healthy. I understand the dream … and it’s Toby Keith’s family, and Toby passed away this past year, and I think there’s some sentiment there.”
Add in that he’s battling a quarter crack and it starts looking even more unlikely that we’ll see a good finish…
According to VegasInsider, Render Judgment opened with 30/1 odds to win (like I said, a longshot) but once the country music community got ahold of this news, a flurry of bets rained down on the horse, pushing his odds down to a (relatively) incredibly short 12/1. For reference, the favorite, Journalism, is sitting at 7/2, while second and third favorites, Sandman and Sovereignty, sit at 5/1 and 10/1 respectively.
The report noted that this line was unlikely to stick. TwinSpires’ Jared DeRossett said:
“There’s some curious action on Render Judgment, moving him from 30/1 to 12/1, which I don’t expect to hold. He’s trained by Kentucky Oaks/Kentucky Derby double-winning trainer Kenneth McPeek.
That could be some of the hype behind this horse, as his recent performances don’t point toward much in the Kentucky Derby. As more money floods in, I’d project this horse closer to the original Morning Line of 30/1.”
And yes, it’s doubtful that Render Judgment will get to the race with odds like that but if that doesn’t prove that the country music community really shows up for our guys, than I don’t know what will. A bunch of beer drinking, fiddle loving country folk have forked over so much money that we drove the betting line for one of the most austere (and most heavily bet) events of the year, all because it was the late great Toby Keith’s dream to have one of his studs participate in the greatest two minutes in sports.
As I write this, the official Kentucky Derby website lists Render Judgment’s odds at 13/1, meaning there’s a bit of a pull back but the figure is still holding…
I’d love to see him pull this one off… His trainer, Kenny McPeek did win with the somewhat longshot Mystik Dan last year, can he pull it off two times in a row?
Tune in Saturday to find out…
