Donerail Stuns Kentucky Derby at 91/1, Rich Strike Recall Follows

rich strike is the modern reference point, but Donerail set the standard first. On May 10, 1913, he won the 39th Kentucky Derby at 91/1 after a three-mile trip from Douglas Park to Churchill Downs on race day.

The win came in front of more than 30,000 spectators and still stands as the Derby’s most shocking upset. Rich Strike’s 80/1 victory in 2022 came closest to matching it, but Donerail finished the job more than a century earlier.

Goose and Hayes

Roscoe Goose had to talk Thomas P. Hayes into putting Donerail in the race at all. Hayes bred, trained, and owned the colt, who had not won a race that season before the Derby.

That makes the result even sharper. Donerail entered as a 91/1 shot in a field that had already been trimmed from 12 scheduled horses to eight starters after four withdrawals. He broke from post 5 and had to turn a race-day commute over dirt and cobblestone into a winning afternoon.

Churchill Downs Pressure

Churchill Downs was crowded enough that Donerail had been stabled at nearby Douglas Park. The move forced him to travel three miles to make the race, and he still answered when it mattered most in the 1 1/4 mile run.

Ten Point opened with a three-length lead, but Donerail wore him down late and won by 1/2 length in a then-record 2:04.80. Goose’s memory of the finish was pure acceleration: “When I clucked to Donerail, he started passing up horses like a passenger train going past a freight train.”

Rich Strike Comparison

The comparison to Rich Strike is simple and exact. Rich Strike won the 2022 Kentucky Derby at 80/1, the only recent result that even approached Donerail’s scale of surprise.

For Derby followers, that leaves one clear marker from the 1913 running: a colt who was not winning races that season, was shipped in from Douglas Park, and still beat the favorite when the race tightened in the final moments.