LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Every year, it seems, a horse wins the Kentucky Derby doing something that’s never been done before. That was the case again Saturday at Churchill Downs when California invader I’ll Have Another, ignored at 15-1 in the field of 20, became the first horse to win from post 19, rallying wide into the stretch to take the 138th Run for the Roses by 1½ lengths over front-running Bodemeister on a hot, steamy afternoon before a record crowd of 165,307.
The son of Travers winner Flower Alley paid $32.60 after running the 1 ¼ miles in a solid 2:01.93. His jockey, 25-year-old Mario Gutierrez, who comes from a small town near Veracruz, Mexico, never had ridden in the Derby before.
“He is an amazing horse,” said Gutierrez, who rode I’ll Have Another to upset victories earlier this year in the Robert B. Lewis and Santa Anita Derby. “I told everybody before the first time I rode him, I knew he was the one.
“He’s such a professional horse. In the end, he just gives 100 percent every time. He was reaching every step of the way. I wasn’t going to stop riding until I passed the wire.”
No Santa Anita Derby winner has won the Kentucky Derby, a 1¹/₄-mile race, since Sunday Silence in 1989.
The victory was the first from three Derby starters for southern California-based trainer Doug O’Neill, whose Great Hunter and Liquidity finished 13-14 in 2007.
Purchased as a 2-year-old for a bargain-basement $35,000 by O’Neill’s brother Dennis, I’ll Have Another collected the winner’s share, $1,459,600, of the $2,219,600 purse for owner J. Paul Reddam, president of the finance company CashCall.
“We don’t come from the bluest of blood, and the horse follows that completely,” Reddam said.
Reddam said he gave Gutierrez, who began his career in Canada, a chance to ride because “he just really looked good in the irons to me. I said we had to try some new blood.
“There was some karma today because it’s Cinco de Mayo, and we had a Mexican rider.”
Bodemeister, bet down late to 4-1 favoritism coming off a runaway score in the Arkansas Derby, was bidding to become the first horse since 1882 to win the roses without racing as a 2-year-old. For most of the race, he looked like he would snap that streak, shaking loose on the clubhouse turn under Mike Smith to set furious fractions of 22.32 seconds, 45.39 and 1:09.80.
Despite that blazing pace, Bodemeister was still in front by daylight with a furlong to run. But I’ll Have Another, after rallying wide into the stretch, was able to run down Bodemeister inside the final sixteenth of a mile.
“[Gutierrez] did a pretty good job,” said O’Neill, who plans to ship I’ll Have Another to Baltimore for the May 19 Preakness. “The horse broke perfectly. By mid-stretch the first time around, he was great position and had a trouble-free trip.
“Maryland here we come, baby!”
Bodemeister held off Dullahan for second to key a $306.60 exacta. Went the Day Well ran fourth. The trifecta paid $3,065.60; the superfecta, $96,092.
Some of the most highly regarded runners in the field were never a factor.
Creative Cause, beaten a nose in the Santa Anita Derby, was fifth. Union Rags, who drifted to 5-1 after being favored most of the day, was shuffled back to 18th early and finished seventh. Hansen, the 2011 2-year-old champion, faded to ninth after chasing the pace. Gemologist, the previously unbeaten winner of the Wood Memorial, tired badly to run 16th.
ed.fountaine@nypost.com
