Maximum Security, the best horse in the Kentucky Derby, shouldn’t have been disqualified | Dick Jerardi

The best horse in Saturday’s 145th Kentucky Derby officially finished 17th. Maximum Security was the only unbeaten horse in the race and has still never finished behind another horse in five starts. After being challenged by horses to his inside and outside on the far turn, Maximum Security, who led from the start, ran away from the field in the stretch to finish first by 1 3/4 lengths.

But then, after looking at replays for 20 minutes, the three Churchill Downs stewards -- following a process unique to North American horse racing and making a decision unprecedented in Derby history -- disqualified Maximum Security for interference and placed him 17th behind Long Range Toddy, a horse they concluded was affected in some way when Maximum Security altered his path just before turning into the homestretch.

The result made 65-1 shot Country House, who finished second and was completely unaffected by Maximum Security’s move into the path of War of Will (finished eighth, placed seventh), the official Derby winner and the second-longest-priced winner ($132.40). It gave trainer Bill Mott, one of the best in American history, his first Derby victory.

The stewards took 20 minutes to make their decision. If it took that long, they obviously were not certain. And if they were not certain, there is no way they should have disqualified the winner who everybody that understands horse racing knows was the best horse in the race.

To disqualify a horse in the Derby, there can be no doubt. There was plenty of doubt with this decision. The horses that were allegedly affected had every chance to make a move in the stretch and backed up. Somehow, American stewards are tasked with trying to determine what would have happened if the "incident’’ had not taken place. It’s an absurd system that is unlike any in the rest of the world.

It took away from one of the great training jobs in Derby history. Fifteen years after his brother John won the Derby with Smarty Jones, Jason Servis brought Maximum Security to Louisville in an incredibly unconventional way -- workouts that timed out like gallops, and gallops that looked like jogs, they were all so slow.

But, then, on the morning of the race, Servis went old-school and had Maximum Security fly though a quarter-mile workout. It was the way trainers did it 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. And it was brilliant. Servis’ horse was faster at the start and had more stamina at the end than the other 18 -- and "finished’’ 17th.

In the end, it was hardly a satisfying way to win a Derby, and it was an absolutely heartbreaking way to lose one.