The traditionally feared #1 gate for the start of the Gr1 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs is likely to be a thing of the past, and relegated only to folklore, following the unveilling of newly created bespoke gates manufactured by South Australian company Steriline Racing.
According to horseracingnation.com, Churchill Downs track manager Jamie Richardson explained the science that lay behind connections praying they wouldn’t draw the rail in the Run of the Roses.
Effectively, the rail became a -1 draw due to the reality that, “If every horse ran a straight line out of the old setup, horse No. 1 would have crashed into the rail.”
That’s corroborated by just one horse – Ferdinand in the 80’s – winning from barrier one in the past 56 runnings of the iconic 3YO race.
“Normally where the gate sits, the tires on the starting gate are where the ‘1’ path is.”
Despite there now being more room for both the extreme inside and outside runners, Steriline’s new gates are narrower than the two old gates put together, “because there are not tyres creating a big gap that was about 7-8 feet – or three stalls wide – between posts 14 and 15.”
The Churchill Down 20-stall barrier made by Steriline Racing is not the Australian company’s widest; that honour belongs to Flemington’s 25 barrier gate – which includes a spare – for its annual Melbourne Cup (3200m) start.
