Tony Coppola remembers the excitement of having a horse he partly owned in the Kentucky Derby in 2014. Wicked Strong came in 4th place.
This weekend he watched the Derby when Maximum Security was disqualified for violating the race's interference rules.
"To place the horse all the way back to 17, that was what the real surprise is," he said. "It seemed like a pretty harsh take-down."
Theresa Hume, Director of Publicity at the Palm Beach Kennel Club said almost 5,000 people watched the Kentucky Derby there. "Right after the race ended, the 7 was the highly the favorite, Maximum Security. So everybody was lining up thinking they won, and meanwhile the stewards are looking at the race and determining whether he needed to be disqualified or not," she said.
While standing in line hoping to collect their winnings, it was announced Country House was the winner.
"We had a lot of people lined up thinking I won, and of course that got taken down. A lot of people happy, some people not so happy," Hume said.
Bob Bosso was among the crowd. "Did he foul the horse? Certainly he fouled the horse. But do you take the horse down. Once a year this happens and do you take the horse down in that thing. I don't think so, I wouldn't have done that and I think the stewards made a grave error," he said.
Hume says horse enthusiasts can look forward to the other races. "We still have the Preakness and the Belmont. We will carry on."
