“Sports News” broadcast the game live 2024 Kentucky Oaks.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Larry DeMerrit reached down and unwrapped the wrap around West Saratoga’s right hind leg. He does the same to his left side, then moves quickly under the horse’s belly to help his assistant, Donte Lowery, wrap the horse’s front wrap. When the work was done, Demerit stood in front of the horse, with his brother Patrick beside him, who helped care for the horse, with a big smile on his face.
A row of photographers crouched next to Barn 42, cameras surrounding DeMerit, microphones sticking out of handles, spying on DeMerit’s conversation. He was completely unfazed by the production, as if that kind of attention was typical for a guy who won graded bonuses twice in his four-year career.
Unusually positive and full of quips for any occasion, DeMerit is the feel-good story of this Kentucky Derby and, frankly, one that horse racing could use. A year ago, the sport’s premier event cast a pall over the sport when 12 horses died in the week before the Derby and five runners were scratched at the end.
Now, Demerit is a native of the Bahamas, a profession where black coaches are rare. A second bout with cancer, while also suffering from a rare heart condition; running through a field with horses purchased for the price of a used Hyundai, including a yearling purchased for $2.3 million; 48 years later , his first Kentucky Derby appearance since he left a secure job in the Caribbean to pursue his dream at the Churchill Downs Barn.
But Demerit, 74, is more than just a man with a good story and a willingness to tell it. He is a man who understands it all better than himself. “I always say,” DeMerit begins with one of his favorite quotes, “when you look at a tombstone, you see the time you were born and the time you died and a dash in between. That dash? This It all depends on what you do in life.
A simple wrought-iron gate off East Seventh Street in Lexington leads not so much to a road as to a path formed by tire ruts carved into the grass. African Cemetery No. 2 had been used as a cemetery since the early 1820s and was turned over to the Second Benevolent Society of the Colored League in 1869. Plaque with name on tombstone. One, dedicated to African Americans in the horse industry, included a list of 24 Thoroughbred horse trainers.
Black horse trainers were common in the early days of horse racing, although many only learned their craft while caring for slave owners’ animals. In 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was won by Aristides, a horse trained by Ansel Williamson, who had been freed 10 years earlier. But Reconstruction, combined with Plessy v. Ferguson, drove blacks out of their professions, leaving many without access to good horses or good rides. Most are forced to move backwards in their careers and become grooms and fitness riders instead of trainers and jockeys. DeMerit is the first Black coach to play in a Derby game since Hank Allen in 1989 and the second Black coach since 1951.
Inspired by his late father’s equestrian knowledge and his grandmother’s positive attitude, he arrived in the United States from the Bahamas in 1976 after a difficult journey. Thomas Demeritte taught his son all about horses before he was killed for training them, but it was Mequan Demeritte who truly guided her grandson to achieve his impossible dream. Mayqueen Demeritte). The family had no money – Demerit made up a great story about balling up cooked rice, wrapping it in a paper bag, and putting makeshift ammunition into a slingshot to kill a pigeon, which he would Pigeons are roasted on a spit. But they have each other and their own beliefs. Mequan told the 13 grandchildren she raised that it was enough to help them get by. Her only request was that the boys learn at least two trades, the girls receive an education, and that they look after each other throughout their lives. (They listened. Twenty members of DeMerit’s family will be traveling from the Bahamas for the derby.)
For DeMerit, horses are more of a calling than a transaction. His love for the sport was so strong that he gave up his coaching position in the Bahamas to work as a groom in the United States. Recruited by coach Oscar Dishman of Lexington, Demerit joined a circuit that ran from Chicago to Florida and ended up at Churchill Downs.
Demerit now stands next to his fellow derby contestant, pointing back to the barn behind him that has been his home for two years and undeniably amazed at the progress he’s made. In 1981, Demerit went out on his own as a coach. He was well aware that his skin color made him different, but he refused to see it as an opportunity. “I always say, if I can associate with the negative aspects of race, why wouldn’t I want to associate someone with the positive aspects?” he said. “This isn’t about me. It’s about bringing everyone in my race with me so they can be proud.
He said this as Lowery, his black assistant coach, was finishing his shower at West Saratoga. Lowery began working for DeMerit in 2015. He left Charles Town Speedway in West Virginia and headed to Kentucky. He began running for trainer John Mulvey, but when Mulvey left for Florida, Lowery chose to stay in Kentucky and put down roots. He met DeMerit at the Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, and the two quickly bonded over their love of horses, and Lowery found more than just a boss in DeMerit. “That’s why I do what I do,” DeMerit said. “I didn’t want Donte or my other (assistants) at the Barn to wait this long to go coach at Derby.”
Larry DeMerrit (right) and his father Thomas prepare for a game in the 1970s. (Matt Stone/USA Today)
By 1996, Demerit had only 25 wins (for comparison, Todd Pletcher, the coach of Derby favorite Fierceness, won 67 games this year), but he was content. He was involved, even on the fringes in championship games and maiden matches.
That year doctors diagnosed him with bone cancer. Chemotherapy was painful and the prognosis was grim. He joked with doctors that if they couldn’t tell him exactly how many rounds of chemotherapy it would take to heal, he would decide when was enough. But he also admits that the disease has sometimes dampened his optimism. He recalled feeling pain in his body and going to bed at night wondering if he would wake up the next morning. “I was very sick and I prayed that if I didn’t wake up on this side, God would wake me up on his side,” DeMerit said. He beat cancer, but it returned in 2018.
Six years later, he still undergoes monthly chemotherapy treatments – most recently a week before the derby. He was also diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare disease in which protein builds up in organs. In Demerit’s case, it affected his heart. It helps that he lives nearby. In 2000, he purchased a 30-acre farm in Frankfort, about an hour outside Louisville. He commutes to Churchill every day and the opportunity to rest in his own bed is a blessing. The same goes for his daily life. On Sunday, six days before the most important day of his life, Demerit went to church and then to Sunday school. He dismissed questions about his stamina, saying, “I don’t have time to sit and worry about it,” but those close to him know the toll the illness takes.
“He’s definitely been through some stuff,” said West Saratoga owner Harry Veruchi. “This horse gives him a reason to go to work.”
Veruchi met Demeritte in 2000, when Demeritte selected a $3,000 horse for a Colorado horse owner. The gutsy Pegasus finished second in a 2-year-old race on Derby Day that year and earned Veruchi $212,518, a handsome return on his investment. “We’ve been doing it ever since,” said Verucci, who retired from running a used car dealership.
Verucci grew up in Littleton, Colorado, next to Centennial Racetrack. Most of the streets are named after racetracks – Monmouth, Pimlico, Tanforan. Verucci grew up in West Saratoga. At the age of 10, he infiltrated Centennial—you’re supposed to be 16—and valiantly tried to convince someone to hire him. They drove the little guy away, but they gave his much older and taller looking companion a chance to be the groom. Doug Peterson continued to train Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew after the horse’s legendary three-year-old run.
Verucci eventually turned to horse ownership, purchasing his first horse, Melb, in 1982. He and Demeritte have worked together on and off since Daring Pegasus, and the owner has learned to value a trainer’s integrity and trust his instincts. “He’s a humble man, a religious man and a great coach,” Verucci said. “He really took good care of the horse. He was very involved in the race and making sure everything went smoothly.
Three years ago, Demerit visited the Keeneland yearling sale every year. He knew what he liked about horses, but he also knew what he couldn’t afford. “I always say, ‘I like champagne on a beer budget,’ so I buy good horses cheap, but that doesn’t mean I buy cheap horses,” DeMerit said. “I can’t afford a horse that can make paper, so I try to buy a horse that can make paper.” He was lucky. In addition to Daring Pegasus, Demeritte has made other great investments, such as Lady Glamor – which she bought for $1,000 and made $126,000.
But by the final day of the 12-day auction in 2021, Demerit still hadn’t found a horse, and an anxious Verucci kept calling, asking if anything had caught Demerit’s attention.
Finally, when the auction was coming to an end and only 20 horses were left, Demerit spotted a gray pony. Hip 4146 on the list is a son of 2016 Derby winner and Preakness winner Exaggerator. The auction began, Demerit bid, and then grew restless. “I kept saying, ‘End the sale, man,'” DeMerit recalled with a laugh. “You’ve been selling this horse longer than any other horse has been through here.” Demerit purchased the yearling for $11,000, Verucci named it after the street where he grew up, more than the owner The group paid $2,289,000 less for Derby contender Sierra.
West Saratoga’s odds are 50 to 1. As he always told Verucci, there was no Plan B. Inspiring young people to dream big, even if the road ahead is rocky; Inspiring young black men to participate in horse racing by providing familiar faces to emulate; Inspiring cancer survivors to ignore prognosis and diagnosis and just live life.
However, those who love and care about DeMerit want to adjust the plan. Just this time, they want it to be just about Larry DeMerritt. “I’m happy to see what he’s done so far,” Lowery said. “It was his dream come true to be here, but Larry always said, ‘Nobody remembers who finished second in the Kentucky Derby.’ I want him to have it all. I want him to win the Kentucky Derby.
Horse is a long shot. But then again, so does Larry DeMerritt.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb/ Competitor; Photo: Matt Stone/USA Today
