Owner to appeal Kentucky Derby result

Maximum Security’s owner has confirmed an appeal against the colt’s Kentucky Derby disqualification.

Maximum Security’s owner has confirmed he will appeal the colt’s disqualification as the Kentucky Derby winner and will not be running him in the Preakness Stakes.

The Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, is on May 18 at Pimlico and West said he did not want to run the colt on a quick turnaround.

“There is really no need, not having an opportunity to run for the Triple Crown to run a horse back in two weeks,” West told the Associated Press.

“The horse will be better off long term with the rest. He ran a really good and a really hard race on Saturday.

“Really, there are a lot of other Grade One races the rest of the year for three-year-olds.”

After an objection by two Derby riders, stewards ruled Maximum Security swerved out and impeded the path of several horses between the far and final turns. Country House, a 65-1 shot, was elevated to first.

West remains bothered that he was denied his request to view replays with stewards after the race.

“There’s an extreme lack of transparency with the stewards,” he said. “They will not talk to us until Thursday. So we didn’t have any choice but to file an appeal. And we’ll see where that goes.”

Maximum Security was placed 17th of 19 horses after starting as the 9-2 second pick.

Stewards cited the rule that calls for disqualification if a “leading horse or any other horse in a race swerves or is ridden to either side so as to interfere with, intimidate, or impede any other horse or jockey”.

Chief steward Barbara Borden said in a news conference she and two other stewards interviewed riders and studied video replays during a 22-minute review after the finish. The stewards did not take questions from reporters.