Kentucky Derby ‘bargain’ horse has ties to Colorado
West Saratoga to run in the 150th annual race on May 4
Coady Photography/Courtesy photo
Look for the Colorado flag to be worn on the silks of one of the jockeys at this year’s Kentucky Derby. West Saratoga, named for the street its owner grew up on in Englewood, has made it to the Run for the Roses on Saturday, May 4.
West Saratoga’s owner is Harry Veruchi and the Colorado native’s interest in the 150th annual Kentucky Derby was piqued after his horse won the Iroquois Stakes, a Grade 3 race held at Churchill Downs last September. The thoroughbred solidified his spot at the 2024 Kentucky Derby in March after placing second in a photo-finish ending at the Jeff Ruby race in Florence, Kentucky.
Not bad for a horse that only cost Veruchi $11,000.
“It is unheard of for an $11,000 horse to get into the Kentucky Derby,” said Veruchi, who now lives in Arizona but will always call Colorado home and often visits his daughter and her family who live in the Vail Valley. “There’s one horse in the race where the owners paid over $2 million for it, there are a couple of horses that cost over $1 million and a lot of horses who were purchased around that $500,000 to $700,000 range. Just do the math and that’s a story in itself.
West Saratoga is a long shot in the 20-horse field, with odds of 80-1. Fierceness, who dominated the Florida Derby by more than 13 lengths, is the favorite in the favorite with odds at 3-1.
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“Someone just asked me if I have ever known anyone personally who has been in the Kentucky Derby and I said no, and my friends don’t know anybody either. It’s strange because it’s just the high rollers who are normally in the Kentucky Derby — the elite, the sheiks, the oil people and people with deep pockets, billionaires,” Veruchi said. “I had a guy call me this morning wanting to buy 5% of the horse for $50,000 and obviously I passed on it, but it’s amazing how everybody wants to be in the Kentucky Derby.”
Veruchi has been horse racing for 42 years and bought his first horse in 1982. His fascination with horse racing started at a young age. He lived only a few blocks from the Centennial Racetrack in Littleton and he’d sneak in because he had to be 16 years old to enter.
“I would just go there and watch the races two or three times a week after baseball practice. I’d go down to the paddock and watch them saddle the horses and then walk home. That kind of got me excited about horse racing and it stuck with me,” Veruchi said.
Veruchi credits his horse trainer, Larry Demeritte, with finding West Saratoga at a bargain price. He and Demeritte have worked on and off together since 2000.
“Larry knows how to pick these horses up,” Veruchi said. “He has a saying that goes, ‘I don’t buy cheap horses, I buy good horses, cheap.'”
Demeritte bought West Saratoga at the Keeneland Yearling Sale, a thoroughbred auction house in Lexington, Kentucky, in September 2022. West Saratoga is the son of Exaggerator, the 2016 Preakness winner.
“Larry took him home and got him going and he said, ‘This horse is special.’ To me, that went in one ear and out the other, I’ve heard that before, you don’t want to get too high on a horse because too much can happen,” Veruchi said. “But Larry knew it from the start. He knew this horse had talent.”
Demeritte has been around horses all his life. A native of the Bahamas, his father was a horse trainer there and Demeritte learned a lot from him and said horse training is in his blood.
“As a matter of fact, my dad was killed by a horse, and we’ll always say that he died doing something he loved. There’s no better way to go. He loved the horses and all of us kids fell in love with horses the way our dad did,” Demeritte said.
“But in the Bahamas, it had to be a love thing, because we didn’t race for much money over there, so I always tell people, ‘You know, let me tell you how much we love the horses, we work for no money.’ We didn’t get a salary,” Demeritte said.
After accomplishing as much as he could in the Bahamas, Demeritte came to the United States in the 1970s and went straight to Kentucky and has been a trainer there ever since.
“I’ve always been associated with good horses, I know what good horses look like and their personalities and how they act,” Demeritte said. “We’ve raised horses like Gone West, Goodbye Halo and tons of champions, so when I go to the Keeneland Sale, I try to duplicate that horse with less pedigree
Something about West Saratoga stood out and Demeritte felt good about this horse.
“He was a very strong horse, not very tall but then I noticed things about him and knew that when he was full grown, he’d be a normal-sized horse because some of them grow early, and they come to the sale as monsters, but they don’t get much bigger, and West Saratoga just grew and grew,” Demeritte said.
Demeritte is not only a good judge of character when it comes to horses but also when it comes to people and surrounds himself with a positive team.
“They have to love with they do, because I don’t allow bad energy around my barn,” Demeritte said. “I try to treat my team like my family, so we sometimes cook together, we eat together. I get into their personal lives, I just don’t want this to be a job for them. I want them to know that I care, I care enough about you that I want you to do good.”
That attitude has gotten Demeritte through a lot. He’s battled cancer for decades and was diagnosed with another illness that affects his heart.
“But I had a miracle in my life, my miracle came with the lung cancer,” Demeritte said.
Demeritte was already being treated for multiple myeloma cancer and then his doctor told him he had lung cancer.
“So, I prayed and said, ‘Lord, I’m not going to do another type of chemotherapy, I’m doing chemo as it is right now, I’m not going to do this’ and when I went back to the doctors, they couldn’t find anything in my lungs, and I never smoked or anything,” Demeritte said. “I still have the multiple myeloma and I have another disease that’s called amyloidosis that affects my heart and doctors said I had six months to live and that was six years ago. So, I’ve been blessed and thankful for it.”
Demeritte credits his positive outlook to his faith, upbringing and attitude.
“My grandmother always encouraged me and said, ‘Larry, you’ve got to be twice as good to be equal.’ I want to be a good example. It’s not so much race or color for me, what I feel is that I want to give to all kids who don’t have a lot of hope and have low self-esteem, I want them to know that they can do well in life. You have to work hard, but you can do it,” Demeritte said.
Now, the goal for Veruchi and Demeritte is to have West Saratoga in the best shape possible on the first Saturday in May. Their jockey is Jesus Castanon who has ridden in the Kentucky Derby before and will be sporting the yellow silks with the Colorado flag on it during the Kentucky Derby. Veruchi’s jockeys have worn the Colorado flag on the silks since the late 1980s.
“It’s almost a fairytale story. As a matter of fact, one of my clients sent me a song, “The Impossible Dream,” and I told him that’s the song we’re going to play there every day,” Demeritte said. “It’s a dream for all of us.”
Veruchi feels fortunate, too.
“Right now, leading up to the derby you just want to keep the horse sound, keep him healthy and happy, that’s what we need to do,” Veruchi said. “Maybe we put some bubble wrap all over his body, because one bad move and it’s over, you know? And then again, even if it ended today, I’d be happy, I really would. To qualify for the Kentucky Derby … it’s the ultimate. It’s a dream come true.”
