LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While West Saratoga is a longshot for this year's Kentucky Derby with 50 to 1 odds, his trainer, Larry Demeritte, beat even greater odds just to get to the track.
The Kentucky Derby is the pinnacle of horse racing, and the 74 year old trainer has been trying to get to Churchill Downs for as long as he can remember.
"It's a dream come true," Demeritte said.
He started dreaming about it as a young man growing up in the Bahamas.
"My grandmother raised 19, 13, grandchildren, and my grandmother is the most positive woman I've ever known in my life," Demeritte said.
That positivity shines through in her grandson.
Demeritte moved to the United States in 1976 to chase his Derby dream. The career road hasn't been the smoothest, but he's at the track now.
"The thing with this horse game is, we love these animals so much; if we decide to go and take another job, you wind right back up here," he said. "So why leave just weather the storm."
But tough times didn't just come at the track.
In 1996, Demeritte was diagnosed with bone cancer, and he continues to battle the disease to this day.
"At some point, always say 'I don't think I got the disease,' but I can get treated any how, just in case the doctor's right," he said, adding his faith is what gets him through.
The fact Demeritte is the first Black trainer to have a horse in the Derby since 1989 isn't lost on him. He doesn't want it to take this long to have another African-American trainer in this position.
"So mamy people come up to me and tell me how much I inspired him and I encouraged them and stuff like that, that make life worth living," he said. "So if I could touch one life, then my life wasn't in vain. You know? I always say and you look on a tombstone, you see when you born you see when you die and that dash, it all depends on what you do in life and that dash."
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