2013 Kentucky Derby: Most Disappointing Performances at Churchill Downs

Orb lived up to his lofty expectations and captured the Kentucky Derby Crown on a muddy day in Louisville.

His win comes as no surprise, but there were plenty of those to go around in the form of poor showings.

Plenty of other horses turned in disappointing performances at the 139th annual running of the Churchill Downs classic.

In order to be considered a disappointment a horse had to have some type of expectations heading into the Run for the Roses.

We’ll take a look at a couple of these favored colts that failed to live up to the hype in Louisville.

Verrazano Starts Hot, Finishes in 14th Place

No horse that didn’t race as a two-year-old has won the Kentucky Derby since Apollo accomplished that feat in 1882. Todd Pletcher hoped Verrazano would make history to become the exception to that rule.

After four strong showings that resulted in four consecutive victories in 2013, Verrazano appeared to be on the verge of doing just that. Even throughout a majority of the Derby itself, it appeared there was a chance we would see longstanding record snapped.

Verrazano’s hot start ended up being fool’s gold as he dropped all the way back to 14th place after the final turn.

Goldencents Struggles and Drops to 17th

Rick Pitino, minority owner and Louisville basketball head coach, and defending Kentucky Derby trainer Doug O’Neil, thought they had a horse that could make waves at the Churchill Downs. It turned out to be just the opposite as the early favorite dropped to finish near the bottom of the field.

Goldencents was a pre-race favorite with final odds of 7-1. He was also ranked No. 4 on the AP’s final Run to the Roses Top 10 list of Derby contenders (via STLToday.com).

Last year, O’Neil and his horse I’ll Have Another shocked everyone when it came out of post 19 (15-1 odds) to earn the crown. This year, it was the opposite result, as O’Neil’s colt went backwards on the results table.

Late Riser Itsmyluckyday Had a Very Unlucky Day

Racing from post position No. 12, Itsmyluckyday rapidly rose to 9-1 odds before the start of the race. It turned out to not be trainer Edward Plesa Jr.'s lucky day in the end.

Finishing in 15th place is a very underwhelming finish for a horse with increasing expectations. It turns out that the initial idea that the colt wasn’t in Orb’s class had some truth to it after all.

Itsmyluckyday fell short by two-and-three-fourths lengths to Orb at the Florida Derby and fell back even further at Churchill Downs.

All final odds used are courtesy of KentuckyDerby.com.