Maximum Security's Owner Rips Churchill Downs; Horse Won't Race at Preakness

Maximum Security owner Gary West appeared on the Today Show on Monday, placing part of the blame for his horse's disqualification on Churchill Downs.

"You shouldn't have 20 horses in the Kentucky Derby," West said. "Churchill Downs, because they're a greedy organization, has rather than 14 like you have in the Kentucky Oaks, the Breeders' Cup, every other race in America, just because they can make more money, they're willing to risk horse's lives and people's lives to do that. I'm not a fan of that. I think they ought to have 14 like every other race.

"I saw the horse move out. But every Kentucky Derby, you can sit down two or three or four horses, because it's a rodeo out there."

Race stewards stripped Maximum Security of the 2019 Kentucky Derby victory because of a lane violation and awarded the race to Country House (65-1 odds at one point). Maximum Security had been a wire-to-wire winner and was clearly the best horse in the field.

However, footage showed the horse crossing lanes without clearance and making slight contact with War of Will, which is a violation. The contact caused War of Will to check up and affected Long Range Toddy, along with slightly altering Country House's path. It did not appear that the move affected the result of the race, as War of Will and Long Range Toddy lost steam down the stretch and Country House failed to catch up in a wide-open final stretch.

Sports Illustrated horse racing writer Tim Layden told NBC Sports' Peter King that most at the track felt the stewards made the correct decision.

"I'm going to go with what a bunch of trainers have said to me over the last 18 hours," Layden said. "The regulations state the horse has to run a clear path down the track and can't veer to the left or right to impede or endanger the horse aside or behind him.

"Instant replay has been a part of horse racing for decades, longer than in the other sports. Stewards review video before taking down a horse. I started covering horse racing in the '70s, and it's been the normal course of action since then: stewards looking at video to analyze controversial outcomes."

West confirmed he plans to file an appeal of the decision to the state racing commission. He said the stewards refused to meet with Maximum Security's team following the race.

"They've been about as nontransparent about this whole thing as anything I've ever seen in my life," West said.

"The thing that is mystifying to me is that the stewards were either looking at a high-definition television or binoculars. Our horse was in the lead the entire way around," he continued. "They looked at exactly what the whole rest of the world looked at, and they didn't file a steward's inquiry. I can't imagine it was very obvious to them it was at the time, either."

West also confirmed Maximum Security will not run in the Preakness.

"There's no Triple Crown on the line for us, and there's no reason to run a horse back in two weeks when you don't have to," he said.