LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The euphoria came spilling out across the track at Churchill Downs and into the winner’s circle, joy tinged with disbelief, a moving jumble of people whooping and hugging in the afterglow of a Kentucky Derby result that was simultaneously very familiar and largely unexpected.
“I won the Derby,” said Amr Zedan, Saudi Arabian businessman and owner of Medina Spirit, while sobbing into a phone. “I won the Derby.”
On the other end of the conversation was Zedan’s father. His response, “Calm down, be humble about it, and thank God.”
In Zedan’s wake came the rest of the crew, stoked and ready to celebrate.