Few Will Bet On Necker Island To Win The Kentucky Derby Alas

Image source: PandamicPhoto.com from Lindenhurst, IL, USA / CC BY-SA via Wikimedia Commons

A bet on Necker Island to win the Kentucky Derby may appear the triumph of optimism over sense. Especially, perhaps, to those who regularly bet on sports in the US. It’s a 100/1 shot. That means the bookies like Bovada feel it has very little chance of winning. It probably doesn’t. Unfortunately, in this climate of crisis, however, it may not even get the chance to run. Rather unusually, there are pressures upon it, via its owner, to withdraw from the race. 2020 strikes again.    

It’s the first time since the early 1930s the Derby isn’t the first leg in the Triple Crown of US horse racing. The rearranged schedule sees it take up the middle leg after the Belmont Stakes and before the Preakness Stakes. This shouldn’t, in the grand scheme of things, make much difference, but in some ineffable way, it does. No man, and indeed no sport, it would seem, is an island. That’s just one of the reasons you shouldn’t bet on Necker Island to win the Kentucky Derby.

The most obvious is that it doesn’t really have hope. There would need to be a confluence of circumstance so bizarre as to strain the credibility of reality to see it a triumph. Oh sure, long shots do sometimes come home a winner, but this won’t be one of those occasions. At 100/1 it’s bottom of the heap at online betting sites in the US like Bovada. There are too many good runners ahead of it to make a bet on Necker Island to win the Kentucky Derby a very sensible wager.

Necker Island Owner Called Upon To Boycott Big Race 

A less obvious reason not to bet on Necker Island to win the Kentucky Derby is that it may not run at all. So close to the off even a rumor of this nature would normally cause all sorts of raised-eyebrows. There would need to be a serious issue to see a runner withdraw from perhaps its biggest stage. However, this is 2020 and normality left the building some time ago. Necker Island is, bizarrely, under pressure to withdraw from the Kentucky Derby because its owner is black. 

Many sports have seen boycotts due to recent lamentable interactions between law enforcement and the public. Mostly the black public. Teams refusing to play as a protest against the continued situation. The owner of Necker Island is Mr. Greg Harbut, an African American. He has come under increasing pressure to withdraw his horse. This might not seem important for those looking for a bet on the Kentucky Derby at online sportsbooks in the US like Bovada. But still….

2020 Kentucky Derby Odds

• Necker Island – 100/1
• Mr Big News – 100/1
• Winning  Impression – 100/1
• South Bend – 66/1
• Finnick The Fierce – 66/1
• Money Moves – 50/1
• Attachment Rate – 40/1
• Major Fed – 40/1
• Enforceable – 50/1
• Sole Volante – 40/1
• Storm The Court – 33/1
• King Guillermo – 25/1
• Max Player – 20/1
• Ny Traffic – 20/1
• Thousand Words – 16/1
• Authentic – 9/1
• Honour AP – 5/1
• Tiz The Law – 4/6

Bet On Necker Island To Win The Kentucky Derby At Bovada

Sure, you weren’t going to bet on Necker Island to win the Kentucky Derby. A 100/1 shot? Come on. Really? So what does it matter? The fact is, alas, that it all matters now. This is yet more evidence that there are no corners of American society which can escape the political divide. When even horse-racing is a political battleground, things are getting serious. Unfortunately, the Kentucky Derby has some history to deal with. A history that doesn’t look particularly good today.

Oliver Lewis won the first Kentucky Derby. He was an African-American, which is apparently fine but born into slavery, which really obviously isn’t. However, despite black riders winning 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derby races, Jim Crow put a stop to it. Anyone in the US gambling laws of segregation have, since then, been reversed in their effects, should guess again. Chances are Harbut will run his horse anyway, but politics or no, I’d still not bet on Necker Island to win the Kentucky Derby.

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We take a look at the myriad of reasons why a bet on Necker Island to win the Kentucky Derby this year is a poor choice of a wager.