Randy Moss Explains Why 20 Horses Is A Perfect Amount For The Kentucky Derby

Jason Szenes. Shutterstock Images.

On today's Pardon My Take… RANDY MOSS! That would be the horse racing Randy Moss who is a longtime recurring guest of this show, not the football one. Moss joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter on today's show live from Churchill Downs in Louisville to break down all angles of the 2022 Kentucky Derby. 

There was also a topic brought up that doesn't necessarily have to do with this year's Derby, but with the event overall - why are there 20 horses, and is that too many? It's more than any other race in America, so should the most important race in the sport have a smaller field? Randy Moss states his case against that take:

Mr. Commenter: So, 20 horses in the field, is 20 horses too many? That seems like a lot of horses.

Randy Moss: It's a lot of horses. It's more horses than you would see in any race in America, any given year. No other race has 20 horses in America, and people complain all the time about it. And it's a bogus complaint. Don't believe it when people say, "You need to reduce the Kentucky Derby, 20 horses is too many, it's a cavalry charge, crapshoot, it's all luck…" BS! It is not all luck. If you go back historically and look at the Kentucky Derby's 20 horses, okay? And you looked at them in hindsight, and you say, "OK, this horse won the Kentucky Derby. Was it proven in later results and later racing, that that was the best horse in the race?" 

Randy Moss: And it's like 75-80% of the time - best horse wins the Kentucky Derby. What it takes to win the Kentucky Derby - the patience, the acceleration, the ability to hit the holes when you need to hit the holes, the overall talent to beat the best horses of your generation. The Derby is probably the best little litmus test of greatness of any race in America. So, the 20 horses is part of it.

I am a fan of the 20 horses because it can create more chaos and more storylines. I think the uniqueness of the Kentucky Derby being the only race with 20 horses is a cool aspect of it, too. Sometimes you'll pull up to the track and what was supposed to be an eight horse race suddenly turns into five horses due to some being scratched. The more the merrier!