Rich Strike’s first foal arrives in New York, linking Derby upset team

Rich Strike’s first foal does more than add a line to the stud book. It gives breeders their first live test of whether the 80-1 Kentucky Derby shock can become a stallion business in New York, where the horse is now standing at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions in Stillwater.

The filly was born April 27 at Irish Hill Century Farm in Stillwater and is out of Dee Dee B, a winning Kitten’s Joy mare who was also trained by Eric Reed, the same horseman who sent Rich Strike out to his impossible 2022 Derby upset. That connection matters. This is not just a sentimental first foal from a famous winner. It is the product of the same racing circle that produced the shock, with Margaret Lynn Reed and Eric Reed behind the breeding and a syndicate team working to build the mare book around the stallion in New York.

Dee Dee B brought more than a famous trainer’s name to the cross. She finished her own racing career with three straight wins, including an allowance victory at Mountaineer, which gives the mating a little more substance than a novelty pairing. For a horse like Rich Strike, whose identity was forged by a one-day explosion at Churchill Downs, every foal matters because it is the first evidence of whether the race-day story can translate into commercial traction.

That question hangs over his stallion career. Rich Strike was claimed for $30,000 before the Derby, then stunned the sport at 80-1 and returned $163.60 on a $2 win bet. He had earned $1,971,289 by the end of that Derby run and later finished with career earnings of $2,526,809. Those numbers made him one of the most memorable upset winners in recent memory, but memories do not sell seasons. Mares do. Foals do. Repeat breeders do.

Rich Strike’s move to New York for the 2025 breeding season came with an introductory fee of $6,500 standing and nursing, and Stallion Register lists him at the same $6,500 LFSN for 2026. That makes the New York angle even more important. If the state-bred market takes to him, the first filly born at Irish Hill Century Farm could mark the beginning of a meaningful regional foothold. If not, she may end up as a curiosity attached to one of the wildest Derby results ever run.