Kentucky Derby: Gronkowski receiving attention

Gronk and Gronkowski Together At Last

Rob Gronkowski was always going to have a place in the Kentucky Derby by namesake, but now he’s going to be an actual part of the biggest race of the year. The Patriots’ tight end has purchased a small stake in Gronkowski, a three-year-old colt named after him who won what’s called the European Road to the Kentucky Derby to earn a place in the twenty-horse mega event.

He’ll be listed as a longshot, but it’s a fun story nonetheless.

Gronkowski (the horse) is 4-1-0 in 6 starts with $135,644 in career earnings. To put this in perspective, that amount of money is the lowest on the totem pole in terms of horses at the upcoming 2018 Kentucky Derby. By comparison, Justify is the favorite in the derby and has collected exactly $666,000 during his career, while the top earner overall is a horse named Mendelssohn who has $1.9 million overall.

Horse players and bettors have essentially made Justify and Mendelssohn the top-two horses on the 2018 Kentucky Derby board. At BetOnline.ag, Justify is the clear cut +225 favorite while Mendelssohn comes in at +525. Interestingly enough, Mendelssohn, Justify and Gronkowski all have the same father – a legendary runner named Scat Daddy who passed away late in 2015.

You can usually tell a lot about a horse by how much he was purchased for a yearling, which is horse man speak for a “one year old”. Gronkowski fetched a handsome $500,000 price at a yearling sale when he was acquired by his current owners, which now include Rob Gronkowski. Compared to how much he’s earned, that doesn’t seem like a fair return on investment. A lot of this is because Gronkowski has been tucked away in Europe competing in lower-end stakes races across the United Kingdom.

That will change starting with the derby itself. Gronkowski is expected to compete more frequently in the United States where he’s more suited to attract attention.

The rest of Gronkowski’s rivals in the 2018 Kentucky Derby have been competing in stakes worth up to a million bucks so that explains why he hasn’t made as much but he could most certainly change his fortune quite literally with a massive showing at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May.

The short story on the derby is that it’s a six horse race with one pretty clear favorite. The caveat here is that Justify has only competed in one stakes race, and that’s not enough of a sample size for some horse players who like to see their investments a little further entrenched in competition.

2018 Kentucky Derby Betting Odds - per BetOnline.ag
Justify +225
Mendelssohn +525
Bolt d'Oro +575
Audible +675
Magnum Moon +725
Good Magic +825
Vino Rosso +950
Enticed +3000
Quip +3000
Solomini +3000
Noble Indy +3000
My Boy Jack +3500
Hofburg +4000
Flameaway +4500
Gronkowski +5500
Lone Sailor +6000
Combatant +6500
Free Drop Billy +6500
Bravazo +6500
Promises Fulfilled +8500
Firenze Fire +9000
Snapper Sinclair +10000

Where does Gronkowski fit into this equation?

Well BetONline.ag has him rated as a +5500 longshot, which is fair. While Gronkowski comes from a strong pedigree, and has shown well in winning a handful of races, he hasn’t proven that he can accomplish the speed required to keep pace with his 2018 Kentucky Derby rivals. Anything can happen in a race like this and Gronkowski has already become a fan favorite based on his namesake alone.

Now that Rob Gronkowski is along for the ride, he’ll have a lot of eyes and attention on him as well. Let’s hope the horse does exactly what the tight-end has done and become the best in the business.

The 2018 Kentucky Derby runs on May 5th and will be broadcast by NBC. We’ll have a lot more coverage on the race over the next few weeks as we inch closer to the actual event.