The introduction to the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard:

But many who are first will be last, and the last first. (Matthew 19.30, ESV)

I don’t know a thing about horse racing, and I don’t gamble, but we always watch the Kentucky Derby. This year’s, run Saturday, May 7, was special and was a literal fulfillment of Jesus’ words about the first will be last and the last first. One horse jumped into the lead and held it for 3/4 of a mile. Unfortunately, the race is  1 1/4 miles, and that horse finished dead last.

In the meantime, a horse that wasn’t even entered into the race until Friday morning won at 80-1 odds (second highest payout in Derby history). Rich Strike only got in when another horse scratched. On Friday morning, the owner and trainer were planning to let him race in New York on Saturday. Neither the jockey nor the trainer had ever competed in the Kentucky Derby before. Click the picture to watch the race; I don’t think the announcer even saw Rich Strike until he crossed the finish line as the winner.

When asked if he could believe it, the horse’s owner said:

We don’t ever enter a race that we don’t think we can win. If we don’t think we can win, then we go and train some more. – Rick Dawson, owner of Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9.24 – 27, ESV)

Train yourself for godliness. (1 Timothy 4.7, ESV)

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.14, ESV)