Rick Porter, Omaha Beach’s owner, has experienced many ups and downs

Rick Porter figured there was not much point in having anyone look at horses for him anymore. He told his wife and kids three times he did not think he was going to make it. He was battling an aggressive form of lymphoma that had been diagnosed around 2001, but had been putting him in a very bad way for nearly a year in the spring of 2017.

Then, he got into a clinical trial at Massachusetts General Hospital. Days after it ended, he watched Songbird, the “best horse I ever owned," win the Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park, his hometown track. Songbird was the overwhelming favorite. Porter, who grew up in Wilmington, was an extreme long shot before going to Boston.

By the fall, it was clear the trial had worked and Porter had Larry Jones, one of his trainers, look for horses to buy at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

“We ended up buying seven horses, I think,” Porter said.

But it was the horse he did not buy at the sale that looked until Wednesday that he was going to win the Kentucky Derby for Porter.

The yearling did not bring his reserve price of $625,000. After the sale, Porter got a call saying Jones really liked the horse and asking if he’d be interested in a private purchase. One of his other trainers, Richard Mandella, took a look at the colt and told Porter: “This is unbelievable. I’ve got to side with Larry. I haven’t seen a horse this good-looking in the whole sale.”

There was a small veterinary issue that turned out to be nothing. Porter offered $500,000. His offer was accepted.

That yearling colt, named Omaha Beach, arrived at Churchill Downs after winning the Arkansas Derby for trainer Mandella. Everything was going perfectly until Wednesday. The colt got a great post Tuesday. He was the morning line favorite. Then, the trainer heard a few coughs. Vets were called in. The diagnosis? Entrapped epiglottis.

Omaha Beach had to be scratched from the Derby because the colt’s breathing would have been affected. Surgery has already been performed. He should be back in training in a few weeks, but the Triple Crown will be over by the time the colt is ready to run again.

“Anytime you get bad news like this, it’s a disappointment," Porter said. “But there is also a lot worse news that you can get.”

There is news your cancer looks incurable, and there is news that your cancer is in remission.

Horse racing is a perfect metaphor for life. The highs are incredible, the lows sometimes unspeakable.

Porter paid $475,000 for Hard Spun. He looked like was going to lead all the way in the 2007 Derby.

“I thought we had the race between the quarter pole and the eighth pole,” Porter said. “It’s unbelievable that Calvin Borel got that damn Street Sense through on the rail. … Somehow, it opened up and he ran by us."

The next year, nobody’s horse was going to beat Big Brown in the Derby, but Porter’s filly Eight Belles ran second.

“Eight Belles just got outrun by Big Brown,” Porter said.

And, then inexplicably, she fractured bones in each of her front legs after the race, fell on the first turn beyond the finish line, and had to be put down.

“It was awful tough the day it happened and the next few days,” Porter said. “Gradually, it’s like anything. You have to get over it or you have to get out of the business. It’s just one of those things, and fortunately, nothing terrible has happened since.”

In fact, Porter owned 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace and the brilliant Songbird. He sold Havre de Grace for $10 million and Songbird for $9.5 million. This was after he sold Hard Spun for $20 million and got a $15 million “kicker" when the colt won a Grade I stake at Saratoga, a perfect back-end score that made up for all those purchases through all those years.

“To get the money back from the sales where you write all those checks, you’ve got to get a good horse and sell him,” Porter said.

A few days ago, Porter had the Derby favorite and a horse that will bring many millions as a stallion prospect. The good news is he still has a really good horse. And there are major races (perhaps even the Pennsylvania Derby) that Omaha Beach can win in the summer and fall.

A horse, however, gets only one chance at the Derby, and an owner gets only so many chances. It really did look like Porter’s turn. And the same is true of his Hall of Fame trainer, Mandella, who really thought he had his first Derby winner, too.

“It was devastating to be honest,” Mandella said. “I’ve done this for 45 years, so I’ve seen the movie and starred in it. That’s part of training horses.”

And it’s part of owning horses, too. Rick Porter would know. He has experienced every bit of it.