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Ohio woman won $250k at Kentucky Derby — for a few minutes
May 9, 2019, 5:51 PM
Despite not winning the $250,000 she thought she had, Teresa Boissiere had fun getting into the Kentucky Derby fashion of big hats. (Photo courtesy of Teresa Boissiere)
(Photo courtesy of Teresa Boissiere)
For a few minutes, an Ohio woman thought she had the windfall of her life after the Kentucky Derby last weekend.
Teresa Boissiere had entered her name in a Rocket Mortgage sweepstakes on the internet, through which she won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Kentucky Derby. While at the derby, she was given a randomly-assigned number for a horse, which saw Boissiere get matched up with horse #7, Maximum Security.
“It coincidentally happened to be the horse that my mother had liked for the race anyway,” she told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “So we were excited.”
The grand prize for the person betting on the derby winner was $250,000. Boissiere “felt pretty confident” about her odds when she sat down to watch the race, noting that Maximum Security “looked very energetic and ready to go.”
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“The horses go off, and he’s immediately ahead, and he takes the lead on the whole track,” she said of the race’s beginning. “And I’m just screaming and cheering.”
Watch it again….
65-1 Country House wins the Kentucky Derby after a disqualification of Maximum Security.pic.twitter.com/PeBAQXJwJb
— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) May 4, 2019
During the next two minutes, Boissiere’s heart raced as intensely as the horses.
“It appeared like he was falling behind, and I was screaming, ‘No, no,'” she said. “And he again then pulled out and came across the finish line first. [I was] thoroughly excited.”
Immediately, audience members and reporters crowded around Boissiere, eager to get a quote from the better who had struck gold.
“My legs were shaking, all of the cameras and all of the people surrounded me, hugged me, took pictures of me — for about five minutes,” she said.
All of a sudden, the scoreboard showed the word “contested.” Because there was no PA system, Boissiere did not find out until later that Maximum Security’s race actions were at that moment being examined and analyzed by the judges, known as race stewards.
Maximum Security’s #7 I.D. number moved off the board, leaving Boissiere stunned.
“I’m watching the board, and my seven, it doesn’t move down to second or third — it’s just blasted off the board, totally,” she said. “It disappeared.”
For the first time in the history of the Kentucky Derby, the winning horse was disqualified, on the grounds of blocking the horses behind him.
An explanation of Maximum Security’s #KyDerby disqualification. pic.twitter.com/vf8AN4qvD2
— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) May 4, 2019
The man next to Boissiere, Illinois resident Allen Jefferson, had the #20 horse, Country House, which was declared the first-place winner; he suddenly found himself in the stroke of luck that Boissiere had been in the minute before.
But there were no hard feelings as she hugged and congratulated Jefferson.
“I just am happy that a really sweet young couple got it,” she said. “They’re both police officers in Chicago and they have four little ones, so I felt like it went to a good place.”
Always the optimist, Boissiere is still able to see humor in the situation.
“I think I heard a huge bang, which was my bank account as it filled up, slamming down,” she joked.
Her motto, after all, is, “When life gives you lemons, drink lemonade.”
“And right now I’m drinking lots of lemonade,” she laughed.
