After Country House won the Kentucky Derby this weekend, President Trump tweeted that the actual winner of the horse race was political correctness.

“Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur,” he wrote. “The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby - not even close!”



The Kentucky Derby decision was not a good one. It was a rough & tumble race on a wet and sloppy track, actually, a beautiful thing to watch. Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby - not even close! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2019



Maximum Security, the horse that crossed the finish line first, was disqualified for blocking other horses during the race on Saturday. Never in the history of the Kentucky Derby, which had its 145th running last week, has a horse been stripped of its crown for obstruction. (The 1968 victor Dancer's Image was disqualified after traces of an anti-inflammatory were found in a drug test.)

Country House, which crossed second, took the title instead. After the disqualification, judges put Maximum Security in 17th place (out of 19).





Jockeys and horse racing enthusiasts across the United States took sides on the issue, but Trump moved the argument in a different direction. Was the overturn really the result of political correctness? Maybe.

Sports Columnist Dan Wolken wrote for USA Today that it was “the biggest controversy in the history of American horse racing.”

Wolken said a couple of horses may have lost the opportunity to finish in the top three thanks to Maximum Security veering to the right, though that doesn’t mean the horse doesn’t deserve its title: “But the Kentucky Derby, with 20 jockeys fighting for every inch of space, is rarely run without complaints. Racing luck was, is and always will be part of the story.”

It’s hard to equate Country House’s win with the culture of participation trophies , but an unfair call for fairness may have been at play.

Writing for the York Daily Record, equestrian sports competitor Bob Wood concurred with Trump, saying “political correctness destroyed another American tradition.” He wrote:



The losing #20 horse claimed that if Maximum Security and [jockey Luis Saez] stayed outside in the lane where Maximum Security's instinct had momentarily put him, #20 had a chance to win. The principle of ‘could have won, maybe’ became the new standard over the traditional ‘stuff happens’ principle at this Kentucky Derby and at the pinnacle of horseracing.



Whether the decision to revoke Maximum Security’s win was the result of a hypersensitive culture or poor refereeing, it didn’t much help the supposed victims of the horse’s “foul.”