Kentucky Derby contenders revisited: Three Technique

Churchill Downs established the Knicks Go Overnight S., contested on the Kentucky Derby undercard, in 2022. The inaugural running delivered thrills as 36-1 longshot Three Technique surged from far back to win for connections with an incredible story. 
 
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells, and his August Dawn Farm purchased him as a yearling. He is named for an alignment used on defense in football. As a two-year-old, the dark bay broke his maiden at Saratoga in an impressive 5 1/2 length score in August 2019. He followed this performance with a 4 1/2 length allowance win at Aqueduct in November. 
 
With Kentucky Derby dreams, he was shipped to Oaklawn for his sophomore season. He competed in two prep races on the Arkansas path to the Derby, finishing second in the Smarty Jones S. in 2020 and fourth in the Rebel S. (G2) that same year. After the Rebel, he had a minor ankle injury that led to surgery. He would miss the Triple Crown, and his connections decided to point him towards one-turn races for his return. 
 
For his comeback, he returned to the site of the first win in Saratoga and entered the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens S. (G1), but it was not a Cinderella story. He finished tenth. Three Technique was then dropped to Grade 3 company in the Saranac S. and finished sixth. Afterwards, he was entered in a string of optional claiming races that spilled into his 4-year-old season. During this time, he found the winner’s circle once at Belmont in 2021. He tried graded stakes company again, placing third in the John A. Nerud S. (G2) and seventh in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. (G1). 
 
On November 28, closing day of the Churchill Downs fall meet, Three Technique was claimed for $40,000 in a 27-way shake by owner David E. Miller and trainer Jason Cook. Miller was a 3-year football letterman at University of Louisville and felt a connection to the horse’s football-inspired name. 
 
Cook is the son of 1957 Kentucky Oaks winning jockey Lois L.C. Cook. He got his first job in racing at 13, walking hots. He became a trainer at 17 and won his first race two years later at Churchill Downs. As a single fathe to his daughter Peyton, Cook scaled back on his training to have more time at home and focused some of his professional efforts into running an equine hauling company. 
 
Three Technique made four starts for his new connections, and his best effort was a third place finish in the Forego S. at Turfway Park in 2022. The team decided to enter him in the Knicks Go S., a listed stakes restricted to 4-year-olds and up who had not won a graded stakes in 2021-2022. Cook had seven horses in training, and Peyton was 12 years old.
 
“I wanted my daughter to make it to the Derby. This is her first Derby,” Cook said. 
 
In the Knicks Go S., Gun It shot to the front and led the field as Three Technique raced near the back of the pack. Going into the far turn, Gun it faced pressure from two horses, and Three Technique moved to the outside to begin a five-wide move toward the leaders. Getting clear at the head of the lane, Three Technique continued his surge to gain the lead at the sixteenth pole and head on to a one-length victory.
 

“I wanted to win that race because I wanted my daughter to experience that,” Cook told the Paulick Report. “She cried for 45 minutes after the horse won. Everybody in that winner's circle was in tears, not because it was that great or big a stakes, because it wasn't. They could see how much it meant to my daughter.”
 
Three Technique had earned his first win in more than a year. It was Miller’s first stakes win, and it was the first for Cook in 25 years. 
 
“It’s a life-changing event coming out here on Derby day,” Miller said. “I’ve been doing this for 25-30 years. I’ve never had a horse on Derby day. To be able to win this race, it was magical.”
 
Six races later, another longshot was in the winner’s circle: Rich Strike, the 80-1 Kentucky Derby winner. 
 
Three Technique’s team decided to enter the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1), giving Cook his first starter in the championship series. Before the race, Eric Grindley and John Werner acquired an interest in the horse. Three Technique finished sixth. 
 
After a handful of races that stretched into 2023, Three Technique has a current record of 6-6-8 with 34 starts and total lifetime earnings of $897,637.