Many of us as kids had dreams of what we wanted to do when we grew up. At a very young age Wayne Scherr had dreams of having a horse in the Kentucky Derby and that dream is becoming reality on September 5th as a horse he co-owns with Raymond Daniels, Necker Island, a 3-year old colt, is set to compete in the 2020 Kentucky Derby. This is the first race horse with a South Dakota or North Dakota owner that has ever competed in this event.

At a young age Wayne raced bush tracks in North Dakota with his father (Alvin) until he was old enough to get a drivers license. “Apparently dad trusted me enough and he turned me loose when I was 15 or 16 with a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds. Tommy Hilzendenger (Schultzie) of Avon was one of them as well as sometimes my brothers and other kids about our age. Here I was, driving to all these bush tracks in North Dakota and a few in Minnesota and a weekend trip in Montata every year. Mom and dad always big supporters in my hobbies, but this was one hobby I really enjoyed growing up,” commented Wayne. It was in North Dakota they met Scottie Bergsrud, a 14 year old jockey. “We would pick him up and drive him to little three and four day fairs,” Scherr added.

Scottie kept bugging Wayne to get back into horse racing in 2009 after taking a break for about ten years. After many calls he decided to buy a horse on his own without telling his wife, Candy. She came home though one day after getting the mail and opened up an invoice that showed I bought a horse for $37,000. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy, she was done chasing his dream and his goals. We didn’t talk for a few days but then sold the horse a few months later for $72,000. Candy now lets him do what he wants to do with his horses and it has turned out really good.

I’ve always told my trainers that my goal is to be in the Kentucky Derby and that was how I wanted them to train my horses and that we were going to look for horses to find that one that would help me achieve that goal. My last trainer, Chris Hartman, has worked really hard for almost seven years to find that horse and finally, about three months ago he called and said, “Wayno (he calls me that) I think we have a horse that has potential.” It was a Saturday morning and he told me to look it up, so I got on the internet to look up the previous races and looked at every single race. I called him back and I said you know what, I like this horse Chris. If you can take it and take three lengths off its time we could possibly have the derby contender. So, there was a $100,000 claim race at Churchill Downs on Saturday, September 29, 2019 so Scherr, along with his trainer and one of his trainer's clients put together the money for the claim until Wayne could reimburse them Monday morning when the bank was able to complete a wire transfer. Meanwhile, 25% was invested in by Raymond Daniels and Scherr offered 5% to his brothers as this was also their dream, now they were able to live their dreams also with him. He knew this is what his parents would want and the only thing better for this story would be if his parents were sitting with them at the Kentucky Derby watching the race. We then ran the horse in Indiana Grant and Ellis Park.

He remembers when he and his brothers took their dad to the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. He always dreamed of being in the Kentucky Derby but felt it would never happen. "I think I prayed long enough and hard enough that God finally just gave in and said, “Yeah, we’re gonna let him. We’re gonna let him go here and let him run it,” Scherr shared.

Necker Island is a private island off the British Virgin Islands. It consists of 74 acres of privately owned island which is where the name for the horse came from.

The Kentucky Derby is a derby with the top 20 3-year old horses in the nation, including horses from Europe and Japan, who all only qualify with a point system. Some choose not to enter Derby and go other routes as the race may be too far to travel for them or they may have a better shot at winning another grade stakes race.

Be sure to tune in to NBC on Saturday, September 5 to watch this monumental race. Wayne and his wife, Candy, and their family will be at the derby as their friends will watch it from home due to the limit of tickets due to COVID-19.