Some upset victories are more stunning than others. Villanova beating Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA men’s basketball National Championship, well, that was almost unthinkable, while the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl LII win over the New England Patriots in February 2018 was more along the lines of an eyebrow raiser.

The 2013 Risen Star Stakes – no doubt – falls into the former category.

Ive Struck a Nerve entered the $400,000 Risen Star Stakes Feb. 23, 2013, at Fair Grounds with only one victory from eight starts. He had competed four times previously against stakes competition and shown some promise with his best effort a second in the Sugar Bowl Stakes, a six-furlong sprint two month earlier. The Yankee Gentleman colt trained by Keith Desormeaux for Matt Bryan’s Big Chief Racing entered the Risen Star off a fourth-place finish at Fair Grounds in the Lecomte Stakes, in which he was defeated by 13 ½ lengths at 33.90-1 odds.

The people closest to Ive Struck a Nerve, however, had not lost faith.

A jubilant James Graham aboard Ive Struck a Nerve. (Eclipse Sportswire)

“Every time this horse has gone a distance, he’s had some kind of trouble,” Desormeaux told BloodHorse after the race. “Matt and I have talked it over several times how we just wanted a clean trip at a distance, and if he got beat again by 14 lengths we were prepared to quit trying.”

Ive Struck a Nerve did not get beat again by 14 lengths. Instead, he engineered one of the biggest upsets this century and rewarded his connections’ faith at an astounding 135.20-1 odds.

Last of 12 entrants and wide early under jockey James Graham, Ive Struck a Nerve surged six wide into the stretch and closed with a sustained rush to edge runner-up Code West by a nose in a blanket four-horse finish. Not only did he pull off the massive upset, Ive Struck a Nerve defeated a damn good field in the Risen Star: third-place finisher Palace Malice went on to win the Belmont Stakes and fourth-place finisher Oxbow won that year’s Preakness.

It was the type of win that elicited tears of joy from his owner.

“As long as I live, I will re-live this race over and over,” Bryan told BloodHorse in the immediate aftermath. “We have been waiting for a clean trip with this horse, and today we finally got it. Once he got free on the outside, we went absolutely crazy.”

Unfortunately, the Risen Star was Ive Struck a Nerve’s final race. An ankle fracture knocked him out of the Louisiana Derby and off the 2013 Kentucky Derby trail. Ive Struck a Nerve stood one season at stud with three foals in that crop and no winners; he subsequently was gelded but his name is etched in horse racing history books forever. On Feb. 23, 2013, Ive Struck a Nerve truly shocked the world – OK, maybe a slight exaggeration – in the Risen Star Stakes with one of the sport’s most unthinkable upsets.