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Jayson Werth walked Wednesday morning along the backstretch at Churchill Downs, drinking it in. The spires were off in the distance. The Kentucky Derby was three days away. In the coming hour, his horse was going to take to the track.

“I’m new to this,” he said by phone. “But I’ve done some things in horse racing, enough to notice that this is kind of the equivalent of going from the regular season straight to the World Series. You can already tell everything’s different. Just the amount of people, the energy, the uptick and just the overall — I don’t know — giddiness of everybody.”

Include Werth in the giddiness. His 15-year major league career <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/jayson-werth-long-the-shaggy-haired-soul-of-the-nationals-retires-at-39/2018/06/27/47c19db4-7a40-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html" target="_blank">ended after the 2017</a> season with the Washington Nationals. He won the World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, became an all-star and is still a symbol of the Nationals transforming into serious contenders because he signed a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2010/12/07/werth-signing-makes-many-take-notice-of-nationals/c09adfc6-01a2-11e0-8a87-433f27c022f8/" target="_blank">seven-year, $126 million deal</a> before Washington had even sniffed the postseason.

He produced one of the franchise’s signature moments — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/nlds-game-4-jayson-werth-homer-wins-it-for-the-nationals-in-the-bottom-of-the-ninth/2012/10/11/8959e6a4-13f9-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html" target=_blank>a walk-off homer</a> to conclude an epic 13-pitch at-bat and extend the 2012 National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. His name is rightfully <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/nationals-journal/wp/2018/09/08/on-jayson-werth-night-former-outfielder-reminds-nationals-of-better-days/" target=_blank>in the Nationals’ Ring of Honor</a>.

But that’s his old job. At 44, he is fully immersed in his new one: owning racehorses. The competitive juices he funneled into baseball for the entirety of his life are now directed toward his horses, including Dornoch, the 3-year-old colt who will start from the first gate in Saturday’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/27/kentucky-derby-odds-post-positions/" target=_blank>Kentucky Derby</a>.

Courtesy of Jayson Werth

“In ways that you can’t even imagine,” Werth said. “I mean, it is the only thing that I can do at this point in my life that has any relevance to what I did for so long. And then the day of the race that your horse is running, the nerves — I mean, I never got nervous for baseball. I had a job to do, and I knew I was going to do it.

“But this? You know, the hair on the back of your neck stands up. When they’re running, and they’re coming down the front straightaway, there’s so much at stake — even in like an $8,000 claiming race in Tampa on a Wednesday. The emotions, they’re so high. It’s the only thing I can do where I feel those emotions that I did when I was playing, the competitive juices. You want to win so bad.”

This has all happened incredibly quickly for Werth. A couple of years ago, he had completed a round of golf with some buddies and had retired to the clubhouse. The friends gathered around the television and began watching a race — intently. This was, say, a Tuesday at like 1 p.m. Werth’s reaction: “This can’t be live.”

He was told it was, that horses race on all days of the week in all months of the year. One of the golf buddies, a guy named Rich Averill, explained that he had a horse in the race. Turns out he had been in the business for 25 years.

“I’m suddenly, instantly intrigued — hooked,” Werth said. “I’ll never forget it. And I just start asking him all the same questions that you’re asking me right now.”

There are ways for a person to dip a toe into horse racing. Some horses are owned by conglomerates, and stakeholders can buy a fraction of a percent of a thoroughbred. By comparison, Werth dove in — initially with Averill but now with a variety of partners. He has made investments into as many as 30 horses at one time — and he’s not just dabbling. He goes to sales. He researches bloodlines.

Andy Lyons

The early returns are good. His Two Eight Racing LLC — a nod to his old uniform number of 28 — owns 10 percent of Dornoch and 25 percent of another 3-year-old named Drip who had been on a path to the Derby before being scratched from a race in March. On Wednesday morning, he dropped in on R Harper Rose, a filly he owns who will race in Friday’s Eight Belles Stakes.

“Oooh, she looks good,” he said. “She walks good.”

But as he drove from one barn to another along the backside of Churchill Downs, Werth was keenly aware of two things: how much he still has to learn about his new business and how unlikely it is for him to be spending the first Saturday in May rooting for one of his own horses in the sport’s marquee event when he has been in the game for what amounts to half a second.

“It’s the sport of kings,” Werth said. “People dump millions of dollars every year into horses just to try to get into the Derby. So people are like: ‘Wait. You’ve been doing this for two years and you’ve already got a horse in the Derby? People do this their whole lives and have never gotten a horse in the Derby.’

“And I’m like: ‘Yeah, I know. I know. It’s not lost on me.’ What we’ve been a part of here is insane.”

As Werth made his way from barn to barn with his wife, Julia, he stopped our conversation from time to time to say hi to familiar faces in his new world. While the sport has replaced many of the feelings he used to get from baseball, he also has noticed a stark difference: The people who own horses are part of a tight community who, by and large, tug on the same rope.

Werth has sent some of his young horses to Julie Davies, who has a stake in Derby contender Catalytic, for early training known as “pinhooking.” He is partners in other horses with the people who own Honor Marie, who will start from the seventh position Saturday. He is early in his horse racing career. The bonds have already formed.

“It’s like you’re all in it together,” Werth said. “You know what’s at stake. You know what can happen. You kind of pull for each other.

“It’s not like in other sports, where you’re like, ‘[Screw] those guys.’ I don’t ever have to play the Mets, you know?”

Dornoch is 20-1 on the morning line to win the Derby. But Werth has played the race out in his mind. Dornoch will start alongside Sierra Leone, who, at 3-1, trails only Todd Pletcher-trained Fierceness on the morning line. Dornoch edged out Sierra Leone in December at a graded stakes race at Aqueduct in New York.

“We’re in the one spot, which some would say isn’t the best place to be,” Werth said. “But the 2 through 5 horses aren’t speed horses, so he’s going to have a lane to run early.”

“There’s 20 horses in this field,” he said. “It’s really all you can ask for.”

He’s living a second life and loving it. That’s really all a longtime big leaguer can ask for.

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Duke University, BA in history

Barry Svrluga became a sports columnist for The Washington Post in December 2016. He arrived at The Post in 2003 to cover football and basketball at the University of Maryland and has covered the Washington Nationals, the Washington Football Team, the Olympics and golf.

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How Jayson Werth ended up owning Kentucky Derby horse Dornoch

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