Former TCU baseball player has a horse running at the Kentucky Derby for third time
Kirk Godby’s love for horse racing has propelled him to his third trip to the Kentucky Derby and his second as an owner. Godby still gets the chills each time he visits Churchill Downs.
“I had to step back several times just to reflect back because everyone in the industry knows how hard this is,” said Godby, who grew up in Fort Worth and played baseball at TCU. “People spend a lifetime trying to get to a Kentucky Derby and I’ve done it two times the last five years.”
Godby is a co-founder of the Don’t Tell My Wife stable in Fort Worth. Godby’s previous horses performed well at the Kentucky Derby. Exaggerator ran at the 2016 Kentucky Derby and took second place followed by My Boy Jack who ran in the 2018 Kentucky Derby taking fifth place.
Godby’s father introduced him to horse racing when he was in high school.
“I just fell in love with it,” said Godby, “I love the competitiveness, the beauty and athleticism that these horses have.”
Godby’s love for TCU was introduced at an even younger age. One of his childhood best friends was the son of legendary TCU track and field coach Guy Shaw Thompson.
From the third grade through high school, Godby was a frequent visitor to TCU. He eventually worked at the university over multiple summers.
After signing on to play baseball at Texas Wesleyan out of high school, Godby left a starting position to play at TCU in 1984. Godby passed his love for TCU onto his daughters, who both attended and graduated from the university. Godby started a logistics company in Fort Worth, sold the company and now works for the new owners in sales.
While initially too busy with his entrepreneurial endeavors and raising a family to be involved with horse racing as much as he wanted, things changed in 2010.
Don’t Tell My Wife stables was a venture between Godby, fellow co-founder Rob Slack, and longtime friend and horse trainer Keith Desormeaux.
“It was Keith really reaching out,” said Godby, “He said, ‘Man, get some guys together we’ll claim a horse and have some fun.’ So that’s kind of how all this started.”
The stable’s colorful name came about from a common refrain Godby heard from collaborators as they signed up to join the stable.
The horse running at this year’s Kentucky Derby for Don’t Tell My Wife is Confidence Game, a 3-year-old colt that won the 2023 Rebel Stakes and had two wins in 2022 during races in August and November at Churchill Downs.
“He’s probably the most well-bred horse we’ve ever bought,” said Godby.
Confidence Game has 30-1 odds to win the Kentucky Derby and Godby likes his odds.
