The outcome of the 144th Kentucky Derby stirred buzz in Nevada political circles on Saturday.

Justify, the winner, is co-owned by Kentucky Democratic political strategist and consultant Jim Cauley.

In 2005, Cauley was campaign manager for Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, who served three terms from 1997 to 2009. He has been a Clark County Commissioner since 2017.

Cauley had the day of his life on Saturday. He not only shared in the $1.24 million dollar first place prize but split $200,000 for third place, won by Audible, another horse from the ownership group that included Cauley’s Starlight Racing stable.

Both horses were trained by Bob Baffert, who took over second place on the all-time list with five Kentucky Derby winners.

Cauley got hired by Gibbons after a good old-fashioned Nevada political scandal.

Democratic “golden boy” Dario Herrera appeared to be on his way to a win over former Boulder City Mayor Jon Porter in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District in 2001. But it was revealed that Herrera received a $50,000 contract from the Las Vegas Housing to do public relations work the authority board members knew nothing about. Herrera’s campaign director Achim Bergmann recommended Cauley to Henderson. Cauley ran Barack Obama’s successful 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

NORM CLARKE MAY 7, 2018