Sunday, May 3, 1998

BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tubby Smith and Rick Pitino share greetings. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

LOUISVILLE -- Tubby and Rick, Rick and Tubby.

There had been talk all week here about them. How would they get along when they met on Derby Day -- current University of Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith and his predecessor, Rick Pitino, now boss of the Boston Celtics.

The awaited meeting played out in one of Churchill Downs' swankiest terraces. They entered from opposite ends. Mr. Pitino was with a horde of friends, all in buttons advertising his horse, Halory Hunter. Mr. Smith and his group were escorted by a state trooper. They met in the middle of the room. And for all those forecasting a clash, sorry.

They hugged.

A brief conversation took place, started by Mr. Smith, with, "What's up, Rick?" Mr. Pitino bragged about a 350-yard shot made the day before in a round of golf.

Then he had to get in a dig.

"Let me tell you something," the former Wildcats coach said to the current one. "If I was down 16 to Duke, we would've won by 30." Mr. Smith's team managed only a two-point victory over the Blue Devils in the South Region final of the NCAA tournament.

Actress Teri Hatcher and actor husband Jon Tenney bet on the races. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

As predicted, the two men were the biggest draws among Saturday's celebrity lineup. One woman tried to hand Mr. Pitino her cell phone, asking him to say something to her baby. He declined.

Elsewhere around the grounds of the place that bills itself as the world's most legendary racetrack, some of the most famous dined on salmon and steak and trotted out in strappy sandals to the familiar white balcony to wave to the crowd below.

Bleach-blond actor Dennis Cole, in a suit very nearly the same color as his hair, attracted brief attention as he explained a rhyme he made up to remember his picks. The reporters around him made it obvious he was somebody, but one young passerby wasn't sure who. Said her friend: "Oh, he used to be on the Love Boat."

Matthew Fox, who plays the anguished Charlie on Party of Five, was successful at the betting windows long before the big race. He brought his father.

"I'm loving it," he said of the atmosphere.

Actors Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

Model Niki Taylor was in the crowd too, as well as country singer John Michael Montgomery, former Designing Women co-star Dixie Carter and husband Hal Holbrook.

Actors Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall sat at Ms. Taylor's table, Mr. Hopper's right ear continuously tickled by the lavender feathers on his date's Derby hat. Both graciously signed autographs, including one by Mr. Duvall for a security worker who went on about how great he was in the movie Heat. He wasn't in the film. She thought he was Robert DeNiro.