Sunday, May 3, 1998

BY GREGORY HALL
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rick Pitino watches the race on a television monitor as trainer Nick Zito looks to the fourth turn. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

LOUISVILLE -- Rick Pitino's horse was running like his Boston Celtics basketball team plays -- coming from behind.

Unlike one of the basketball coach's comebacks when he coached Kentucky, Halory Hunter didn't make up the deficit in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.

Nick Zito put a positive spin on the fourth-place result, just as the showman coach he trains for does after basketball defeats. CP:Rick Pitino

"You can't knock anybody for trying," Zito said.

Halory Hunter trailed by almost 10 lengths on the backside and ended finished the 1 1/4 mile-race fourth, about four lengths behind winner Real Quiet.

The Blue Grass Stakes winner was the fourth choice of Derby bettors, many of whom included UK fans and former players.

Former Wildcat Jeff Brassow felt obligated to bet the colt of his old coach, who was both feared and loved by his players.

"I have to bet him," he said. "There's no thought about not picking him."

Pitino told a national television audience that he needed luck to win with his first Derby starter. Despite the shamrock on his Celtic Pride Stable silks, he didn't get it.

"During the Blue Grass, he got the break," Zito said.

There Halory Hunter charged along the rail inside of other horses for a come-from-behind win.

At the start of the Derby, Zito told Pitino the break was good. The next thing he knew the horse was last heading for the first turn. That wasn't so good.

"We were wide on the far turn, but the second (place) horse came around us, so that's not an excuse," jockey Corey Nakatani said. "Corey said that he had a spot to go through, but he couldn't get there quick enough," Zito said. "So then he had to come around with the horse, and we just got beat a whisker for third."

Zito said as long as Halory Hunter didn't get hurt in the Derby, he'd like to try the Preakness Stakes, which is a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Derby, in two weeks. The 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes looks even more attractive for the closer.

"He's a major player in the 3-year-old race," he said. "We'll come back."