Sunday, April 11, 1999
Menifee shocks Blue Grass
BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Arthur Hancock III had lost his top breeding horse. Elliott Walden had lost his father. Pat Day, critics said, had lost his mind.
What they found Saturday, collectively, was a Kentucky Derby contender.
Lightly raced Menifee, just the fifth choice at 8-1, steamed past a talented field to win the $750,000 Grade I Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Walden, his trainer, skipped an easier prep race in favor of the tallest test available.
“We wanted to know if he belonged, and he does,” Walden said. “We prepared everything this year to get to this day. It was up to Menifee to take us from here.”
Menifee had never run in a graded stakes race. He had undergone minor knee surgery in August, which necessitated a six-month layoff. He had run just one race of a mile or longer — the 11/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby, which he lost.
But Saturday, in a 1í-mile marathon, Hall of Fame jockey Day kept the big, strong colt at a patient pace. He was sixth after three-fourths of a mile, fourth at the mile mark. But Day found a seam to the outside and roared past runner-up Cat Thief for a 11/4-length victory in 1:48.66.
Hancock, who bred and co- owns Menifee (with James H. Stone) and is on Keeneland's board of directors, credited divine intervention. Menifee's sire, Harlan, one of the most prominent studs at Hancock's Stone Farm, had died last month at the early age of 8.
“Emotionally, this is one of the most wonderful days of my life,” said Hancock, 56. “This was Harlan's best son. This day, in my heart, is for Harlan.”
Hancock had part ownership of Derby winners Gato Del Sol (1982) and Sunday Silence ('89). But he had never won a Blue Grass Stakes.
“I had told people, I've been fortunate enough to win the Derby, and now I'd really like to win the Blue Grass. This means everything for me.”
Walden and Day, on opposite ends of racing's spectrum, also wore mile-wide smiles Saturday.
Walden, 36, is an up-and-coming trainer who broke through last year with Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop. Day, 45, needs no introduction, but winning with Menifee justified his much-criticized decision to take this colt.
Day gave up mounts on Answer Lively, last year's juvenile champion, and Cat Thief, to ride him.
“I know a lot of people second-guessed me,” Day said. “But I thought this colt had the most room for improvement. This was a testimony to his ability and to Elliott bringing him up.”
Beating Cat Thief, a D. Wayne Lukas-trained colt, was further vindication. Lukas pulled Day off Prince of Thieves in 1996 after Day finished third in the Derby, saying Day waited too long to make a charge, but Day promptly won the Preakness two weeks later aboard Louis Quatorze.
“Every time Pat Day gets off a horse (of mine), he beats me,” Lukas said Saturday.
Walden's father, Ben Walden Sr., died last fall, and Walden made mention Saturday of his dad's influence. Elliott Walden won his first training title in 1997, capturing the Churchill Downs award with 22 victories.
“It's been a great run for me the last year and a half,” he said. “And I've got the same feeling about Menifee that I had about Victory Gallop.”
Menifee has a 5.50 dosage index, a measure of breeding to determine ability to handle dis tances (the lower the index, the better). Since 1929, only two horses with a dosage above 4.0 have won the Derby: Strike the Gold in 1991 and Real Quiet last year.
“I felt he had to prove it to us,” Walden said. “If he went a mile and an eighth, we felt he'd be able to go a mile and a quarter (the Derby distance). He ran strong at the finish. He's got more in his tank.”
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