Saturday, May 06, 2000
Big day dawns for Derby dreamers
Contenders - and stories - abound for today's race
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LOUISVILLE — When jockey Chris McCarron starts to slump, he digs out two Kentucky Derby tapes.
“I throw those energizing, emotional victories in the VCR, and it just throws me up into the clouds,” he said.
Such joy isn't just for jockeys.
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AT A GLANCE
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• Post time : 5:27 p.m.
• Race time: 5:38 p.m
• TV: 4:30-6 p.m., ABC
• Distance: 1 1/4 miles
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“It's like winning the World Series and the Super Bowl, all rolled into one,” said Bob Lewis, who with wife Beverly owns two of the last four Derby winners.
Every time trainer Lynn Whiting signs on to his home computer, he clicks the same icon and the 1992 Derby plays on the screen. When his Lil E. Tee wins, Whiting gets the same reaction: “A chill up your spine.”
No wonder this is a day the racing world awaits. And we mean awaits: The Lexington Herald-Leader's Web site includes a clock that counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds to the Derby.
At 5:27 p.m. today at Churchill Downs, 19 horses will break from the gate. All heck will break with them.
Whoever's horse hits the wire first will have their lives forever altered.
“Think about your most fantasized endeavor, and imagine it coming true,” jockey Kent Desormeaux said. “That's what goes on.”
Desormeaux found that firsthand in 1998 aboard Real Quiet, and he's favored to do so again today. He rides Fusaichi Pegasus, the 9-5 favorite. That is oddsmaker's Mike Battaglia's lowest morning-line ratio since Unbridled's Song was 8-5 in 1996, yet this has been mentioned as one of the deepest, best fields in the last decade.
“It's the toughest Derby I've ever run in,” said two-time Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert, who will saddle 8-1 shot Captain Steve today. “Usually there's only two horses I have to worry about, but this year it's six or eight.”
Story lines abound:
• Fusaichi Pegasus tries to break the jinx against Derby favorites. Edgewood, Ky., resident Battaglia, who became the Derby's handicapper in 1975, forecast the winner in three of his first five Derbys but has seen his favorites falter the last 20 times.
“I don't think of that as a monkey on my back,” he said. “It's a huge coincidence. It'll turn around.”
Fusaichi Pegasus is a skittish superstar, a headstrong colt who has a reputation for bucking and balking on the track before and after races.
“His race in the Wood Memorial (last month) was huge,” Battaglia said. “It was by far the best prep race that I've seen in a Derby contender since Holy Bull won the Blue Grass (in 1994).”
• Trainer Neil Drysdale, who has never had a Derby horse, has two of the top four entrants in Fusaichi Pegasus and 6-1 choice War Chant. Drysdale had heartbreak in 1992 when his A.P. Indy, the favorite, scratched on the morning of the Derby because of a sore foot.
• Long shot Deputy Warlock is owned by Cincinnatians Jerry and Feye Bach — their first Derby horse.
• The sentimental choice is Hal's Hope, who was bred and is owned and trained by 88-year-old Harold Rose. This is Rose's first Derby horse in a 32-year training career. Roger Velez, a 43-year-old recovering alcoholic, has had his career revived by riding Hal's Hope.
“This was my last chance, and Papa Rose made it happen,” Velez said earlier this week.
• Jenine Sahadi will try to become the first female trainer to win the race, making her Derby debut with 4-1 second choice The Deputy. She has a burgeoning feud with Baffert, who has repeatedly downplayed her successes.
Discussing the field Friday, Baffert said, “The Deputy — that's the chick's horse.”
• Marlon St. Julien, riding long shot Curule, is the first African-American jockey in the race in 79 years. No black jockey has won the Derby since 1902.
“I just want to be considered as one of the best riders in the country, whether black, white, purple, blue or brown,” St. Julien said.
• Trainer D. Wayne Lu kas — who has won this race four times, including three of the last five years — sends High Yield, Commendable and Exchange Rate to the gate in his bid to inch closer to the record six Derby crowns won by Ben A. Jones.
• Todd Pletcher, a former Lukas protege, is making a dandy Derby debut that might upstage his old boss. He trains four horses in the field: More Than Ready, Trippi, Impeachment, and Graeme Hall.
“I think it'll be pretty special,” Pletcher said. “I get a little choked up for the Derby even when I don't have anyone in there. It's a special moment in sports.”
Continuing Kentucky Derby coverage from Associated Press
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