By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEXINGTON - It had been a long, lonely couple of weeks here for Nick Zito.

Thank goodness for TV.

"I love these stations in Kentucky," he said. "They're full of preachers. They keep me going."

The Cliff's Edge, left, with jockey Shane Sellers aboard, edges Lion Heart by a half length for the win in the $750,000 Grade I Toyota Blue Grass Stakes Saturday at Keeneland. Lion Heart is ridden by Mike Smith. (AP photo)

The trainer sought faith to sort out his hard luck. He recently had two of his top prospects - which also happened to be arguably the two top Kentucky Derby prospects overall - sidelined by illness.

Zito has been known to ascribe a mystical quality to this business. So it was that The Cliff's Edge brought him back from the brink.

His third-string colt, an afterthought that was nearly sold last spring, roared from 14 lengths back to win the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. He bested odds-on favorite Lion Heart by a half-length to win the 1 1/8-mile Grade I race Saturday.

Given that this horse is already 2-for-2 at Churchill Downs and showed closing speed Saturday that could be perfect for the 1 1/4-mile Derby, Zito may have his Derby favorite after all.

"It's a humbling business," Zito said. "There's a lot of luck involved, and unfortunately, I had been on the bad end. But I got through it, and that's what counts. ... I really got emotional (with the victory). This is so gratifying."

Zito is humble to a fault. He put on no airs during his charmed run in the early 1990s, when two of his first three Derby horses won the race: Strike the Gold in 1991 and Go for Gin in '94.

The New Yorker, 56, hasn't hit the board with nine Derby horses since, including favorite Stephen Got Even in '99. Yet he began this season with his best hand yet, led by Eurosilver and Birdstone, who were ranked 1-2 in either order in many early Derby projections.

Zito, superstitious to a fault, wondered if his luck would hold.

"It's hard to be a trainer and see No. 1 and No. 2 in those polls," he said. "I was crossing my fingers."

Eurosilver developed a glandular infection. On April 2, Zito had to rule the horse out of the Triple Crown series. Birdstone, then considered his top horse for the Blue Grass, was scratched Thursday with an elevated white cell blood count, though Zito plans to enter that horse in the Derby without another prep.

The Cliff's Edge was, as Zito put it, in the background. He has finished out of the money just once in eight career starts, but there still had been few highlights.

Owner Robert LaPenta had the horse up for auction last spring but held onto him when the reserve price of $200,000 was not met. "Before the auction, he had a terrible workout," LaPenta said. "A cat ran across the track" and spooked him.

Sounds like serendipity. Zito has seen the horse slowly blossom under Shane Sellers, who had his third Blue Grass victory Saturday and first since he nearly retired because of injury.

"All those people who wrote him off, what are they saying about him now?" Sellers said of the horse.

Favorite Lion Heart led until the stretch. Limehouse was third. The Cliff's Edge swept the Grade III Iroquois and Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill last fall.

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E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com