Douglas taking his shot on golf course and at ballot box

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Robert “Jim Bob” Douglas, who has worked every Kentucky Derby since 2000 as an assistant on the Churchill starting-gate crew, was on Gate 19 when I’ll Have Another won the 2012 Derby at 15-1 from that outer post.

“He’s been my only Derby winner so far,” said Douglas.

Now, Douglas himself is hoping to come through as a longshot on a couple of fronts. Douglas, 51, is one of 56 finalists with a chance to win $1 million in a hole-in-one contest Tuesday at Seneca Golf Course, and he’s also running as the Republican candidate in the District 34 seat for the Kentucky House of Representatives this fall.

His odds are very big in both cases. No one has ever aced the 150-yard No. 8 hole in the 28 years of the hole-in-one contest, and he’s facing Mary Lou Marzian, a Democrat incumbent who has served the district since 1995, in the Nov. 6 general election.

“You can’t win it unless you’re in it,” said Douglas, a happy-go-lucky optimist. “That’s one thing racing has taught me.”

Quartarolo a Kentucky newcomer

With a 20-horse string in Barn 24 on the Churchill backstretch, most of them for the Loooch Racing of Ron Paolucci, trainer Anthony Quartarolo is a newcomer to the Kentucky circuit. But he’s no racetrack rookie.

As a younger man, Quartarolo, 70, was a driver and trainer of Standardbreds in New York, with Speed Merchant, one of the favorites in the 1984 Hambletonian, being his top trotter. He switched to Thoroughbreds in the early 1990s and had rarely ventured away from the East Coast until this spring. He has two starters on the Saturday night meet opener.

“We’ll be here the whole meet,” said Quartarolo, whose best horses include Machismo, Fuhriously Kissed, and Kentucky Oaks hopeful Heavenhasmynikki. “We’re here to run.”

◗ One of the few changes on the Churchill stakes schedule was the shifting of one of the overnight stakes, the $70,000 Roxelana, which last year was run on opening night. The six-furlong race for fillies and mares will be run June 23.

◗ Ward said Lady Aurelia emerged from her runner-up finish in the April 14 Giant’s Causeway at Keeneland in good shape and is being pointed to the Group 1 King’s Stand on June 19 at Royal Ascot. Lady Aurelia won the King’s Stand last year at 3.