Hovdey: Donegal taking the long view

Mort Sahl, the legendary political comic who wrote campaign jokes for presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy, likes to tell the story of the time he was flying with the candidate from one primary state to another when the humor of a particular conversation turned decidedly dark.

“Sahl,” Kennedy said, “if this plane goes down, you’ll get one line at the bottom of all the newspaper stories: ‘Comedian also on board.’ ”

Mort Sahl, meet Keen Ice.

There was another 3-year-old flying from Kentucky to New York on Tuesday for the Belmont Stakes, but you wouldn’t know it from the coverage. Keen Ice, last seen finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby, was back there somewhere in coach, cramped in a middle seat, while American Pharoah was up front in first class, sipping complimentary champagne, nibbling alfalfa quiche, and watching the director’s cut of “New York, New York” on his in-stall video screen.

Such an imbalance of media focus seemed entirely appropriate. To the naked eye, Keen Ice and American Pharoah would seem to have little in common other than their species and the year of their birth.

Since winning the Del Mar Futurity as a maiden last September in his second start, American Pharoah has won the FrontRunner, the Rebel, the Arkansas Derby, the Kentucky Derby, and the Preakness to stand at the threshold of the Triple Crown.

Keen Ice, who also won for the first time in his second start last September, has made six stakes appearances since. Unfortunately, the son of Curlin and a mare by Awesome Again has stirred the blood only once when third in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds in February. His Kentucky Derby effort was fraught with the usual horror stories of a grinding late runner who can’t help but get in some sort of trouble along the way.

Jerry Crawford, who manages the Donegal Racing partnership, is savvy enough to concede all the advantages in the Belmont to American Pharoah, except one.

“He’s the best-bred horse from a stamina standpoint in the field,” Crawford said of Keen Ice. “He has not been as quick as some of the others. But the mile and a half gives the horse with the right breeding a chance to succeed.”

This could be looking at the glass as half full of something 80 proof, but Crawford knows that of all the strange things that can happen in horse racing, a lot of them seem to happen in the Belmont Stakes with a Triple Crown on the line.

To that end, he will play ringmaster on Saturday to an enthusiastic group of more than 100 Keen Ice boosters from the Donegal family. They’ll also be betting that Finnegans Wake, the grass ace Donegal owns in partnership with California’s Gary Hartunian, can set the table by winning the $1 million Manhattan Stakes prior to the Belmont, just as he did in taking the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs in the race before the Derby.

“Dale Romans has been outrageously optimistic about how great Keen Ice has been training,” Crawford said. “I’m a little more reserved, but then Dale wants to be in every race every day that matters. I’ve had to point out to Dale a time or two that he was wrong, and I was right.”

And how does his Eclipse Award-winning trainer react to such constructive criticism?

“Very poorly,” Crawford replied.

Coming from a world of corporate law and high-stakes politics, Crawford has had to deal with customers considerably tougher than Romans (although perhaps not as tough as Romans’s assistant and better half, the former jockey Tammy Fox). These days, Crawford carries a high profile as the guy running the Iowa caucus primary campaign of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“She doesn’t have any Iowa events until the week of June 13,” Crawford said. “But I do try to assure her I spend as much time worrying about my two-legged racers as my four-legged racers.”

In the seven years Donegal has been in business, Crawford’s self-described “Moneyball” approach to racehorse acquisition has netted the partnership trophies in such events as the Pacific Classic and Blue Grass Stakes with Dullahan and the Colonial Turf Cup, Virginia Derby, and Secretariat Stakes with Paddy O’Prado. Finnegans Wake, a son of Powerscourt, has won four of five graded-stakes starts since Peter Miller took over his training in California, where he flies the colors of Hartunian’s Rockingham Ranch.

“Obviously, the move to California was just what he needed,” Crawford said. “I don’t think Gary would mind me telling you, though, that when Finnegans Wake runs in the Midwest and East, the agreement is that he carries the Donegal colors, and we make a thousand-dollar win bet on the horse for Gary.”

That worked out pretty good in Kentucky, where Finnegans Wake was a fat 7-2, and it could work again in the Manhattan if he can handle the classy New Yorkers Twilight Eclipse and Big Blue Kitten at 1 1/4 miles.

“There’s a bar in Manhattan called Finnegan’s Wake,” Crawford said. “If we win, I’ve got a feeling it will see some action.”

As for taking a swing with a well-meant longshot like Keen Ice in the Belmont, Crawford makes no apologies.

“I’m a traditionalist,” he said. “I believe very strongly that it’s the job of people who own other contenders to go to the Belmont and do everything they can to make sure that if American Pharoah does win, it was an honest win against a game field. That’s a history-making moment, and the world deserves to know he did it against quality opposition.”