Kentucky Derby anniversaries for Nafzger, Gambolati

It’s about that time of year when Kentucky Derby nostalgia starts to surface. Carl Nafzger already is drawing inquiries about the 25th anniversary of Unbridled winning both the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby on his way to winning the Eclipse Award for top 3-year-old male of 1990.

“That was a pretty good year, wasn’t it?” a smiling Nafzger said between races here this week.

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of Spend a Buck winning the 1985 Kentucky Derby for trainer Cam Gambolati, whose stable is based here at Gulfstream.

Good omen for Kentucky basketball?

Just in time for the start of an NCAA basketball tournament in which Kentucky is a huge favorite, a horse whose connections have close ties to the university was a winner at Gulfstream Park.

Sportscaster, named for iconic broadcaster Tom Hammond, dominated the seventh race here Tuesday, winning a $50,000, conditioned-claiming race on the turf by 3 3/4 lengths for Romans.

Sportscaster is owned by the 44 Racing partnership headed by Dan Issel, a Hall of Fame basketball player who starred for Kentucky from 1966-70 (and wore jersey number 44, hence the stable name) and now lives in Colorado. Hammond, a longtime host of major racing events on television and a resident of Lexington, Ky., is one of several partners in the group.