Whiting plans to focus on health to get ready for Churchill Downs meet

A good trainer knows when to back off on a horse, and one of the best in the business is backing off his own schedule for a short while.

Lynn Whiting, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1992 with Lil E. Tee, said Thursday he was scheduled to be discharged from a Hot Springs hospital on Saturday after a brief stay. Whiting said his assistant will oversee his Oaklawn barn for the final month of the meet as he heads to Louisville, Ky., for a “little convalescence” until the opening of Churchill Downs on April 29.

“I’m taking a private plane home, and I’ll be working with my local doctors there to kind of get me back on the right plain,” Whiting, 77, said Thursday. “I’ve put on too much weight. It’s added stress to my system, and I’m just trying to get my personal health in the proper frame.”

Whiting said trainer Ron Moquett would be taking care of the horses he trains for Oaklawn president Charles Cella until he returns to his barn at Churchill.

Aside from Lil E. Tee, other graded stakes winners for Whiting through the years include Cyber Secret, For Rubies, Hebbronville, Off Duty, Phantom On Tour, and Pineing Patty.

◗ Trainer Keith Desormeaux, a Louisiana native who sent in horses from Southern California for a pair of stakes Saturday at Oaklawn, said last week he distinctly remembered the last time he was in Hot Springs. It was in the 1990s.

“My son is 25,” Desormeaux said. “When they took my picture for my trainer’s license, they said, ‘Hold Bailey up, and we’ll take a picture of him, too.’ He was 2. That’s how long it’s been. They made a little baby license for him, and I kept it. I still have it.”