Right on cue, the question of retooling the Triple Crown dates and distances was being raised again over the past few weeks, both before and after Super Saver won the Kentucky Derby.
What always lurks behind the issue is the lament that there has been no Triple Crown winner since Affirmed, in 1978. To put that date in chilling perspective, Ashton Kutcher, Katie Holmes, and Kobe Bryant were born in 1978, and it seems like they've been around forever.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Greg Gilchrist woke up Thursday morning not quite sure which way to turn. For the first time, for as long as he could remember, there was no particular Thoroughbred racehorse that required his attention. His barn gear - buckets, webbings, tack boxes, medicine cabinets, and the assorted trainer's bric-a-brac of nearly 40 years - had been packed away in a local storage facility. His name appeared nowhere in the entries.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It's a choice group, the trainers who have won three or more runnings of the coveted Kentucky Oaks. At the top, with five, stands W. C. "Woody" Stephens. Right behind, with four, are B.A. "Plain Ben" Jones and D. Wayne Lukas. And at three wins, without aid of initials or a nickname, comes Jerry Hollendorfer, who snagged his most recent Oaks last week when Blind Luck nailed Evening Jewel on the money.
Pop quiz. Quick . . . who owned Ferdinand? You remember him, a big, good-looking sonofagun, red mane and tail flying, who got through a couple of tight spots from the one-hole to win the 1986 Kentucky Derby. He was a pretty good story all by himself, being a son of English Triple Crown winner Nijinsky. But then there was his trainer, Charlie Whittingham, who was winning his first Derby at the age of 73, and his jockey, Bill Shoemaker, who was winning his fourth Derby at the age of 54.
WASHINGTON - While the eyes of the racing world were on Louisville, Ky., horseplayers from coast to coast were paying attention to Grove City, Ohio, too. On the afternoon of the Kentucky Derby, Beulah Park offered a wager called the Fortune 6 that was so enticing, so irresistible that it generated a pool of more than $1 million.
TUCSON, Ariz. - Hi, it's the old tree-hugger checking in.
I dislike interrupting parades or anointments or deifications, and I am particularly averse to disturbing the canonization of saints. So as hesitant as I am about stepping in where angels fear to tread, I regretfully cannot join the millions celebrating the elevation of Calvin Borel to sanctity, and must cast a lone vote of disapproval of his use of the whip with Super Saver.
WASHINGTON - To most people, the running of the 136th Kentucky Derby looked like utter chaos. Horses were struggling to cope with the sloppy track. Horses were getting bumped and jostled and blocked at every stage of the race. After a fast early pace, the leaders were slowing so abruptly that they presented obstacles to all the runners behind them.
Out here on the Left Coast, a long way from the excitement of Kentucky Derby week, a Thoroughbred owner must occupy himself with lesser diversions. That is why you will find David Lanzman at Hollywood Park on Saturday, Derby Day, hoping for the best from his little mare Sweeter Still in the $100,000 Wilshire Handicap, going a mile on the grass.
First of all, I would like to apologize to the staff and management of Molly Malone's, down there in the theater district of Baxter Avenue, for my absence this week. Granted, their bottom line might not feel much of a twitch - the boss has me on a strict three Guinness limit - but my guests always find themselves dancing atop those well-worn tables or reciting James Joyce all through Derby week until proprietor Tighe O'Callaghan pipes the last, plaintive call of the evening. The Irish know how to do Derby.