INGLEWOOD, Calif. - As Preakness week begins, the nation's horseplayers will turn once again to their favorite gurus in desperate hope that the 131st Kentucky Derby was a fluke and order will be restored.
Giacomo's victory at odds of 50-1, along with the failure of highly touted favorites, rumbled through the mainstream handicapping community like an ill-timed discharge in church.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It is probably not quite time to lower the flags at Hollywood Park to half-staff and issue the black armbands.
Even though the place is for sale, maybe the offers will be so insultingly low that the folks at Churchill Downs Inc. will shift gears and decide not to scrap 67 years of magnificent racing history.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Who needs a Triple Crown winner? Or all those Rip Torn commercials? Or even a "Seabiscuit" sequel? Horse racing suddenly has a lovable longshot named Giacomo, an overnight major media magnet providing both high drama and low humor.
WASHINGTON - American racing has been blessed in the past few years by memorable drama in the 3-year-old classics: great Thoroughbred performances, engaging human characters, rags-to-riches stories and bids for the Triple Crown that generated public excitement and record television ratings.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - John Shirreffs is a quiet guy, almost as quiet as his horse. Frankie Herrarte, their man in the saddle, and Francisco Leal, the broad-shouldered groom, take their low-key cues from the boss. You wouldn't think of them as particular rabble rousers. And yet there they were, less than 24 hours after hitting town, drawing attention to themselves like sailors on shore leave in Shanghai.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As usual, Kentucky Derby morning on the Churchill Downs backside was a quiet scene. Horse traffic was light. Visitors had fled. What press there was had to scuffle and scrape for warm bodies, since most of the Derby trainers were already long gone.
Except for Warren Stute, media darling.
"Would you mind doing a brief radio interview, Mr. Stute?"
"Not at all," Warren replied. "In fact, I'm starting to like it. Kind of worried about that."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Derby week of 1994 looked more like valet parking at some Hollywood bash. Composer Burt Bacharach, Motown's Berry Gordy, and James Bond franchise owner Cubby Broccoli all had starters in the big dance, while Jerry Moss of A&M Records fame was running Sardula in the Kentucky Oaks the day before.
The show-biz reunion was a kick for all concerned, but when the dust finally settled and the two races were in the books, Bacharach, Gordy, and Broccoli had to settle for the privilege of hanging out with the guy who won the Oaks.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Standing on a thick rubber mat outside his Derby barn, Afleet Alex was getting his legs rinsed clean as cameras clicked and whirred around him. His trainer, Tim Ritchey, stood nearby, wearing the smile of a guy watching his son, the soccer star, attracting well-deserved attention
"How about that," Ritchey said as Afleet Alex mugged. "The poor horse can't even get any privacy when he takes a bath."
TUCSON, Ariz. - Disaster or opportunity?
Which was it when, five days before America's greatest horse race, The New York Times ran a three-column front-page story with the headline "At the Derby, Racing is Facing Its Drug Problem"?
Some in the game shuddered, sickened by exposure of the problem. Others saw it as an opportunity.
The real question is whether the story, written by Joe Drape, left racing's glass half empty or half full. Racing itself will determine that.
