LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In the spring of his golden year of 2001, during which he saddled the winners of 18 Grade 1 stakes and won almost $15 million in purses, Bobby Frankel brought a lovely filly named Flute to Churchill Downs - and she scored a smashing victory in the $500,000 Kentucky Oaks under Jerry Bailey, who also enjoyed a spectacular season.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It is usually a pain to be placed on hold, but there is at least one exception. Those asked to wait while calling Aidan O'Brien's office at the Ballydoyle training center will find themselves entertained by John Lennon singing "Imagine."
This is not entirely off the wall. Imagine is the name of the filly who won the 2001 English Oaks for the Ballydoyle-Coolmore team. Had she been called Mandy, Barbara Ann, or even Judy Blue Eyes, the musical selection would not have been nearly so inspired.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Even people who are not racing fans readily recognize the names of three contemporary trainers: Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert, and Nick Zito, who have become the best-known members of their profession by capturing eight of the last 14 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. Over the past eight years they have accounted for a remarkable 18 of 24 Triple Crown races.
But none of these trainers is likely to be hoisting a trophy in the winner's circle this year at Churchill Downs - or at Pimlico or Belmont, either.
Zito doesn't have a starter in the Derby.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - They are blasphemous, unholy heretics, representing all that dare question the worship of the Triple Crown. And here they were together, nose to nose through a steel grate, thick as thieves and sharing a private joke.
Cigar and John Henry have led remarkable lives of great accomplishment and celebrity. They did not need the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, or the Belmont Stakes to get them there. Their claim to everlasting fame was built over the long haul, crafted from hard work and consistency at the highest levels.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Came Home and Johannesburg come to the Kentucky Derby with greater accomplishments than any of their rivals, but both colts are viewed with widespread skepticism at Churchill Downs. Many experts say Came Home, the California speedster, and Johannesburg, the European champion, cannot win Saturday because they lack the pedigree to run 1 1/4 miles effectively.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Can he stay the trip?
It's the classic question, asked each year at the Kentucky Derby of all the participants. The answer, more often than not, is: No. Many entrants are honest, courageous individuals, and they would have to be to earn the status that got them to the Derby. But the 1 1/4 miles without any water is one obstacle they can't overcome.
Essence of Dubai is an exception. He raced the distance in winning the United Arab Emirates Derby in Dubai six weeks ago for Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin Racing Stable.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It is Wednesday of Kentucky Derby Week and the horses are as trained as they can be. There is very little left to do but watch for telltale signs of happiness or distress. Trainers will start the last cold sweat now between entries and the dance, when the work of a springtime comes full circle and they become either part of history, or Derby roadkill.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Sometimes we require too much from our tycoons. It isn't enough that they be movers and shakers, ever stretching and testing the economics of the culture. They've also got to be swell guys, huggable and quaint, lest they come off distant and unlovable in the eyes of a critical public.
So they are remembered for the ways they fell shy of the ideal. John D. Rockefeller was a skinflint. Henry Ford was a fascist. William Randolph Hearst was a world-class paranoid. They managed to live with their faults.
NEW YORK - Ogden Phipps died last Monday at 93, just a dozen days before a Kentucky Derby in which 20 percent of the field descends from his three greatest racehorses - Buckpasser, Easy Goer, and Personal Ensign.
If he were around to root, he would of course be pulling for Saarland, and not just because he owned 5 percent of the colt. Saarland's principal owner is Phipps's daughter, Cynthia, who got him by breeding Unbridled to her Alabama winner Versailles Treaty, a grand-daughter of Buckpasser.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Many are marching on the 128th Kentucky Derby, now just a week away, but few are providing their own music to the extent of Murray Johnson, a 42-year-old Australian who trains the Spiral winner, Perfect Drift, for Stonecrest Farm.
Today's horsemen, for the most part, insist on a prep race two or three weeks before to their goal. Perfect Drift, by design, will run for the roses off an interval of six weeks.