Running the Derby is a dream come true

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- One year ago California-based thoroughbred trainer Jeff Mullins came to the Kentucky Derby to race a gray colt named Lusty Latin. The colt finished 15th among 18 horses. The official Daily Racing Form chart notes that on the first Saturday in May 2002, Lusty Latin "passed only tired rivals," Formspeak for should have stayed home.

On Wednesday morning Mullins stood outside Barn 17 on the Churchill Downs backstretch and pragmatically recalled that afternoon. "Anything can happen in the Derby," he said, invoking the mantra that excuses all irrational behavior associated with the most important horse race in the world. And then the truth: "We had fulfilled our dream just by getting here," he said. "The owners wanted to come to the Derby."

Make no mistake, just getting to the Kentucky Derby -- never mind winning it -- is one of the most difficult tasks in sport. And there are two tiers of just "getting here." There is getting here like Lusty Latin got here, with no realistic shot of winning the race or even significantly impacting the result. And there is getting here with your aspirations of winning still intact after beginning the year as a favorite.

"It's a $1 million race," said trainer Bobby Frankel. "With everything we have to go through just to get here, it should be a $5 million race." Frankel trains favorite Empire Maker and solid contender Peace Rules, so he knows what he's talking about. This is especially and poignantly true since Empire Maker spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday in his stall, nursing a sore right foot by soaking it in salt water or wrapping it in a heating poultice. In short, he hasn't officially made it to the Derby yet, although Frankel said Tuesday that Empire Maker will run on Saturday.

Lucky him. It is a fact of horse racing's marginal position in the broad and noisy sports marketplace that the mass audience tunes in on Derby day to watch only as the starting gate is being loaded full. Shame on them. The bloody march to Louisville is more fascinating than the race itself.

Last October Vindication won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile by a decisive 2 3/4 lengths for trainer Bob Baffert. That race was a mile and 1/8, and Vindication looked like a solid Derby contender. But he was hurt in the late winter and never got close. Baffert's Kafwain, second in the Juvy, was yanked from the Derby field just this week with an injury. Toccet, the second-best 2-year-old of 2002, also was hurt and never ran in a prep race. The list goes on.

As the prep season unfolds, competition winnows the field, a capricious and nasty process. Ocean Terrace stopped dead in the Santa Anita Derby and his connections tried him again in the Lexington two weeks ago. Stopped dead again. New York Hero won the Lane's End Futurity in March, but halted in the muddy Aqueduct stretch, falling far short in the Wood Memorial. Neither of them is in Kentucky.

Horse people understand that little is rarer than a 3-year-old who is ready to run a mile and 1/4 on the first weekend in May, in an honestly run race with a large field and a crowd of 150,000 in full throat. The request is simply too much for most horses (for most jockeys and trainers, too), which is why the winner becomes so instantly valued in the breeding industry.

Those animals who earn the chance are almost as rare; fewer than 20 out of nearly 40,000 foals dropped three years earlier. As Saturday approaches, nerves fray and superstitions take root. Mullins stood beneath the overhang at his barn on Wednesday morning. He is back this year with a contender, a tenacious gelding named Buddy Gil, winner of the prestigious Santa Anita Derby.

Mullins' wife, Amy, who is also Buddy Gil's exercise rider, asked if he was willing to have an outsider check Buddy Gil in his stall while they went to breakfast. "I'm not letting anybody else near him this close to the race," Mullins said. "Would you let somebody else gallop him?"

Amy Mullins shook her head. Opportunity is precious, not to be trifled with. Anything can happen.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden covers horse racing for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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