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Frisky fellow Japanese-owned colt, favorite in crowded Derby field
Posted: Tuesday May 02, 2000 06:39 PM
LOUISVILLE, Ky (AP) -- Fusaichi Pegasus is curious, and sometimes rambunctious. The Deputy is a loner. "He just adores looking around," trainer Neil Drysdale said of Fusaichi Pegasus, the Wood Memorial winner. And sometimes, the trainer added, the colt just gets too full of himself, as he did Thursday when he reared up while leaving the Churchill Downs track, unseated his rider and fell. Neither horse nor rider was hurt. "He works hard at his job, but his down time is his own time," trainer Jenine Sahadi said of Irish-bred The Deputy, the Santa Anita Derby winner. "When he's in his stall he wants to be left alone." These two colts will add spice to the Kentucky Derby next Saturday at Churchill Downs. Helping to stir the pot of what could be a full field of 20 3-year-olds will be Sahadi, who will try to become the first female trainer to win the Derby, and Harold Rose, the 88-year-old breeder, owner and trainer of Hal's Hope. Back again will be D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, the trainers who have won the last five Derbies. Lukas, who won with Thunder Gulch (1995), Grindstone (1996) and Charismatic (1999), is expected to have three starters, including High Yield, winner of the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Three starters would give Lukas a total of 38 in 20 consecutive Derbies. He also won with the filly Winning Colors in 1988. Baffert, who won the Derby with Silver Charm (1997) and Real Quiet (1998), will try for No. 3 with Captain Steve, third in the Santa Anita Derby. Fusaichi Pegasus, bought for $4 million as a yearling by Fusao Sekiguchi of Japan, has established himself as the favorite for the 126th running of America's race with impressive wins in the San Felipe at Santa Anita and the Wood Memorial. But will Fusaichi Pegasus' temperament nullify his talent on Derby Day? The noise and hoopla has damaged the psyche of many good horses. After the colt fell Thursday morning, Drysdale said, "He was doing superbly, and then he felt so good that he reared up and sat down. "Some mornings he's a perfect gentleman; some mornings he's feeling so good he doesn't know what to do with himself." It took five minutes to get Fusaichi Pegasus into the starting gate for the Wood Memorial, then after winning the colt stood on the turn for several minutes before he decided to go to the winner's circle. Drysdale, who also will saddle War Chant, the Santa Anita Derby runner-up, has not been back to the Derby since he had to scratch Japanese-owned A.P. Indy the morning of the 1992 race because of a foot injury. A.P. Indy went on to win the Belmont stakes and was voted Horse of the Year. The Deputy was bought by Barry Irwin of Team Valor after a 2-year-old campaign on the grass in England. The Deputy has done his job very well. After winning a grass stakes in his U.S. debut, he won Santa Anita's Santa Catalina, finished second to Fusaichi Pegasus in the San Felipe and won the Santa Anita Derby. It would appear the 37-year-old Sahadi has a better chance of winning the 1 1/4-mile Derby than the previous seven female trainers. Shelley Riley finished second with Casual Lies behind Lil E. Tee in 1992, but that colt was a 30-1 shot. The lowest-priced starter for any of the female trainers was Biloxi Indian, a member of the 10-1 seven-horse mutuel field, who finished 12th in 1988. The first Derby which Sahadi attended, but did not see, was as a University of Kentucky freshman in 1981. She was in the infield, where nobody sees the race. She got a view of the race in 1983 when Desert Wine, owned by her father Fred Sahadi, finished second to Sunny's Halo. Hal's Hope, who won the Florida Derby, will be a sentimental favorite because Rose underwent quadruple bypass surgery after a stroke last year. But the horse's odds of winning got dramatically longer after his last-place finish in the Blue Grass. Rose and 43-year-old jockey Roger Velez said they were puzzled about the Blue Grass performance and chose to disregard it. Rose was at the 1984 Derby when Rexson's Hope, another colt he bred, owned and trained, finished 10th. Lukas' other two probables are Exchange Rate and Commendable. Todd Pletcher, a former Lukas assistant, could take a page from his old boss' book and start four horses -- More Than Ready, second in the Blue Grass; Graeme Hall, long-shot winner of the Arkansas Derby; Trippi, winner of the Flamingo; and Impeachment, third in the Arkansas Derby.
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