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Friday's Hot Tips Blue collar beats blue blood
Posted: Monday May 08, 2000 07:52 PM
This is the first of two Hot Tips features that CNNSI.com's Mitch Gelman will file from Louisville this week. The pieces will look at what racing fans are saying about this year's Derby field -- and who they like to win. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNNSI.com) -- For 51 weeks a year, PhilEBoy wakes up in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York and heads to work, where he twists words into stories about the underbelly of the city. He is a throwback to the newspaper reporters of old, men who typed fast, wrote hard and occasionally enjoyed a shot of whiskey on deadline. Then, throughout the first week of May, PhilEBoy turns all his attention from the concrete to the Blue Grass. And to the Wood, the Santa Anita and the Flamingo. In the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby, PhilEBoy loses all interest in triple homicides, focusing instead on triple boxes and on the first leg of the Triple Crown. For him, and for other horseplayers, being absolutely certain of having the Derby winner is the first and only rite of spring. Once, in 1993, PhilEBoy picked a little known horse named Sea Hero who somehow won the Derby and a place in racing history. Three years later, PhilEBoy also hit with Grindstone, and became a true believer in his ability to find the right horse in the greatest race of the year. As someone who believes in those who believe in themselves, I have vowed since then not to place a Derby wager without first consulting PhilEBoy's passionate Derby reasoning. He possesses one of the finest racing minds in the land. And, no doubt, one of the most entertaining. Surely, you will hear plenty of tips from the blue bloods who inhabit the track and the airwaves during Derby Week. Here, we offer observations that are strictly blue collar. When PhilEBoy weighed in on this year's race, he was quick to determine that while the 126th Run for the Roses was not a battle between Good vs. Evil, it was a class struggle. The race, as he saw it, would be between Rich vs. Poor. Due to his generous contributions to the Order of Belmont and Our Lady of Aqueduct over the years, PhilEBoy does not possess much wealth. So, it is not surprising that he took an instant dislike to everyone else's Derby 2000 favorite, Fusaichi Pegasus. Why? The horse is too pampered, too precious for our pal's tastes. Perhaps it is the $4-million yearling purchase price that PhilEBoy does not like about the odds-on morning line pick. Or, maybe, it is the horse's privileged parentage. While those who carry Jr.'s or III's at the end of their names are falling heads over hooves for Fusaichi Pegasus, PhilEBoy notes that the horse's sire, Mr. Prospector, has shown no Derby success with the 1,014 foals he has produced in the last 24 years. And his damsire, Danzig, has not fared well in this regard, either. Fusaichi Pegasus is a pretty boy, PhilEBoy explains, and he holds that it takes more than breeding to win this race. The horse that he has taken a liking to is The Deputy. "A young Irish lad," he says proudly. Trained by Jenine Sahadi, ridden by Chris McCarron and coming off a win in the Santa Anita Derby, The Deputy is a strong contender at Churchill Downs. A while ago, PhilEBoy placed a small wager on The Deputy in the future book at odds of 18-1, a bet that he holds going into Saturday. Still, that is not enough of a stake for him, as he is convinced The Deputy will follow Sea Hero into the winner's circle. "As far as this year's Kentucky Derby goes, I want to tell you that if I could mortgage one of my kidneys to take a larger position on this horse, I would," he notes. The seasoned railbird that he is, PhilEBoy hasn't contacted a surgeon just yet. "I've never felt so confident on a horse," he says, "since the last time I bet a horse."
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