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Saturday’s Hot Tips Churchill Downs track announcer makes his call
Posted: Saturday May 06, 2000 11:39 AM
This is the second of two Hot Tips features CNNSI.com's Mitch Gelman has filed from Louisville this week. The pieces look at what racing fans are saying about this year's Derby field -- and who they like to win. Don't miss the picks filed by Sports Illustrated's William Nack and Mark Beech. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNNSI.com) -- He has seen every stride of every race at Churchill Downs for two years. He has watched more than a thousand races, seen favorites romp, longshots shock and mid-priced horses run better than expected. From his perch above the finish line, announcer Luke Kruytbosch has studied the texture of the track, the twists of the turns and snaps of the whip. Through high-powered binoculars, he has watched the races more closely than anyone else. And while he has his hunch, Kruytbosch isn't counting any horse out of the 126th Run for the Roses. "There are quite a few longshots that come through here," he explained. "The track surface at Churchill has a different composition of clay and sand than most other tracks, so if a horse didn't like a previous track, he may take an affinity to this one. "That's one of the reasons that longshots can do well here," he continued. In recent years, the Derby has been a graveyard for favorites. In 1999, for example, the winner, Charismatic, came in at more than 30-1. This year, the most talked about longshots are China Visit and Curule, an entry owned by the Godolphin Racing stable of Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, of Dubai. The entry is expected to go off somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-1 or 50-1. Still, the announcer expects some of the tried and toughened horses, the ones that have survived the Derby preps, to keep the Sheikh's horses at bay. Of all the people at the track, Kruytbosch would be pleasantly pleased if the favorite, Fusaichi Pegasus, is out of the hunt by the time the field sorts itself out and makes the turn for home. "That's the most difficult name to pronounce this year," he explained, noting that he has sought assistance in the correct pronunciation from some of the Japanese media on hand to cover the race. His pick -- and one of the easier names to call -- is Captain Steve, the horse entered by the same owner-trainer team (Mike Pegram and Bob Baffert) that sent Real Quiet to the winner's circle in 1998. "Captain Steve came out of the Santa Anita Derby the same way that Real Quiet did, and from everything I've heard from the experts, he's been training real well out here," Kruytbosch reported on Friday evening. "He loves Churchill Downs, having won our big stakes out here as a two-year old last year. He really likes the racetrack, and that's got to be a big plus." So, if you hear a little extra urging for Captain Steve in Kruytbosch's voice as he calls the horses heading down the stretch on Saturday, well, the announcer's pick may be coming in.
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