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Q & A with SI's William Nack SI's racing sage weighs in with the latest Derby news
Posted: Friday May 05, 2000 10:34 AM
Sports Illustrated senior writer William Nack checked in from the track at Churchill Downs. CNNSI.com asked Nack to scout the field for this Saturday's Kentucky Derby. CNNSI.com: You picked the favorite, Fusaichi Pegasus, in your preview for the magazine. Now that you've seen all the horses work out, are you still sticking with the big bay colt? And if so, why? William Nack: Fusaichi Pegasus is a gorgeous individual. An equine Adonis. A beautiful bay horse with lovely action. He's going to be ridden by Kent Desormeaux, a veteran jockey who won the Derby in 1997 on Real Quiet. He's breaking from the 15th post position, out of 19 horses, which is pretty far out. It will be very interesting to see how Desormeaux breaks this horse, whether he tries to get to the front early or whether he settles in. But I still believe he'll prevail. There's no telling how good Pegasus is. He's only got five starts, but he's got the looks of a superstar. CNNSI.com: What about rumors of Fusaichi Pegasus' recent skittish behavior? How likely is that to affect his performance? Nack: Fusaichi Pegasus is kind of a high-strung goofball who plays around a lot. He's also very curious. He bucks and pitches. Once he went up on his hind legs and fell over backwards. He's a real jock, a real Michael Jordan-type. He's got great balance and great movement, and he's very smooth -- silky even -- and very athletic. His behavior could be an issue in the post parade. I'm very interested to see what happens. Pegasus shied away from an ambulance that was on the track at Aqueduct on the way to the gate at Wood Memorial. Yes, he's slightly neurotic, but aren't we all? He's a very curious horse. That's the word the trainer Neil Drysdale uses to describe him. I had breakfast with Arthur Hancock, who bred the horse. Hancock says that Pegasus stood out even as a yearling. He says one day he whinnied at the colt -- and the horse whinnied back. It happened under the shed row again today; Hancock whinnied and Fusaichi Pegasus whinnied back. The horse stopped and looked at him like, Hey, it's my old breeder! CNNSI.com: You mentioned that Fusaichi Pegasus will be starting from the 15th gate. How important is post position in the Derby? Nack: It can be very important. High Yield had a chance to win this thing, but I think his prospects were diminished when he drew the 18th post position. I mean, he's practically out there in the bleachers selling hot dogs. He's gonna have 17 horses inside of him in that 500-yard run to the first turn. If he gets a good break and the horses to the left of him drop back and he's only two or three horses wide on the first turn, High Yield is going to be very dangerous. But if he's hung out there six or seen horses wide on the first turn, I don't think he's enough horse to overcome that. CNNSI.com: At 9-5 odds, Fusaichi Pegasus is pretty heavy favorite. Are there any other legitimate contenders? Nack: The Deputy is a real professional, a real soldier. He has a very calm demeanor. Nothing bothers this horse. He's kind of smallish, which makes him very handy in all of this traffic. He's not going to have as much trouble as the bigger horses, such as Fusaichi Pegasus, with this huge field. The Deputy is an Irish horse, and a great story. I've never seen, in my 40 years of experience around racetracks, a foreign horse who had raced almost entirely on the turf, come over here and take to the dirt with the alacrity that this horse has. He just switched surfaces and continents completely. He was a fairly successful two-year-old on the turf in England. Not great, but he showed some promise. An American syndicate bought him for $500,000 last fall and low and behold he took to the dirt better than he took to the turf in his own native land. Shocking. He's also an interesting story in that he is trained by a woman, Jenine Sahadi. Her parents owned a big stud farm in California called Cardiff Stud, a very big commercial breeding organization. So she grew up around horses. Her dad owned horses. She's very smart. CNNSI.com: Sahadi had a heated exchange with fellow trainer Bob Baffert a few weeks ago when he suggested she might actually not be the one training the horse. Has there been any further fallout? Nack: I had dinner with her the other night. She's got wonderful sense of humor and is taking all of this very calmly. People keeping bringing the incident up, but she is now refusing to talk about it. She told me "This is really behind me." Baffert has tried to apologize a couple of times and she has not been interested -- that's what he told me, anyway. But in any event, what he said was totally inappropriate and it hit a real raw nerve with her. People were always gossiping that she didn't really train horses, that there was always this man behind her or that man behind her. It's ridiculous. I have seen her train the horse. Her owner, Barry Irwin, who owns half the horse with his Syndicate, Team Valor, says Jenine trains the horse. He's very confident in her ability. CNNSI.com: O.K., but at least one of her training methods is a little unorthodox. Is it true that Sahadi occasionally slips wine into The Deputy's feedbag? Nack: Yes. It's Almondine White Zinfandel. She gives him a glass a day, to settle his stomach. The horse really likes it, and the veterinarian suggested it -- to keep him calm. The Deputy has developed a taste for it. Horses are supposed to run on hay and oats. The Deputy runs on hay, oats and fermented grapes. Next thing you know he'll be drinking it by candlelight with all his broodmares. CNNSI.com: Any other interesting storylines from the stables? Nack: Yes. Another great story is Florida Derby winner's Hal Hope. His trainer, Harold Rose, is 88 years old -- or, as everybody is saying around here, "88 years young" -- and going for his first Derby win. Harold is having a grand old time here. He told me yesterday at the post-position draw, "If my horse runs like he did in the Florida Derby you'd better all watch out." CNNSI.com: Any sleepers we should keep an eye on? Nack: The long shot I picked in the magazine -- Captain Steve -- really loves this race track and has been training like dynamite. More than Ready has a lot of support. I'm finding more and more people are going to play him at the odds. He's going to have great odds, and turning for home, he will be there. Whether he's got the gas to finish the last quarter of a mile, I don't know. But he will be in the thick of it, turning for home. If High Yield has a decent break, he will be in the thick of it turning for home. So will War Chant, Neil Drysdale's other horse. And I'm looking for a big race from Aptitude. He's training very well, and he really seems to like this race track. If the pace is real hot -- and I expect it will be -- there's a lot of speed in this race -- Trippi, Graeme Hall. I think you're going to have a 45-and-change, 46 first-half mile. If the half-mile is around 46 seconds, that means the pace is hot. This race could be won be a horse who comes from out of it, such as Aptitude. He's very lightly raced and doesn't have a lot of seasoning, but he's beautifully bred and he looks like he wants to go on and on. CNNSI.com: You mentioned there's a lot of speed in this field. Is Secretariat's Derby record of 1:59 2/5, set in 1973, in jeopardy? Nack: It's awfully tough for a three-year-old to go a mile-and-a-quarter in under two minutes. It'd be a hell of an achievement. I'm looking for a time of around two minutes. If Fusaichi Pegasus like I think he's capable of, I think this cold be a two-minute Derby. But it's about time for Secretariat's record to be eclipsed, isn't it? CNNSI.com What's the story behind your sleeper, Captain Steve? Nack: How he got his name is a pretty funny story. He was named after the head of the criminal investigation division of the Louisville police force -- Captain Steve Thompson, who has been around the barn all week, introducing himself as "Hi, I'm Captain Steve, the two-legged one." He's a friend of the horse's owner, Mike Pegram. In fact, Thompson got Pegram out of trouble two or three years ago. Pegram was leaving Louisville after Silver Charm won the Kentucky Derby in 1997. His girlfriend had given him a present that he didn't open and slipped inside his duffel bag before heading off to the airport the day after the Derby. Unfortunately, she didn't tell him that the gift was a .357 magnum. He not only had the .357 on him, he also cashed so much money on win tickets on Silver Charm that the money was literally stuffed in his pocket. Airport security arrested Pegram, and took him to jail. Trainer Bob Baffert, Pegram's best friend, called the police department and ended up talking to Captain Steve. Baffert pled his friend's case, and Captain Steve called the judge to clear things up. The judge said, "I'll take your word for it, Steve. Your word is law around here." So Captain Steve went down to the police station and picked Pegram up. And os began a relationship. When this horse came along, Pegram said "I want to name him Captain Steve after my savior." And now he's here a the Derby.
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