Now Comes The Showdown

A handsome son of Secretariat, General Assembly, probably will run despite an inconsistent 1979 season. So will a son of Sham called Shamgo, who has started eight times this year and failed to win. Lot O' Gold, four times second to Spectacular Bid, will run, as will King Celebrity, who last Saturday easily won the one-mile Stepping Stone Purse in a fashion that indicated he likes the Churchill Downs track. Screen King, beaten only a nostril in the Wood Memorial two weeks ago by Instrument Landing, will try to duplicate his closing burst in that race at Louisville. Sir Ivor Again, the only Derby candidate to have gone 1� miles (he won at that distance at Aqueduct), is also likely to run.

But the most interesting starter after the big two will be Golden Act, another Coast horse through and through. Owned by Californians Bob Phipps and Bill Old-know, sired by Flying Paster's sire, Gummo, and trained by Loren Rettele, Golden Act was listed in an early Derby week morning line at 10 to 1. Golden Act runs from behind, and if Spectacular Bid and Flying Paster tire each other out, Golden Act can be counted on to come shooting at them through the long Churchill Downs stretch.

By last Saturday morning Spectacular Bid and Flying Paster were bedded down on the Churchill backstretch, separated by only 75 yards. Walking the shedrow, Delp was less brassy, more subdued than usual. For several months he has been talking up Spectacular Bid in most spectacular fashion, so much so that should a trainer apply similar statements to a horse in the future, he will probably be accused of "Delping."

Delp is often caustic, outspoken, outlandish. He has created a vast amount of publicity for his horse and probably gotten a lot of people to root against Spectacular Bid as well, especially after his verbal assault against Franklin following the trouble in the Florida Derby. But in the cold of a Louisville morning last weekend, Delp spoke the unthinkable—the Derby could be lost. He seemed subdued when discussing Spectacular Bid's seven-length victory in the Blue Grass in 1:50, the slowest winning time over a fast track for the 1?-mile race in 24 years. "I thought the other three horses would run a bit better than they did, so we would have some competition before going in the Derby," Delp said, "but we had no control over what happened. While I'm not happy about it, I still think the race did nothing but help my horse.

"Bid seems to wait for somebody to come run with him. He's one of those horses that if he can see a horse, he can beat him. But then Flying Paster might be as good as Secretariat and we might get beat. If Flying Paster beats us fair and square in the Derby, I'll shake Mr. Ridder's hand and Mr. Campbell's hand and Mr. Pierce's hand...but only after I cool off."

Gordon Campbell and Bud Delp resemble each other not at all. A quiet man not given to bragging about his horses, Campbell was born in Olds, Alberta and at present lives in Bradbury, Calif., about six miles from Santa Anita. This is Campbell's first Derby, his first visit to Churchill Downs. In the past he has trained some very good horses: Winter Solstice, Messenger of Song, Cascapedia. "Flying Paster is the best horse I have ever had," Campbell says. "The first time he went on the racetrack as a 2-year-old he looked like a fully experienced racehorse. Ben Ridder and I decided last October that we had a chance to get Flying Paster to the Kentucky Derby if nothing went wrong along the way. We decided then to get Don Pierce to ride him because Pierce is a very experienced and intelligent rider. He doesn't panic. Don always stays cool and is patient on a horse."

Gordon Campbell is patient, too. Upon his arrival in Kentucky, writers asked if he had read Delp's glowing remarks about Spectacular Bid through winter and spring. "I didn't come to Churchill Downs for a debate," Campbell said. "I came for a horse race. I believe Spectacular Bid will get one."