"Doughnut Derby" Contenders Are Sugary Sweet, But Have Holes Too
April 13, 2002
By, William F. Reed

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 13, 2002) - Ohio is a terrific place for farming, golfing, telling Woody Hayes stories and collecting buckeyes. Ohio is the home of Smucker's Jellies, Bob Knight, and the "Rock And Roll Hall of Fame". But, folks, Ohio is strictly the boondocks when it comes to producing Kentucky Derby (GI) winners.

No Ohio-bred has won the Derby since Wintergreen in 1909. Sent off as the odds-on favorite, Wintergreen went wire-to-wire to win the roses by four lengths. However, his time for the Derby's mile and a quarter was 2:08, about average for horses in those days, but horribly slow by today's standards.

Which gives Wintergreen something in common with Harlan's Holiday, whose 4 1/2-length victory in the April 13 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (GI) at Keeneland virtually assured that he'll be the second Ohio-bred to be favored the Derby, which will be held for the 128th time on Sat., May 4, at Churchill Downs.

Harlan's Holiday's time for the mile and an eighth was a turtle-like 1:51.5, which made yesterday's Blue Grass the slowest since 1989, when Western Playboy plodded home in 1:51 1/5 on a muddy track. Since 1951, only four Blue Grass Stakes have been won in slower times.

"I've got to make him the favorite," said Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia, "but right now I'd make him no lower than 5-1, which would be the highest-priced Derby favorite in history."

Until now, that dubious distinction belongs to the Bob Baffert-trained entry of Excellent Meeting and General Challenge, which went off at $4.80-to- $1 in 1999. But the truth is, despite impressive victories in the Florida Derby (GI) and Blue Grass, Harlan's Holiday will have to fight the double-whammy of his Ohio breeding and his slow Blue Grass time.

When asked about the time, jockey Edgar Prado repeated the old line about time only being important when you're in prison. Lexington native Kenny McPeek, who has done a marvelous job of bringing Harlan's Holiday from a two-year-old debut at off-the-beaten-path Thistledown near Cleveland to Kentucky Derby favorite, also dismissed the knocks against his horse, who has never been worse than second in 10 career starts.

"This has been an advantage, him being an Ohio-bred," McPeek said. "It meant we got to run him early (in three Ohio races last summer) and he needed that."

And the slow time in the Blue Grass?

"Are they (Keeneland officials) going to deduct anything from our check?" McPeek asked with a huge smile.

To tell the truth, Harlan's Holiday is sort of the poster boy for this year's potential Derby field. It's almost as if every contender was made at D. Wayne Lukas' favorite Krispy Kreme doughnut shop near Churchill Downs. Each has something sweet and delicious going for him, but each also has a hole that's big enough for McPeek to crawl through.

Take Buddha, for example. The lightly-raced colt scored a head victory over Medaglia d'Oro in the Apr. 13 Wood Memorial (GI) at Aqueduct, however a lot of Derby fans won't be ready to endorse to Buddha on Derby Day because the Wood was only his fourth career start and first stakes race. The last horse to win the Derby in his fifth start was Exterminator in 1918.

It's not a stretch to suggest that the best horse didn't win the Wood. Sunday Break, a Japanese-bred son of Forty Niner, was third, less than two lengths behind the winner. It was exactly the sort of race that brilliant trainer Neil Drysdale wanted.

If Sunday Break doesn't get shut out of the Derby because 20 others have more earnings in graded stakes, he might be a major factor if he catches a Saturday break or two. Drysdale impressed everyone in 2000 with his development of Fusaichi Pegasus, who enabled the California-based trainer to win the Derby in his first attempt.

But don't write off Sunday Break as merely proof that Drysdale's brain has come up one doughnut short of a box.

"This horse has come a long way in a short time," said jockey Gary Stevens, who has won the Derby three times. "I want to ride him in the Kentucky Derby if he gets in."

In the Arkansas Derby (GII) at Oaklawn Park, Private Emblem, never worse than third in seven career starts, drew away from his field to earn his ticket to Louisville. But good as he looked in the Arkansas Derby, this doughnut has more holes than it does sugar.

The Arkansas Derby has produced only two Kentucky Derby winners -- Sunny's Halo in 1983 and Grindstone in 1996. Trainer Steve Asmussen and jockey Donnie Meche are Derby novices, making their debuts last year with ninth-placed Fifty Stars. The horses Private Emblem beat in Arkansas are as suspect as his pedigree (Our Emblem out of the Halo mare Merion Miss). And so it goes, all the way through what's shaping up as the "Doughnut Derby."

Came Home was clearly the best in the Santa Anita Derby (GI), but his time was almost as slow as Harlan Holiday's in the Blue Grass. He also hasn't convinced everyone that he has the pedigree to last a mile and a quarter. Nevertheless, any colt ridden by Chris McCarron must be given a chance.

Perfect Drift, who won the Lane's End Spiral Stakes (GII) at Turfway Park by a neck over Azillion (Ire), has a lot of backers at Churchill's Trackside facility, where he's stabled. But no gelding has won the Derby since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929. Besides that, Azillion (Ire) raised questions about the importance of Perfect Drift's Spiral victory by finishing last in the Blue Grass, beaten by more than 30 lengths.

And there's more.

Although War Emblem upset Repent in the Illinois Derby (GII) on Apr. 6, his owner and trainer said they weren't coming to Louisville because they didn't think he was good enough to win the roses. But last week Prince Ahmed Salman, head of the Thoroughbred Corp., bought War Emblem for a rumored $1 million and turned him over to trainer Bob Baffert, who won the Derby in 1997 with Silver Charm and in '98 with Real Quiet.

Until the Prince bought War Emblem, it looked as if Baffert were going to miss his first Derby since 1996. But now he'll be back on the scene to amuse the media with his quips and quotes. At this very moment, he's probably thinking up some fresh material about what it's like to go into the Derby with a horse that somebody else developed.

The main hole in War Emblem's resume is that even with the long stretch at Sportsman's Park, he won the Illinois Derby in such a slow time (just a tick under 1:50) that his owner, Russell L. Reineman, and trainer, Frank Springer, didn't think he was Derby material.

Now we'll see if Baffert and whatever jockey he picks are magical enough to move War Emblem up a couple of notches, to where he's at least as good as Private Emblem. By the way, no horse with "emblem" in his name has ever won the Derby.

The other two trainers who dominated the Derby in the 1990s, Nick Zito and D. Wayne Lukas, also are iffy, at best, for the Derby. Straight Gin, the colt Zito trains for society mega-hostess Marylou Whitney, might run in the Derby off his fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass but Lukas may have fired his last bullet yesterday when Gold Dollar finished up the track in the Arkansas Derby.

Another casualty of the preps could be Booklet, who finished a distant second to Harlan's Holiday for the second consecutive time, leading trainer John Ward, Jr. to act like he's ready to throw in the towel and take his horse where Harlan's Holiday isn't.

The horses coming from abroad -- Johannesburg and Castle Gandolfo from Ireland and Essence of Dubai from that Persian Gulf nation -- all have potential and ability, but it's difficult to get a line on them because they will come to Louisville with only one prep race this year and none in the U.S. The holes, in these cases, may be in the heads of their trainers, who stubbornly refuse to take the traditional road to Louisville.

Also thinking about the Derby are the connections of various colts who are light in the credentials department: Ocean Sound, Saarland, Ethan Man, Easy Grades, Request For Parole, Easyfromthegitgo, Wild Horses, and Mr. Mellon.

So after the final round of major preps - the Coolmore Lexington Stakes (GII) on Apr. 20 at Keeneland and the Derby Trial (GIII) on Apr. 27 at Churchill are little more than races for wishful thinkers - we have a "Doughnut Derby" shaping up with an Ohio-bred favorite. Hmmmm. Ohio is a word with doughnut holes at both ends.

Holy Toledo! Maybe it's an omen! Somebody call Krispy Kreme and get them over to McPeek's barn. We could have an ad campaign shaping up that will even excite the folks in Ohio, where it always seems to be 1909 and the main interest in horses is finding one strong enough to pull the buggy.

Native Kentuckian William F. "Billy" Reed has been a sports writer in various capacities for 42 years and has missed covering the Kentucky Derby a mere two times since 1966. He has been a high-profile sports writer in Kentucky for the Commonwealth's two largest daily newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader and was a national columnist for Sports Illustrated, covering among other sports, Thoroughbred horse racing and college basketball. Reed currently pens a column for the Louisville Sports Report, contrbiutes features to the Keeneland program and will be, among varied other assignments, filing Kentucky Derby installments on www.kentuckyderby.com.

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