Insufficient Funds: Sunday Break Hopes To Get A Break
April 28, 2002
By, William F. Reed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 28, 2002) - Several of the sharpest handicappers in Kentucky and New York are extremely high on Sunday Break's chance to win Saturday's 128th Kentucky Derby (GI) at Churchill Downs. They like his pedigree and his looks. They admire his trainer and jockey. They are ecstatic about the fact that he's a relatively fresh horse who seems to get better by the day.

There's just one problem: Sunday Break (Jpn) may not make the Derby's 20-horse maximum field because 22 other Derby hopefuls have more earnings in graded stakes races. So unless at least two horses fall by the wayside between now and Wednesday night, when Derby entries will be taken and post positions drawn, Sunday Break (Jpn) will be denied his shot at immortality.

"If it happens, it happens," said trainer Neil Drysdale. "There always seem to be some horses drop out as the race draws near."

Drysdale would be disappointed, but not crushed, if Sunday Break (Jpn) doesn't make it. Unlike D. Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert, and Nick Zito, the Derby is not his holy grail. He brought A.P. Indy to the 1992 Derby, but was forced to scratch him the morning of the race because of a slight injury. He didn't come back until 2000, when he won the roses with Fusaichi Pegasus and finished ninth with War Chant.

Last year, Drysdale didn't have a Derby horse. It's more important to him to be patient with a horse than rushing him to run a mile and a quarter on the first Saturday in May. Typically, he has been careful with Sunday Break (Jpn), a Japanese-bred son of Forty Niner. Maybe too careful, as far as making the Derby is concerned.

After going zero-for-2 last year, Sunday Break (Jpn) broke his maiden on Jan. 21 in a Santa Anita allowance race. After two more impressive wins in allowance company, Drysdale decided to try the big boys in the Grade I Wood Memorial on Apr. 13 at Aqueduct.

In his first stakes race, the colt finished a sharp third in a three-horse photo finish with the victorious Buddha and Medaglia d'Oro, but Drysdale liked the way he fought hard to the wire. Jockey Gary Stevens, who has ridden Sunday Break (Jpn) in each of his six starts, told Drysdale that if Sunday Break (Jpn) made the Derby field, he would be at Churchill Downs to ride him.

The genesis of that "if" was the 100th Derby in 1974 that drew a record 23-horse field. Cannonade, trained by Woody Stephens, won mainly because jockey Angel Cordero, Jr. managed to keep him out of trouble as he moved from 11th in the early going to first as the field turned for home. But other owners and trainers complained bitterly that the size of the field had compromised their horses' chances, inspiring the Downs to impose a 20-horse limit, based on graded-stakes earnings.

In 1981, the Derby had 21 starters because the owners of Mythical Ruler and Flying Nashua obtained a court injunction that allowed them to enter their colts. Flying Nashua finished eighth and Mythical Ruler 17th to the victorious Pleasant Colony.

Since then, the Derby has had two 20-horse fields (1983 and '84) and six 19-horse fields (1982, '93, '95, '96, '99, and '00). Now, Sunday Break could make history of sorts as the best horse who didn't make the Derby field because of earnings.

When an outstanding horse doesn't run in the Derby, it's usually because of illness, injury or a unique game plan by his connections. In 1982, for example, Linkage won the Blue Grass Stakes (GI) at Keeneland, but skipped the Derby to point for the Preakness (GI) because his elderly trainer, Henry Clark, was a lifelong Maryland horseman who valued the Preakness above all races. (Linkage was upset by Aloma's Ruler in Baltimore.)

But Sunday Break (Jpn) is stabled at Churchill and training well. His connections want him to run in the Derby, as do all the handicappers who believe he's the one that's peaking at just the right time. So they'll be rooting for a couple of defections before Wednesday night. Nothing serious, you understand, but some little something - maybe an attack of common sense by certain owners - that will enable them to squeeze their colt into the starting gate.

At the moment, however, nobody is having second thoughts, so these 20, in order of graded-stakes earnings, seem certain for the Derby: Essence of Dubai, Harlan's Holiday, Johannesburg, Came Home, Buddha, Medaglia d'Oro, Perfect Drift, Private Emblem, War Emblem, Saarland, Blue Burner, Proud Citizen, Easy Grades, Castle Gandolfo, Request For Parole, Lusty Latin, It'sallinthechase, Ocean Sound (Ire), and Wild Horses.

Windward Passage is No. 21, U S S Tinosa No. 22 and Sunday Break (Jpn) No. 23. Mayakovsky, who scratched from yesterday's Derby Trial (GIII) because of a "sloppy" track, is a remote possibility for the Derby but is unlikely to run. But, the connections of some others who have more earnings than Sunday Break (Jpn) - Booklet, Azillion (Ire), Smoked Em - could have a last-second change of heart and jump back in the mix. Stranger things have happened the week before the Derby.

It would be a shame if Sunday Break (Jpn) missed the Derby because of earnings, then won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes (GI). Drysdale would be critized for not finding the way to get the colt another $25,000 or so in earnings before the Derby. Then again, maybe Sunday Break (Jpn) isn't as talented as his backers think he is.

At this point, who knows? All that's certain is that trainers with Derby contenders need to pay as much attention to their bank accounts as to their horses. Losing fairly on the track has to be more satisfying than answering all the "what if" questions should a horse be booted from the Derby due to insufficient funds.

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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