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Derby Notebook

Once again favorite falls short at Churchill Downs

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Posted: Saturday May 01, 1999 09:45 PM

Excellent Meeting was another disappointing favorite, finishing fifth. AP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - It just doesn't pay to be the favorite in the Kentucky Derby.

For the 20th straight year, the betting favorite failed to bring home the bacon. Spectacular Bid was the last betting favorite to win.

This year, there were two chances for the favorite to win and both failed. The Bob Baffert entry of Excellent Meeting and General Challenge left the gate as 9-2 favorite. They finished fifth and 11th, respectively.

The winner, Charismatic, wasn't the longest shot in the field, but close. He went off 30-1 and won with the third-longest odds of any winner in the 125 Derbys.

Baffert, who was trying to become the first trainer in history to win three straight Derbys, had too much history against him.

Another jinx also proved too difficult to overcome for Answer Lively.

No 2-year-old champion has gone on to win the Derby since Spectacular Bid. And no winner of the Breeeders' Cup Juvenile has won the Derby.

Answer Lively is now the latest answer to both those questions.

Fillies' finish

Three Ring finished last among the 19 horses who ran in the 125th Kentucky Derby. Excellent Meeting, the other filly in the race, finished fifth.

Only three fillies have beaten the colts on the first Saturday in May. And no female jockey has ever ridden a Derby winner. The Friday before the first Saturday in May is the girls' day.

The Kentucky Oaks, also 125 years old, is restricted to fillies and was won this year by Silverbulletday, trained by Bob Baffert, the trainer of Excellent Meeting.

The last filly to win the roses was Winning Colors in 1988.

Wrong country

For bettors enthused about Worldly Manner, there was good news from England early Saturday. The news from Churchill Downs was not so good. Worldly Manner finished seventh.

At Newmarket, Dubai-trained Island Sands won the 2,000 Guineas race, the first classic of the British racing season, by a half-length over Enrique.

Both Island Sands and Worldly Manner are owned by Godolphin Racing, the Dubai branch of Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum's racing operation. Both are trained by Saeed bin Suroor. And both were unraced in about eight months going into Saturday's races.

Island Sands was coming off a layoff of 260 days since his last formal race. And Worldly Manner last ran at Del Mar on Sept. 8, when he won the Del Mar Futurity by five lengths.

Sheikh Maktoum purchased Worldly Manner from his breeders, John and Betty Mabee, last summer for $5 million and kept the horse in Dubai over the winter. His only race this year prior to the Derby was in an informal trial.

Fresh voice

Even before the horses crossed the finish line in the 125th Kentucky Derby, Luke Kruytbosch fulfilled the dream of a lifetime.

Just one week into his new job as Churchill Downs' track announcer, Kruytbosch, 36, called his first Kentucky Derby.

"When I first started calling races, the general manager who hired me asked about my goals and I told him that one day I wanted to call the Kentucky Derby," he said. "I just get chills thinking about it."

Kruytbosch was just the fifth track announcer at Churchill since the track installed a public address system in 1940. He took over from Kurt Becker, who resigned after a two-year tenure.

Prior to coming to Churchill, Kruytbosch was the track announcer at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles, where he had been since 1996.

No charge

Valhol had an electrifying ride in winning the Arkansas Derby prep on April 10, but he didn't make much of a charge at the Derby.

Valhol was 15th, about a week behind the winner Saturday.

Jockey Willie Martinez rode Valhol on Saturday in place of regular jockey Billy Patin, who had ridden him for all three of his career starts.

But Patin is under investigation by Arkansas racing authorities after a device to deliver an electric shock was reportedly found by an Oaklawn Park employee after the Arkansas Derby.

Close, but

Elliott Walden practically owns Churchill Downs. Except for a few seconds on the first Saturday in May.

For the second year in a row, Walden trained the second-place horse in the Kentucky Derby. This year it was Menifee losing by a neck to Charismatic. Last year, it was Victory Gallop losing to Real Quiet by a length and a half.

Walden was the leading trainer at the Downs in the spring meetings in 1997 and 1998.

 

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