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 Back again Lewises return to winner's circle with Charismatic win
Posted: Saturday May 08, 1999 03:15 PM
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNN/SI) -- Bob and Beverly Lewis returned to the winner's circle for the second time in three years, winning the 125th Kentucky Derby Saturday. The win by Charismatic forced Bob Lewis to rewrite his epitaph. When he and his wife, Beverly, won the Kentucky Derby in 1997 with Silver Charm, the beer distributor from Southern California said he wanted his tombstone to read: "Loving husband, adoring father and winner of the 123rd Kentucky Derby." Better make that "two Kentucky Derbys." Bob Lewis held the Derby trophy up with both hands and Beverly kept grasping it with her right hand as trainer D. Wayne Lukas and jockey Chris Antley joined the celebration. "Unbelievable! Unbelievable!" Lewis said. "To have this for the second time in our lives is just tremendous. You look back, and Beverly and I have had such unbelievably good fortune in this industry." And Charismatic wasn't even their best shot for the Derby. Seven weeks ago, the Lewis' Exploit was the early favorite. Trained by Bob Baffert, Exploit was injured in the San Felipe and the Lewis' other hope for the Derby was Charismatic, who was in a claiming race on Feb. 11. On that day, the son of Summer Squall was up for sale for $62,500. There were no takers. Charismatic won the claiming race via disqualification. Reminded of that February race, Bob Lewis joked, "You're talking about a long time ago!" "Isn't that incredible?" he said. "You can have a claimer today and all of a sudden have a champion tomorrow." Since February, Charismatic could do no better than second in his next three races. Two weeks ago, he won the Lexington at Keeneland -- his first victory since Nov. 21 and his first race outside California. On Saturday, Charismatic wore down the Lukas-trained Cat Thief in the stretch and held off fast-closing Menifee as Antley stuck his left index finger into the air yards before the finish line. The former claimer paid $64.60, the third-largest in Derby history behind only the $184.90 by Donerail in 1913 and the $72.40 for Gallahadion in 1940. Lukas called the Lewises "the first lady of racing and the first gentleman of thoroughbred racing." On Saturday, at least, that was one description that couldn't be rewritten.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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