Kentucky Derby Memories From Someone Who Has Been To 54 Of Them
Jerry Izenberg’s first Kentucky Derby was 1963. He has covered 54 in total and would have been heading to his 55th as columnist emeritus for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey had the coronavirus pandemic not forced Churchill Downs to postpone racing’s showcase event from the first Saturday in May until Sept. 5.
To put in perspective Izenberg’s attendance the first Saturday in May: he has covered more than one-third of the Kentucky Derbys that have been run.
With a huge void on the thoroughbred calendar on Saturday – split divisions of the Arkansas Derby can’t begin to make up for the absence of the Kentucky Derby – we asked Izenberg to share some a few of favorite memories from the Run for the Roses.
Those memories don’t necessarily involve the winners. They often involve stories and the characters that make up the Kentucky Derby landscape each year.
Here are some of those, in no particular order:
Secretariat, 1973 (still the best thoroughbred Izenberg has ever seen, he says.): “What made the Secretariat Kentucky Derby so dramatic was that in his previous race, the Wood Memorial, he had an infected tooth (and finished third). Trainer Lucien Laurin never told owner Penny Chenery. Lucien knew about it because Charlie Davis, Secretariat’s exercise rider, had told him there was something that was not right with the horse. Lucien shrugged it off and told him not to worry about it and kept it from Penny. But he knew. So there was some uncertainty about Secretariat going into the Kentucky Derby. Then he set the track record and you knew you were watching a Triple Crown winner. If you have any doubt about how good he was, ask me that question before the next Belmont Stakes.”
Canonero II, 1971: “Canonero was a horse born with a noticeably crooked foreleg, which is probably the reason he sold for just $1,200 as a yearling. He gets bought by a guy who made toilet seats in Venezuela. That’s where they raced him as a 2-year-old. Juan Arias, the trainer, was a very sensitive guy. I got to know him very well. He wrote poetry. He was everything you would think a thoroughbred trainer wouldn’t be. The horse didn’t do much in Venezuela, but because of his breeding they wanted to try the Kentucky Derby and actually use it as a prep for the longer races in Venezuela that year. On the first flight taking the horse to the United States, one engine goes out and they have to return to Venezuela. The horse is never unloaded and they leave him standing there for hours in the 100-degree heat. Then he makes it to Miami and is in quarantine. Arias wanted to fly the horse to Louisville from Miami but the owner told him they’d already spent enough money on the horse, that he had to van to Louisville. Everyone was laughing at the horse and his connections. Then he ran just an unbelievable race, coming from 18th and about 12 street cars wide in Cincinnati to win.”
Lucky Debonair, 1965: “Jack Murphy was my best friend on the road. He worked in San Diego and I was from New Jersey but every time there was a national event we would get together. We’re in the press box and a fire breaks out in the luxury boxes. You can see the flames from the press box. Murphy is getting nervous. He says `if they can’t put it out, you know there’s a small roof between us and the ground. Maybe we can hit the roof and be all right.’ Now there are firemen in the press box assuring everybody not to worry because `we have sprinklers.’ One of them reaches up to test the sprinkler and sand falls out. So I turn to Jack and I say `can we hold hands when we jump?’ ”
Ferdinand, 1986: “I remember trainer Charlie Whittingham, who had started horses in the Kentucky Derby twice before this and was way back both times, saying he would not come back unless he thought he had a chance to win. It was 26 years since he last started a horse in the Derby. He also had Bill Shoemaker. So you look back and think: how could a horse trained by Whittingham and ridden by Shoemaker win at 17-1? Shoemaker was 54 at the time and became the oldest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby and it was as good a ride as you will see. I think it’s one of the best rides I had seen from Shoemaker. It was some vindication for him because in 1957 he lost the Derby with Gallant Man when he misjudged the finish line and stood up too early.”
Charismatic, 1999: “We had gotten to know jockey Chris Antley when he was the leading rider at Monmouth Park from 1984-86. Everyone could see how talented he was. Then he decided to go to New York and discovered you can fly without having a horse. He had his demons. He was in a substance abuse clinic in the 1990s and then actually retired. He is out in California and decides he wants to ride again. He loses weight, gets in shape, but nobody will ride him. D. Wayne Lukas told him he could work horses for him in the morning. But that’s all he would promise. Then Lukas gets this claimer that no one wants to ride in the 3-year-old races. So he lets Antley ride Charismatic. He stuns everyone in the Derby at 31-1, wins the Preakness and then he felt something happen to Charismatic in the stretch of the Belmont Stakes. He pulled up the horse, jumped off and held his fractured leg up until help arrived. It saved the horse’s life and was the reason he was able to stand stud. Later Antley told me `People told me I saved his life. I had no choice because he saved my life.’ ”
Extra Swell, 1964: “Merlin Volzke wound up riding Extra Swell because owner Earle Davis couldn’t find anyone else. Volzke mostly rode at lower tracks on the West Coast. It was his one and only Kentucky Derby ride. When I saw him in the jockey’s room I asked him about riding in the Derby with all of these prominent jockeys. He said `I am honored to be here, honored that I can ride against Mr. Hartack, Mr. Ycaza and Mr. Shoemaker. This will be the highlight of my riding career.’ After the race, after finishing next to last at 152-1, I asked him about the experience. He said “those SOBs, all I heard was `get out of the way, get out of the way.’ ” He had a mark on his silks from where they pushed him into the rail. He said: `those guys, can you imagine what they would have done to me if I had a horse that could run?’ ”
Mine That Bird, 2009: “It’s still hard to believe this horse won the Kentucky Derby. He was a gelding, he finished fourth in the Sunland Derby in his previous start and his trainer, Chip Woolley, hitched a horse trailer to his pickup truck and drove him from New Mexico to Louisville. Woolley was in a cast because he had a broken foot. He gets a police escort to the track the morning of the race and he later said `this is the first time I’ve ridden in a police car. Usually the police car is chasing me.’ Then it was just a great ride by Calvin Borel. You were reminded why he was called Calvin Bo-rail. The horse was so far back early no one even realized he was still in the race. Then he comes up along the rail and wins at 50-1.”
American Pharoah, 2015: “We got a little spoiled in the 1970s with three Triple Crown winners. But it was 25 years between Citation in 1948 and Secretariat in 1973, and you started to wonder if there would be another one after Affirmed in 1978. There was a lot of talk about changing the format of the Triple Crown, spacing the races differently or changing the distances. People were saying it was too hard. I remember talking to trainer Nick Zito about it. He said `I became a trainer because I wasn’t smart enough to be a bartender. But I am smart enough to know that it’s the Triple Crown. It’s supposed to be hard.’ He was the one who got me thinking I would not see another one. Then American Pharoah came along. Now I’ve covered five Triple Crown winners, which is really remarkable when you think about it.”