JC / Railbird

Kentucky Derby

Listmaking

My Kentucky Derby top 10 this week (as included in the Paulick Derby Index):

1. Old Fashioned
2. Desert Party
3. Friesan Fire
4. Capt. Candyman Can
5. Pioneerof the Nile
6. Imperial Council
7. Flying Pegasus
8. Dunkirk
9. Regal Ransom
10. Papa Clem

Also watching: Rachel Alexandra, Stardom Bound, Hello Broadway, The Pamplemousse, Break Water Edison.

Posted in Racing on February 24, 2009 / Tagged Kentucky Derby, Paulick Derby Index / 5 comments

Genuine Risk, 1977-2008

Only two days after Proud Spell very likely clinched this year’s filly championship comes the news that Genuine Risk, the champion filly of 1980, died in her Virginia paddock this morning. Genuine Risk won 10 of her 15 career starts, including the Demoiselle and Ruffian Handicap, and never finished worse than third (PDF), but what earned the chestnut mare with the distinctive blaze her fame was being the second filly to win the Kentucky Derby:

She remains the only filly to have finished in the money in every Triple Crown race, placing four lengths behind Codex in the Preakness after the colt drifted into her path in the stretch and carried her wide (a controversial finish some horseplayers are surely still nursing grudges over) and losing by a nose to 53-1 Temperence Hill in the Belmont. As usual, the Sports Illustrated Vault is a trove of good stories, including William Nack’s recounting of the Firestones’ delirious rush to the Derby winner’s circle and the “talk show” that followed the stewards’ decision to let stand the Preakness order of finish. William Leggett was on scene for the Belmont, an upset so shocking it hushed the crowd.
Genuine Risk was retired from racing in 1981 with an injury; she was not a successful broodmare (PDF), although she was, as Maryjean Wall recalls, “a very loving mom.” Of her two living foals, Genuine Reward made it into training with Bill Mott, but both were unraced, and she was pensioned in 2000, kept in comfortable retirement by her doting owners.

Posted in Racing on August 18, 2008 / Tagged Genuine Risk, Kentucky Derby, Racing History / 2 comments

Tuesday Afternoon Notes

– Although several of my conversations since Saturday have been about the Kentucky Derby, impressive Big Brown and his connections, Eight Belles and her sad end, I’ve barely posted anything in this space. I tend to shut up when everyone else is shouting, which I suppose makes me a lousy blogger, but it seems so unnecessary to jump in when so many other sensible people are making the same points I would: Gender had nothing to do with Eight Belles’ breakdown, jockey Gabriel Saez is not to blame (regardless of what uninformed spokespeople for fringe groups say), racing is not in itself brutal or cruel but reforms across the board are needed to improve safety and the breed. As an industry, it’s time to take stock and figure out how to protect horses, whether they’re running in claiming races or the Kentucky Derby. Now, where’s the racing commissioner who’s going to make all this happen? Even Eight Belles’ owner Rick Porter is calling for one in the wake of the Derby.
– King Kaufman’s account of watching the Derby with his young daughter made me a little misty:

– If there’s a silver lining in Saturday’s tragic events for anyone, it’s trainer Rick Dutrow, whose colorful character and checkered past aren’t getting as much attention as they might have. At Woodbine, though, where Dutrow won the Queen’s Plate with Wild Desert after prepping the horse in secret, people haven’t forgotten his record.
– From claiming races to the Derby in five years. Easy.
– “The inmates officially are running the asylum.”
– Big Brown has been insured for $50 million.

Posted in Racing on May 6, 2008 / Tagged Kentucky Derby / 3 comments