History Laden Derby Trial Has Been Transformed Into A Preakness Prep
April 26, 2002
By, William F. Reed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 26, 2002) - The Derby Trial (GII), the feature race on Saturday's 128th opening-day card at Churchill Downs, used to be a popular final tuneup for Kentucky Derby (GI) contenders. Today, it's as useful as as a broken stopwatch, at least as far as the Derby is concerned, but it has evolved into what might be called the "Preakness Trial".

Since 1958, when Calumet Farm's Tim Tam became the last horse to win both the Trial and the Derby, the gradual trend in training has been toward giving Derby contenders fewer prep races and more time between them. At Keeneland, for example, the Blue Grass Stakes (GI) was moved from nine days before the Derby to three weeks before.

The trend has virtually killed the Trial as a meaningful Derby prep. Even the 1982 decision to move it from the Tuesday before the Derby to the Saturday before didn't help. Modern trainers are simply horrified by the idea of giving a horse only a week's rest before the Derby.

However, the three weeks between the one-mile Trial and the 1 3/16ths-mile Preakness in Baltimore is perfect. In recent years, the Trial has sent the Preakness such horses as Key to the Mint (1972), No More Flowers ('87), Houston ('89), Honor Grades ('91), Alydeed ('92), Cherokee Run ('93), Numerous ('94), Our Gatsby ('95), Black Cash ('98), and Patience Game ('99).

Although none of those Trial horses won the Preakness, Alydeed and Cherokee Run finished second at Pimlio. And two of trainer Woody Stephens' Trial winners (Caveat in 1983 and Creme Fraiche in '85) went on to win the Belmont Stakes (GI).

Sandwiched between those two in 1984 was Devil's Bag, another Stephens-trained colt who began the year as the early Derby favorite. But when Devil's Bag failed to regain the brilliant form he had demonstrated while going unbeaten as a two-year-old, Stevens decided to run him in the Trial and stablemate Swale in the Derby.

Only days after winning the Trial, Devil's Bag was retired because of a chipped bone in his left knee, but then Swale won the Derby, giving Claiborne Farm and jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr. their first (and still only) Derby wins. Sadly, Swale died of an apparent heart attack only days after winning the Belmont.

During the heyday of Calumet Farm, trainers B.A. Jones and his son, Jimmy, loved to use the Trial as their final Derby prep. Of the five horses that have won both the Trial and the Derby, three were from Calumet - Citation in 1948, Hill Gail in '52, and Tim Tam in '58. (The others were Black Gold In 1924 and Dark Star in '53).

In addition, Calumet had three interesting horses that finished second in the Trial. In 1941, Whirlaway finished second to Blue Pair in the Trial, but then roared back to win the Triple Crown. In 1949, Ponder was second to Olympia in the Trial, but came back five days later to take the Derby by three lengths over Capot.

And then there was the ill-fated Gen. Duke in 1957. He came to Churchill Downs touted as a potential superstar, but finished second to Federal Hill in the Trial. Then, the morning of the Derby, Gen. Duke was scratched because of a foot injury suffered in the Trial.

That left Iron Leige to carry Calumet's famed devil's red-and-blue silks in one of the most talented Derby fields ever. He won, paying $18.80 for a $2 win bet, but only because jockey Bill Shoemaker, riding apparent winner Gallant Man, apparently misjudged the finish line and stood up in the irons briefly at the sixteenth-pole. That's still regarded as one of the worst gaffes in Derby history.

In 1967, Barb's Delight became the last Trial horse to have a significant impact on the Derby, finishing second by a length to longshot Proud Clarion. But Barb's Delight, ridden by Bill Hartack, isn't remembered as much for his fine Derby performance as for what happened as he won the Derby Trial five days earlier.

That was a restless spring in Louisville because of an ugly debate over open-housing laws. The black community argued that anybody, of any color, should be allowed to buy a house anywhere in Jefferson County. But other interests wanted to keep certain neighborhoods lily-white.

The black protestors were led by the Rev. A.D. Williams King, a brother of Dr. Martin Luther King, the national leader of the civil-rights movement. A couple of times that spring, Dr. King came to Louisville to support his brother and participate in protest marches. The group even threatened to disrupt the Kentucky Derby unless city officials gave them what they wanted. Their battle cry was, "No housing, no Derby.

On Trial Day, as the field pounded down the backstretch, five black youths jumped over the infield rail and onto the track, directly in the horses' path. But as Barb's Delight led the field into the turn for home, the youngsters jumped back into the infield and out of harm's way. Nobody was hurt, but the track had been given a scary wakeup call about what might happen five days later.

On Saturday, six hours before the Derby, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. announced at the Church of Our Merciful Savior that plans to disrupt the Derby had been canceled. Instead, a demonstration was held in downtown Louisville. Nevertheless, track officials, who had received bomb threats, beefed up Derby security to an all-time high of around 2,500 police, private officers, and National Guardsmen.

The threat of violence was one reason the Derby crowd dropped to 80,031, the lowest in five years at the time. But the weather probably had more to do with it than anything. The day was gloomy and rainy, the track a quagmire. Nevertheless, the conditions didn't bother Barb's Delight, who looked as if he may be a wire-to-wire winner until Proud Clarion passed him deep in the stretch.

The last horse to win the Saturday before the Derby and then win the roses was Cannonade in 1974. But the race he won was the now-defunct Steppingstone, not the Derby Trial.

Those days are gone, probably never to return. But the Derby Trial will continue to be a viable prep for the Preakness. On Saturday, for example, a strong effort by Mayakovsky in the Trial could earn him a ticket to Baltimore.

"We'll go slowly, see how he runs in the Derby Trial, and after that we'll decide what we're going to do," said trainer Patrick Biancone. "Everything is an option. We just need to keep him in good health and sound."

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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