4.30.2002	Photo By: Jeremy Lyverse
		Gary & Mary West's Buddha (above) was a bit tired after a lengthy van ride from New York to Louisville. The Wood Memorial winner arrived on the backside of Churchill Downs on the morning of April 30 and took up residence in Barn 48 on trainer Tony Reinstedler's shedrow.

Buddha Searching For Racing Nirvana In Louisville
May 1, 2002
By, William F. Reed

"Avoid what is evil; do what is good; purify the mind -- this is the teaching of the Awakened One (Buddah)." -- The Pali Canon (500-250 B.C.)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (May 1, 2002) - The subject of today's sermon, dear brethren, is religion and the Kentucky Derby (GI). It was prompted by the fact that Buddha, impressive winner against a strong field in the Wood Memorial (GI) on April 13, will be one of the favorites in Saturday's 128th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Let me assure you this will be an ecumenical sermon because your humble servant knows how touchy folks are about religion. There will be no tasteless jokes about Catholic priests, the Jews and the Arabs, or football players who point to heaven after making a big play.

As divine intervention would have it, Buddha will be ridden by Pat Day, the all-time Churchill Downs riding king. Day also is a born-again Christian who talks about his faith at every opportunity. So, as one press box soothsayer put it, "Who do you think Day will thank first if he wins the Derby? God, or Buddha?"

At least jockey Pat isn't a hypocrite, which is more than can be said for preacher Pat. When it was revealed recently that televangelist Pat Robertson has spent hundreds of thousands to buy some racehorses, the self-righteous one shifted quickly into spin control.

Robertson said gambling was sinful and should be avoided on moral grounds. He bought into the racing game, or so he claimed, just to enjoy the beauty of the horses and the majestic wonders of God's great outdoors. He may be able to sell that to his gulllible nationwide congregation, but racetrackers are too cynical to buy it.

Earth to Pat: By spending so much money on buying horses, you've already taken the biggest gamble of all. Everybody but Robertson seems to know that buying an untested horse is no different than playing the stock market, shooting craps, or mortgaging your house to invest in a get-rich-quick scheme.

All you can do in each case is pray.

Buddha, the colt, was bred in Kentucky by Farfellow Farms, Ltd. Wherever his name came from, it wasn't his breeding (by Unbridled's Song out of Cahooter). An agent for Gary West bought him for $250,000 at the 2000 Keeneland September sale, and West eventually turned him over to Bill Mott, the all-time Churchill training champ even though he has never won the Derby.

After Buddha was whipped badly in his only start as a 2-year-old, West took him and some other horses away from Mott and gave them to Bond, James Bond. Rather than fight the inevitable kidding about having the same name as Hollywood's favorite secret agent, Bond decided to go with the flow. He even put 007 on his saddle towels.

Under Bond, Buddha is 3-for-3 this season. Nevertheless, after riding him to a 9 1/2-length allowance victory on March 16 at Gulfstream Park, jockey Edgar Prado took off him to ride Harlan's Holiday for trainer Kenny McPeek.

So Bond then got Day, whose main Derby contenders seemed to be Request For Parole and Mr. Mellon. After riding the colt to his throbbing victory over Medaglia d'Oro and Sunday Break (Jpn) in the Wood, the born-again Christian committed to Buddha in the Derby.

For those non-Buddhists too narrowed-minded to respect any religion except their own, you may want to know that Guatama Buddha lived from 563 B.C. to 483 B.C. Born as Prince Siddhartha, he eventually became so concerned about the poor that he gave up his worldy goods and traveled India as a penniless wanderer.

After years of starving himself and indulging in self-mortification (sound familiar, bettors?), Siddharta, then 35, spent a night in deep reflection and came to believe that he was Buddha, the "enlightened one." He spent his remaining 45 years traveling throughout India and preaching his philosophy.

He developed a large following, known as "Buddhists," who spread his teachings long after his death. Eventually, Buddhism became one of the world's largest religions, with thousands of worshippers around the world.

The principal teachings of Buddha can be summarized in the "Four Noble Truths," which, come to think of it, could apply to horse racing.

First, human life is intrinsically unhappy.

Second, the cause of this unhappiness is human selfishness and desire.

Third, the causes can be ended by eliminating all desires and cravings in order to reach a state of mind known as "nirvana."

And, fourth, the method of escape is attained by following the "Eightfold Path," which is right views, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

In other words, Buddah was as dogmatic as Rush Limbaugh, except that Buddah was a devout pacifist and didn't have a radio show.

Unlike his namesake, Buddha, the colt, is a devout battler. He also is the latest link between religion and the Kentucky Derby. Interestingly, few horses with religious-oriented names have run in the Derby, perhaps because their breeders and owners know that anytime you bring religion into anything, somebody's going to take offense.

But, there have been some.

When the first Derby was held in 1875, a horse named Ascension descended to 10th; the 1881 Derby was won by Hindoo, which means a follower of Hinduism (Hindus was last in 1900); Isiah was 12th in 1933; Palestinian was third in 1949; Holy Land fell in 1970 and was humanely destroyed; Great Redeemer was last in 1979; Eternal Prince was last in 1985; Pulpit was third in 1997; and Songandaprayer was 13th last year.

Trainer Nick Zito repeatedly screamed for God to "show me the way" as Strike the Gold thundered home to win the 1991 Derby, and trainer Elliott Walden, second with Victory Gallop in 1998 and Menifee in '99, is a devout Christian who regularly attends prayer meetings on the backside of Churchill Downs. The late Laz Barrera, who won the Derby with Bold Forbes in 1976 and Affirmed in '78, was a practicing Catholic.

Jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr., who'll ride Medaglia d'Oro in this year's Derby, said this after winning the 1984 Derby with Swale: "Ordinarily I don't ask God for anything in racing, but this time I asked Him if he could give me a little push. I thanked God when I won."

One of the Derby's rituals is that the jockeys pray together before the race. On Saturday, in an odd twist, Pat Day may privately ask God to give Buddha a little push, a state of affairs that probably would puzzle Pat (I Don't Bet) Robertson.

That's the end of the sermon. May the gods of racing luck be smiling on you on Derby Day. And, by the way, if you want to bet Buddha in a religious exacta box, you might want to consider Essence of Dubai (a son of Pulpit) and Came Home, which is what every religious horseman wants to do when life's race is finally done.

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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