Life Is The Most Precious Gift, Winning Races Is Icing On The McPeek's Cake
May 1, 2002

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (May 1, 2002) - As the hours between now and the 128th Kentucky Derby (GI) dwindle to a precious few, Sue McPeek is smiling and savoring every moment. Here she is now, feeding one of her husband's horses at Barn 10 on the Churchill Downs backstretch. And there she is moments later, playing with daughter Jenna, who she calls "The Princess."

But mostly she tries to be a soothing influence for husband Kenny, who trains Harlan's Holiday, the lukewarm Derby favorite at morning-line odds of 9-2. The McPeeks and jockey Edgar Prado used the seventh selection in the draw to pick the No. 14 post position in the 20-horse field.

"It was mostly Edgar's decision," McPeek said. "We wanted to be wherever he felt the most comfortable."

Comfortable is something McPeek hasn't been since breaking a bone in his right foot during a pickup basketball game at the Owl Creek Lodge in eastern Jefferson County. Since then, he's been hobbling around on crutches when he can't use the golf cart provided by Churchill Downs.

For awhile, Sue worried about how Kenny would fare in the Derby Day mob. But now it has pretty much been worked out to the McPeeks' satisfaction.

They'll ride the golf cart from the barn area through the infield tunnel to the paddock. Then track superintendent Butch Lehr arranged for them to watch the race from a special spot near the finish line.

That leaves Sue to worry mostly about Jenna, the light of their lives. Whenever McPeek is asked about the pressure of training the Derby favorite, he smiles and says, "Pressure is when you have 15 horses at Turfway Park in the middle of the winter, and you're broke because the horses won't run and the owner won't pay."

But something else, something traumatic and evil, has enabled them to cope easily with the Derby pressure. A year and a half ago, when Sue was pregnant with Jenna, a rare cancer was discovered in the roof of her mouth. Under those conditions, you learn much about yourself and about perspective.

"I really want to win the Kentucky Derby," McPeek says, "but it's still just a horse race. There are more important things in life. Believe me, I know."

"I couldn't be happier at this point in my life," said Sue in the diary she is doing with Jennie Rees of the Courier-Journal. "I couldn't feel stronger about who I am or what I have. Whether these horses win or lose, it's like the icing on the cake."

Kenny has been interested in racing almost as long as he can remember, due to his father, Ron, who owned a few horses. At Tates Creek High in Lexington, Kenny spent almost as much time reading The Blood-Horse and the Throughbred Times as he did playing football for coach Roy Walton.

He then attended the University of Kentucky an earned business degree. However, when he went to New York, it wasn't to find a job on Wall Street, but to work for trainer "Shug" McGaughey, another Lexington native who has Saarland in Saturday's Derby. He took out his own training license in 1985. At that point, there was no turning back.

When he met Sue, she also had a racing background. At one time or another, she had worked as a groom, a shedrow foreman, a handler at the sales, and an equine photographer. Now she's "Kenny's relief valve," and an advisor whose opinion McPeek values.

They were delighted when Sue, now 42, became pregnant with their first child. But 26 weeks into the pregnacy, she learned that a bump on the roof of her mouth was a rare form of cancer. Their daughter was delivered six weeks early by Caesarian section so Sue could undergo surgery and begin aggressive chemotherapy treatment.

Between Jenna's birth and Sue's 3 1/2-hour operation, Kenny won the Alcibiades Stakes (GII) at Keeneland with She's A Devil Due. With three outstanding two-year-olds in his barn - the colts Harlan's Holiday and Repent, along with the filly Take Charge Lady - the McPeeks were finally realizing the potential that Kenny showed when he finished second in the 1995 Derby with Tejano Run.

But Sue didn't like to think about the future because she wasn't sure she would be around to be a part of it.

"The focus of my life," she told the Courier-Journal's Rees, "was that 'I'm not gonna be here a year from now.' That was the way I felt at the beginning of my treatment. When I was diagnosed, then you start really appreciating things in life, and there's a clarity in the day-to-day joys."

Happily, however, Sue's treatment was successful. The McPeeks will never get a bigger victory, even if Harlan's Holiday wins the Kentucky Derby. Every day, they count their blessings, beginning with Jenna. Even an injury to the talented Repent, knocking him out of the Derby, couldn't dim Kenny's positive outlook.

Now McPeek has a shot to be the first trainer to win the Kentucky Oaks (GI) and Derby in the same year since Calumet Farm's Ben Jones did it in 1952 with Real Delight in the Oaks and Hill Gail in the Derby. Take Charge Lady, winner of the Ashland Stakes (GI) at Keeneland, will be one of the favorites in the Oaks.

Although Repent will miss the Triple Crown races, and although Kenny's broken foot may eventually require surgery, the McPeeks have enjoyed a wonderful spring with their daughter and their horses.

Harlan's Holiday, considered as no more than McPeek's "other horse" at the start of the year, moved to the top of the contenders' list with dominating victories in the Florida Derby (GI) at Gulfstream Park and the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (GI) at Keeneland.

Every step of the way, Sue and Jenna have been at Kenny's side.

Like most moms, Sue loves to tell stories about the baby's activities. But if she relishes them more than most moms, it's because of the cancer. Sometimes it seems like a bad dream to her and she has trouble sleeping. But there's also something positive to occupy her mind, such as looking forward to a long life with Kenny and Jenna.

In what be the most poignant pre-Derby quote of all, Sue said, "I no longer think about death as much as I did when I was first diagnosed." Instead, she's squeezing every last bit of excitement out of every Derby experience, and hoping for the best on what could be the best first Saturday in May of her fragile life.

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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