Sometimes It's Better To Be Lucky Than Good In The Derby
By: William F. Reed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Jan. 22, 2003) - The 100th Kentucky Derby on May 4, 1974, was so big, in every respect, that it strained Churchill Downs to the breaking point. The crowd of 163,628 was a record, as was the field of 23 horses. The celebrity list was headed by Princess Margaret of Great Britain and comedian Bob Hope.

Unsurprisingly, the race resembled rush hour on the Watterson Expressway. Flip Sal was lame after a half-mile and had to be pulled up. The jockeys searched in vain for a bit of daylight here, a small hole there.

Nobody was more frustrated than Bobby Ussery, who was riding Little Current for Darby Dan Farm and trainer Lou Rondinello.

Little Current, who was 32 on Sunday, Jan. 19, when he was euthanized due to a case of colic, was the best horse in the race, as he later proved by coming from behind to win the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes by seven lengths each.

But in the Derby, as jockey Angel Cordero, Jr., guided Cannonade through the snarl with the panache of a New York cab driver, Ussery couldn't find running room until it was too late.

Only 17th after a half-mile, Little Current surged to seventh at the top of the stretch and was in high gear. Unfortunately for him, however, Cordero and Cannonade were long gone. They crossed the finish line 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Hudson County. Little Current was a respectable fifth, beaten a little more than six lengths, at odds of 22-1.

A similar fate belonged to Judger, who ran as an entry with Cannonade because both were trained by Woody Stephens, who conditioned Cannonade for John M. Olin and Judger for Seth Hancock's Cherry Valley Farm. On the basis of his victory in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, Judger was made the lukewarm Derby favorite.

However, jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr. experienced the same fate as Ussery and could do no better than eighth. Said Stephens, "I could see at the half-mile pole that Judger wasn't going to get up. He wasn't throwing in a big run. But Cannonade was really rolling at that time."

Yet the 100th Derby will be remembered as much for Little Current's defeat as for Cannonade's victory.

Ussery had won the 1967 Derby for Darby Dan aboard Proud Clarion, a 30-1 longshot. The farm was owned by John W. Galbreath, the industrialist from Columbus, Ohio, who also owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. At the time of the '74 Derby, Galbreath also was the chairman of the board at Churchill Downs.

A son of Sea Bird, out of the mare Luiana, Little Current came into the Derby with a rather unprepossessing record. He was ridden by Cordero in all of his four starts as a 2-year-old and his first five starts as a 3-year-old.

But since Cordero had been able to coax only two wins out of him, Rondinello replaced him with Miguel A. Rivera for the Blue Grass, where he finished fourth to Judger. That led Rondinello to replace Rivera for the Derby with Ussery, who rode the colt only that one time. Rondinello brought back Rivera for both the Preakness and the Belmont.

Although Little Current never won again after the Belmont, his two smashing wins in the Triple Crown were enough to win him 3-year-old colt championship honors in what turned out to be a so-so year.

A part of it, surely, was that the Eclipse Award voters assumed that, with all due respect to Cannonade, Little Current was really the best horse in the '74 Derby.

After the dust from the Triple Crown had settled, the Churchill Downs board of directors amended the Derby's conditions to say that if more than 20 horses were entered, the field would be limited to 20, based on earnings in graded stakes races.

While that drew some initial criticism from those who felt the Derby should be open to anybody who wants to run, the "Little Current rule" has stood the test of time rather well. No good horse who was fit and able to run in the Derby has ever been excluded from the field.

From 1975 through 1989, Little Current lived at Darby Dan's Lexington, Ky., operation, where he didn't distinguish himself as a breeding stallion.

In 1996, he was purchased by veterinarians Ann and Mark Hansen of Monroe, Wash., which is where he died.

The death of Little Current leaves Spectacular Bid, winner of the 1979 Derby and Preakness, as the oldest living winner of a Triple Crown race.

Native Kentuckian William F. Reed has been a sports writer in various capacities for 43 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 and covered Kentucky Derby 128 for kentuckyderby.com. He will be filing frequent installments for CDSN's (Churchill Downs Simulcasting Network) websites throughout 2003.

« Back To Billy Reed's Derby News
« Back To Derby News