Here We Go Again With The Clyde Van Dusen Song And Dance
By: William F. Reed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Apr. 6, 2003) - Poor ol' Clyde Van Dusen, who has been dead since the Great Depression, may be the most exhumed Thoroughbred in history. Every time a gelding emerges as a serious challenger to win the Kentucky Derby, it's de rigeur for we ink-stained wretches to remind the world that -- let's say it all together now -- no gelding has won the roses since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929.

Last year it was Perfect Drift, who finished third to War Emblem, who caused Clyde to be dug up again. This year it's Buddy Gil, whose rousing victory in the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, Apr. 5, stamps him as horse to be reckoned with on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.

Unlike Clyde Van Dusen, Buddy Gil isn't named for his trainer, Jeff Mullins, who shouldn't be confused with the former great basketball player for Lexington, Ky.'s Lafayette High School, the Duke Blue Devils, and the NBA's Golden State Warriors.

(And speaking of that, can you imagine what a rush it must have been to have a horse named for you win the Derby? To put it in a modern context, can you hear Tom Durkin, the voice of the Triple Crown, shouting, "And here comes Bobby Frankel thundering down the stretch in the Derby!")

Buddy Gil is named after Tom Gilmer, a friend and classmate of Donnie McFadden, who bred the gelded son of Eastern Echo, out of the mare Really Rising, in Kentucky even though his Billingsley Creek Ranch is based in Idaho.

When the serious Kentucky Derby prep races began in February, you couldn't find Buddy Gil with a search warrant. Even his owners hadn't thought enough of him to nominate him to the Triple Crown races, despite the fact that he had won the Golden Bear Stakes last November for trainer Charles Jenda.

After he was moved into Mullins' barn, the trainer retained jockey Gary Stevens, who has won the Derby three times. His surprising victory in the Baldwin Stakes, a turf sprint in on Feb. 23, convinced Stevens that he would be a serious factor in the San Felipe on March 16.

Nobody paid much attention. After all, the gelding had won the Baldwin at odds of 26-1. Surely that had to be a fluke. So he was sent off at 9-1 in the San Felipe.

"I told anybody who would listen that this horse was going to win," Stevens said. "I was very, very confident about it."

In a thrilling stretch duel, Buddy Gil held of the late charge of Atswhatimtalknbout to win the San Felipe by a nose. Yet racetrack "experts" were more impressed with the runner-up's strong finish than they were with Buddy Gil's courageous win.

So in the Santa Anita Derby, Atswhatimtalkbout was sent off as the 3-2 favorite while Buddy Gil was a disrespected 6-1. Once again, the gritty gelding won a thriller, giving Stevens a record ninth victory in California's most prestigious Kentucky Derby prep.

But this time the runner-up, by a head, was Indian Express, who's trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by young Tyler Baze. Kafwain, who has been considered Baffert's top Derby prospect since the unfortunate defection of Vindication, finished third and Atswhatimtalknbout was -- ssssshhhh! -- a quiet fourth.

In the day's other major Derby prep, Ten Most Wanted became one of Ten Most Likely by surging from off the pace to win the $500,000 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Park in Chicago.

In a performance that vindicated jockey Pat Day's decision to bypass Saturday's star-studded card at Keeneland, Ten Most Wanted got off to a slow start, was shuffled back near the end of the back, encountered traffic problems at the top of the stretch, split horses, and drew off to a three-length victory over Fund Of Funds.

In his previous start, Ten Most Wanted was third to Ocean Terrace in the El Camino Real Derby on Mar. 8, losing by a length and a half. That was his first start in a graded stakes and only the fourth start of his career.

But while the front-running Ocean Terrace faded in the stretch of the Santa Anita Derby, Ten Most Wanted showed such improvement in the Illinois Derby that he could become the Derby mount for Day, the winningest rider in Churchill Downs history.

Trained by the capable Wally Dollase and owned by a partnership of James Chisholm, Michael Jarvis, and Horizon Stable, Ten Most Wanted might be a good Derby exacta with Buddy Gil, who runs in the name of Desperado Stables (McFadden, Charlie Johnson, Rogers Seversen and Tom Schriber).

Get it? Ten Most Wanted and Desperado Stables? You could call it the Al Capone exacta. Or maybe the J. Edgar Hoover exacta. Interestingly, both the former crime boss in Chicago -- the perfect place for Ten Most Wanted to win -- and the late FBI chief both loved to attend the races.

It's even possible that both bet on Clyde Van Dusen in 1929.

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.

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