KENTUCKY DERBY MOMENTS POSSESS STAYING POWER

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – Memories of the most exciting two minutes in sports (the Kentucky Derby, not an NFL replay review) remind some veteran racing fans that the more they learn about the sport, the less they know.

Watching Seattle Slew from the Churchill Downs infield in 1977 was an unforgettable thrill. So was spending the night before the race playing Derby trivia with a bunch of other college students outside the gates. Going back the following year and seeing an 18-year-old kid, Steve Cauthen, win on Affirmed, you knew anything was possible – not only in racing, but life.

Imagine being so small at birth (less than 2 pounds) that your grandmother put you in a shoebox, turned on the oven and placed the box on the open oven door on the off-chance it might get you through the night. Imagine that same person, 55 years later, getting shuffled back to last place at the break but staying patient, weaving his way through the field and exploding down the lane to win his fourth Kentucky Derby.

Call up Ferdinand and Bill Shoemaker on YouTube in that 1986 Derby, if you’re still capable of being inspired by a horse race.

Bob Baffert had won his first Derby the previous year with Silver Charm when he shushed a national TV audience in 1998 on the walk to the paddock with Real Quiet. Suddenly, it all made perfect sense; too bad the bets were already in and back then, there was no way to change tickets.

At the risk of causing many eyes to glaze over, covering the 1999 Derby for the Tampa Tribune was an assignment from heaven. Next to Joe Durso, no less, the New York Times legend who absolutely loved the Tampa Bay Derby runner-up and Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner, Menifee.

Running into Bob and Beverly Lewis on the backstretch two days before the race was a magical moment. Nice people, total class. They had won the race two years earlier with Silver Charm, and were back for a ceremonial appearance with outrageous long-shot Charismatic.

So friendly, so gracious, even gifting a souvenir Charismatic button to the writer who had stopped them just to be able tell friends back home he’d met the owners of Silver Charm. But what were they doing here with this horse?

An exacta wheel on the Derby runner-up, Menifee, would have been awesome. Ditto for a win bet on Charismatic, who amazed everyone under star-crossed jockey Chris Antley and paid $64.60 to win.

Still got the button, in a drawer of a bureau, and the memories of a kindly couple who turned five minutes into a friendship.

The money?

Ehh, money comes, money goes.

But we keep coming back.

Around the oval. Samy Camacho will enter Sunday’s action with a 98-96 lead from Antonio Gallardo in the jockey standings after riding two winners today. Camacho won the fifth race on the turf with R Boy Bode, a 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Averill Racing, Silver Oak Stable and CCF Racing Stable and trained by Georgina Baxter. R Boy Bode was claimed from the race for $10,000 by new owner-trainer John Pimental

Camacho added the sixth race with Pudding, a 6-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Josie Gump and trained by Kathleen O’Connell.

Alonso Quinonez swept today’s early daily double. He rode 5-year-old horse Internet of Things to victory in the first race for owner-trainer M. Anthony Ferraro, the 900th career triumph for the jockey. Quinonez added the second race aboard Aksarben Summer, a 4-year-old filly owned by Peter Mattson and trained by Tim Padilla.

Daniel Centeno also rode two winners, both on the turf. Centeno won the seventh race on Vigo, a 3-year-old gelding owned by Manuel Azpurua and trained by Eduardo Azpurua, Jr. Centeno added the 10th and final race with Drillomatic, a 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Reitman Stables and trained by Darien Rodriguez.

Thoroughbred racing continues Sunday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:17 p.m. The 2020-2021 season concludes with the “Fan Appreciation Day” card on Sunday, May 2. There will be free Grandstand admission and parking, and beers, sodas and Nathan’s Hot Dogs will be sold at discounted prices.

The May 2 card will also bring an end to the career of track announcer Richard Grunder after 37 years at the Tampa Bay Downs microphone.

The meeting proper ends Wednesday, June 30, which is also the first day of the ninth annual, two-day Summer Festival of Racing. The July 1 Summer Festival card is officially the first day of the 2021-2022 meeting, which is expected to then resume in late November.

Tampa Bay Downs is open every day for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.

Kentucky Derby Day tickets dwindling. A limited number of general-admission and box-seat tickets are still available for the Saturday, May 1 card at Tampa Bay Downs featuring the simulcast of the 147th Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve from Churchill Downs.

The Oldsmar program begins with a noon post time for the first of 12 local races. Expected post time for the Kentucky Derby is 6:57 p.m.

Four horses that competed at Tampa Bay Downs this season are expected to be part of a 20-horse field. The Oldsmar quartet includes the top two finishers in the Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on March 6, Helium and Hidden Stash; Known Agenda, who finished fifth in the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes on Feb. 6; and Florida-bred Soup and Sandwich, who won an allowance/optional claiming contest here on Feb. 24.

General-admission tickets in the Grandstand are $10 each, with seating on a first-come, first-serve basis. A front-row box seat for six people in the Grandstand is $350, with other boxes available for $250. Picnic Area tables and individual Picnic Area tickets are sold out.

To purchase tickets online, visit www.tampabaydowns.com on the Internet. Call (813) 855-4401 for additional details.

Cover Photo Provided by Wikipedia