Louisville, Ky. Tim Wilkin Albany, N.Y. Times
Union
All week long, Shug McGaughey, the quiet horse
trainer, sounded bold. He told anyone who came by his barn on the Churchill
Downs backstretch that he was more excited for the 139th Kentucky Derby than he
had been for a race in a long, long, time.
That's because he had a 3-year-old colt named
Orb in his barn.
Orb made sure his trainer didn't sound like a
fool as he gobbled up the sloppy track at Churchill Downs and turned America's
most famous horse race into a mini-rout. Orb and jockey Joel Rosario won the 11/4-mile
race by 21/2 lengths in front of 151,616, the ninth-largest crowd in
Derby history.
In the process, Orb stamped himself as the
top 3-year-old in the country and he'll take his five-race winning streak to
Baltimore in two weeks for stop No. 2 in the elusive Triple Crown.
"I
said to myself that I was going to go over there and have fun," McGaughey
said. "I did think I had the right horse. When they swung the latch, I
thought to myself, 'Just enjoy the race.' If it works, it works. If it doesn't,
it doesn't." (Wise words for all
trainers, coaches and parents)
Orb rallied
through the stretch, passing Normandy Invasion inside the eighth pole and then
holding off the late charge of 34-1 shot Golden Soul, who rallied in the
stretch to get second, a length ahead of Revolutionary. The final time was
2:02.89.
This field was considered one of the more
wide open in recent years and, besides the Pletcher five, featured Santa Anita
Derby winner Goldencents, who was the 7-1 third choice. He was ridden by Kevin Krigger, who was
attempting to become the first African-American jockey to win the race
since 1902.
Goldencents was never a factor and
finished 17th.
"I thought the winner ran an
unbelievable race," Doug O'Neill, Goldencents'
trainer, said. "I'm just still trying to figure out what happened to our
colt. It's hard to believe it could have been the track. He just didn't fire.
It's part of the game. They aren't machines. Sometimes, like humans, they just
aren't hitting their jump shots. It's not their day, and
things happen." (Hmmm…more wise words)
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