Do you think Street Sense will win the Triple Crown?
LOUISVILLE - Carl Nafzger had his favorite quotes at the tip of his Texas-twanged tongue, and one was in heavy rotation yesterday.
"You know what I don't like about the Derby press?
" he asked, pausing like Jerry Seinfeld before a punch line. "If they don't show up Sunday morning." If reporters avert their eyes and sidle past your barn the morning after the Kentucky Derby, it means the horse you spent months nurturing for those two glorious minutes in the sun had as much success as Paris Hilton at a court appearance.
But if things go your way, you set out doughnuts and coffee on a table and wait for company to come calling. Street Sense, in whom Nafzger had been expressing supreme confidence even before his devastating 10-length win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November, rallied from next-to-last in the 20-horse field on Saturday to give Nafzger his second Derby victory and jockey Calvin Borel his first. Nafzger, who won the 1990 Derby with Unbridled, is familiar with the next chapter in this book (he's already written one - "Traits of a Winner," which he mentioned many times).
As the trainer of the Derby winner, the dew is still damp on the blanket of roses as questions abound about the run at the Triple Crown, which no horse has won since 1978. "This horse is going to take me to the Preakness or not," Nafzger said after Street Sense had a mile jog on the Churchill track early yesterday. "This morning, it looks like we're on the way.
" The second jewel of the Triple Crown will be run on May 19 at Pimlico, at a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the mile-and-a-quarter Derby. In 1990, Unbridled finished second in the Preakness, beaten by two lengths by Summer Squall. That fact should be encouraging to Larry Jones, the trainer of the pace-setting Hard Spun, who finished second to Street Sense by 2-1/4 lengths Saturday, although Jones said it's just fine by him if he doesn't get a rematch.
"If Carl doesn't want to come to the Preakness, that's okay with me," Jones joked. "I'm not going to give him a map and tell him how to get there, I'll tell you that. It looks like we're headed that way.
" Jones is hoping the home-field advantage will hold for him and mid-Atlantic based jockey Mario Pino as Churchill Downs did for locals Nafzger and Borel. "This is Calvin Borel's track ..
. but we're going to Pino country," said Jones, who is based at Delaware Park but ships frequently to Pimlico. Pino is Maryland's all-time leader in victories (ahead of such names as Edgar Prado and Kent Desormeaux).
"If I have my say about it, there won't be a Triple Crown winner this year, either." The new Preakness-bound shooters include Santa Anita Derby runnerup King of the Roxy, Lexington winner Slew's Tizzy, Tesio winner Xchanger, one of two Wayne Lukas trainees (Lexington winner Starbase or Derby Trial winner Flying First Class), and Chelokee, third in the Florida Derby. Chelokee is trained by Michael Matz, who won last year's Derby with Barbaro, only to watch his Triple Crown hopes end when Barbaro shattered his right hind leg only a few jumps out of the gate in the Preakness.
Street Sense and Hard Spun are the only confirmed Preakness starters to come out of the Derby. Curlin (third), Sedgefield (fifth) and Teuflesberg (17th) are possibles.
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