Hendricks Looks to Preakness

In the paddock before the race, trainer Dan Hendricks’ three sons stood close to him.

Matt and Greg, the two youngest, kept fidgeting, leaning close and tucking their hands into the back of their father’s wheelchair. Chris, 15, the oldest, had the video camera going, recording the scene.

Hendricks is as able to train horses as he was before the 2004 motocross accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, but he could not saddle Brother Derek -- assistant trainer Francisco Alvarado handled that -- and he could not manage the crowds to watch his horse run in the Kentucky Derby with his own eyes.

Instead, he exchanged his heavy-duty motorized wheelchair complete with miniature tractor tires for a simple, self-powered one, and met Brother Derek in the paddock, then maneuvered through the crowd to watch the race on a television set up for him in the tunnel to the track.

“You OK?” he said to Matt, 13, and Greg, 10, before the race.

“I’m so excited,” said Greg, before taking his gum out of his mouth for a moment to take a sip of water.

Then they were off.

As rider Alex Solis tried in vain to get Brother Derek from the outside after starting from post position 18, trying unsuccessfully to catch the leaders down the stretch before finishing in a dead heat for fourth, Hendricks slapped his cap on his leg like a rider’s crop.

And then it was over.

“I think the 20-horse field was a detriment to us, which is the post position, of course,” Hendricks said. “The dirt in his face, he hadn’t had a lot of experience with that and I think it hurt.

“He ran a credible fourth. He ran real well and I was happy with him. We’ll have, I think, a lot better chance in the Preakness with the tight turns, and utilize our speed a little bit.

“It’s been a little surreal, but it’s great. My boys are with me and we’re having a lot of fun. Everyone has been standing behind me that has been there from the beginning.”

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Trainer Bob Baffert, a three-time Derby winner, had three horses in the race.

Point Determined, owned by the Robert and Beverly Lewis Trust after Bob Lewis’ death in February, was ninth.

Sinister Minister, a speed horse who was second over the first mile, faded to 16th, and Bob And John, owned by Houston Texan owner Bob McNair, was 17th.

“Sinister Minister got cooked on the lead. Point Determined didn’t run his race. Bob And John had a really rough trip and didn’t get to do his thing,” Baffert said.

“We weren’t going to beat the winner.... He was awesome.”

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Edgar Prado, the winning jockey aboard Barbaro, said he dedicated the race to his mother, Cenaida, who died in January.

“I’m thinking of her, because she was an inspiration in my life,” he said.

“When I left Peru, it was very hard, and I was very young, but she never discouraged me. She told me, ‘Just keep trying and working hard. If you keep working real hard, don’t give up, dreams come true.’ ”