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Steinbrenner Says He’s Just Along for the Ride on Eternal Prince

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After hiding from the press earlier this week at Churchill Downs, New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner was very visible Thursday.

He took a tour of the track’s barns with Spendthrift Farm’s Brownell Combs, his newest partner in Eternal Prince.

Steinbrenner and Bruce Hurst sold one-quarter interest in the colt Wednesday. The odds on Eternal Prince and Combs’ Rhoman Rule, coupled as a betting entry for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, are 5-1.

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Naturally, Steinbrenner was besieged by interview requests.

Stopping briefly to talk to reporters, he was cordial but not expansive in his answers.

“I haven’t had anything to do with this horse,” he said. “I did breed it, but my son (Hank) raised it. Butch Lenzini trained it. I take no credit for it. I’m just along for the ride.”

Asked the inevitable question about Yogi Berra, fired as the Yankee manager this week by Steinbrenner and replaced by Billy Martin, Steinbrenner said: “That’s the end of your interview.”

But he was laughing when he said it.

He was later overheard to say: “Billy is safe. He won last night.”

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