Kentucky Derby Notes : Run for Roses Is Starting to Shape Up as Run for Daffydils

It’s early--post time isn’t until next Saturday at Churchill Downs--but already this has become the Daffy Derby.

The 112th Kentucky Derby has gone daffy for a number of reasons. Try counting the ways:

--There are two trainers of Derby horses who weren’t training the colts when they ran their last races.

--There are two trainers who didn’t want to run their horses in the Derby. One will be here, the other won’t.

--The jockey situation is so fluid that an owner of one Derby horse and the trainer of another had to be told by newsmen that they had lost their preferred riders.

--A trainer in New York is bitter because one of the Derby horses was taken away from him last year.

--One trainer is driving the van that will transport his horse to Louisville.

--The country’s leading jockey didn’t pick up a mount in the Derby until Saturday, after most of the 15 to 18 horses had been spoken for.

--The country’s second-leading jockey is riding a horse who has less of a chance than the one he turned down.

It’s the Daffy Derby, all right. Case closed. But now for the specifics.

Howard Crowell is Groovy’s fifth trainer, having replaced Petro Peters after the speedy colt finished third in the Wood Memorial. Peters was critical of the ride that Groovy received from Craig Perret in the Wood. The owners of Groovy, apparently critical of both the training job by Peters and the ride, replaced Peters with Crowell and have hired Laffit Pincay to ride in the Derby.

Eddie Gregson, who won the 1982 Kentucky Derby with Gato Del Sol, gave up the training duties on Icy Groom because he didn’t think the colt was ready for the 1-mile Derby distance after a fourth-place finish in last week’s Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

Icy Groom’s owner, Bill Fleming, who wants badly to run his colt in the Derby, has turned Icy Groom over to Sam Ramer, who probably deserved a shot at the Triple Crown race, anyway. In Florida this winter, Ramer was training Regal Dreamer, a promising 3-year-old who died of a stomach infection after running fourth in the Florida Derby.

Besides Gregson, trainer John Sullivan also is not keen on running his colt, Vernon Castle, in the Derby, even though Vernon Castle won the California Derby in his last start.

Vernon Castle, however, has made only three lifetime starts, two this year. He is the least-seasoned Derby starter since 1982, when Wavering Monarch came into the race with three starts and ran 12th.

Sullivan is acceding to the wishes of Vernon Castle’s owners and will be here early this week with the horse. Vernon Castle is scheduled to fly to Louisville on the same plane Monday with Snow Chief, the Derby favorite.

Sidney Watters, who trained Vernon Castle as a 2-year-old in New York, says it was a “dirty trick” when the Seattle Slew colt’s owners took the horse away from him late last year and sent him to Sullivan at Santa Anita.

“We did all the work, giving him his foundation, and then they took him away from us,” Watters said. “If the owners had played the game the right way, he’d still be my horse.”

The remarks from Watters were surprising, since he’s a trainer who certainly is not unaccustomed to hard knocks. Watters trained Hoist the Flag, the champion 2-year-old colt in 1970, who broke his leg and never got the chance to run in the Derby.

Watters also trained Slew o’ Gold, like Vernon Castle a son of Seattle Slew.

Slew o’ Gold, who was fourth in the 1983 Derby, was taken away from Watters before winning some major races late in 1984 and finishing second to John Henry in the Horse-of-the-Year voting.

Watters was the trainer for Vernon Castle for the colt’s only race as a 2-year-old--a second place against maidens last September at Belmont Park. Vernon Castle was raced so lightly last year because he got sick three times, had shin problems and went lame in a rear leg after his first start.

“We knew the colt had ability,” Watters said. “But at that stage, we didn’t know how good he was.”

Watters’ nephew, trainer Dick Small, usually drives his own van when he ships horses to other tracks from his Pimlico training base.

Small will be at the wheel next Wednesday, driving Broad Brush, the winner of the Wood Memorial, the 450 miles to Churchill Downs.

Chris McCarron, who with more than $3 million in purses this year leads the country, as he has done twice before, was without a Derby mount until Saturday. Sources at both Churchill Downs and Hollywood Park indicated that McCarron would ride Bold Arrangement next Saturday.

McCarron has never won the Derby, his best finish being a second with Desert Wine in 1983. Starting as far back as last year, McCarron had several Derby prospects this time, but Judge Smells, Storm Cat, Meadowlake and Variety Road are all out of the race with injuries.

McCarron was finally chosen over Kenny Black after it became apparent that Pat Eddery, who rode Bold Arrangement to a fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass, would not be able to delay a seven-day suspension in England. Black had worked Bold Arrangement before the Blue Grass last week but has never ridden in a Derby or in a race at Churchill Downs.

Laffit Pincay is second to McCarron on the money list this year. Had Pincay and his agent, Tony Matos, been able to wait 24 hours on their Derby commitment, the jockey would be riding Bold Arrangement instead of Groovy in the Derby.

The day after Pincay agreed to ride Groovy, Bold Arrangement finished a strong third in the Blue Grass and is now given a promising chance of beating Snow Chief and Badger Land, the two Derby favorites. Groovy, whose stamina over 1 miles is highly suspect, is a Derby longshot.

Pincay went shopping for a mount after Tasso, his Derby ride, was withdrawn from the race because of leg cuts suffered while running fourth in the Wood.

Clive Brittain, who trains Bold Arrangement, thought that Pincay was still his Derby rider after the Blue Grass. Brittain first learned of Pincay’s switch to Groovy from newsmen covering the Blue Grass.

Fleming also thought that Eddie Delahoussaye, a two-time Derby winner, would continue riding Icy Groom until a journalist told him Friday afternoon that Delahoussaye had opted for the mount on Vernon Castle.

“Gee,” Fleming said, “you would have thought that at least Eddie would have called me after he made the decision.” As of Saturday, a rider still hadn’t been secured for Icy Groom.

These are the stories that make it the Daffy Derby. And it’s early. A lot can still happen between now and next Saturday.