Velasquez Recalls Snow Chief’s Sire : In Derby, Jockey Will Ride Favorite’s Rival, Badger Land

Talk about a memory!

“What did I win that race by, about three lengths?” said Jorge Velasquez, who rode Reflected Glory to victory in the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah in 1967.

The caller at the other end of the phone had the advantage of having the Daily Racing Form’s official Flamingo chart in front of him. Reflected Glory and Velasquez, ahead of only one horse after three-fourths of a mile, passed In Reality in the stretch and won by 3 lengths.

Only a quarter-length off in recalling the margin, Velasquez has good reason to remember the 1967 Flamingo.

It was the second $100,000 victory for the 21-year-old jockey, who had just come to the United States from his native Panama the previous year.

Now, in the 112th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs Saturday, Velasquez will be trying to beat favored Snow Chief, the most accomplished son of Reflected Glory, who cracked a knee in the 1967 Florida Derby, missed the Kentucky Derby and never won another stakes race.

Reflected Glory is 22 and, but for Snow Chief and a couple of other runners, is at the end of an ordinary stud career at Rancho Jonata near Santa Barbara.

Reflected Glory might be finished, but the 39-year-old Velasquez is still one of the country’s best riders, and he will be trying to win his second Kentucky Derby aboard Badger Land, who will probably be the second betting choice behind Snow Chief.

Although Velasquez won the Derby in 1981 with Pleasant Colony, Wayne Lukas, the trainer of Badger Land, has finished no higher than third with eight previous starters in the Triple Crown race.

Lukas, who was third at Churchill Downs in 1981 with Partez, the first horse he ever ran in the Derby, registered a record $11.1 million in purses last year, winning the Preakness with Tank’s Prospect and two Breeders’ Cup races with Twilight Ridge and Life’s Magic.

But the Derby, the race any trainer would like to win more than all of the others, has been elusive.

“I’m not frustrated,” Lukas said. “We’re proud to have been to the Derby with as many horses as we have. Some guys walk around the backstretch saying how lucky they’d be just to have one Derby horse. Well, we’ve had eight, and I’ll tell you something: Once we win it the first time, I know we’ll win it again.”

Badger Land, a strapping son of Codex, who gave Lukas his first Preakness win in 1980, is probably Lukas’ best Derby starter ever. He’s won 5 of 12 starts and more than $500,000, and in four of his non-winning performances he hooked up with the redoubtable Snow Chief.

Badger Land has been second to Snow Chief this year in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows and in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. Last year, Badger Land ran sixth as Snow Chief won the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita and Snow Chief finished third, 3 lengths ahead of fourth-place Badger Land, in the Del Mar Futurity.

When Snow Chief returned to California after winning the Florida Derby, Badger Land had the field at his mercy in the Flamingo. Velasquez won the Hialeah race 19 years after he did it the first time with Reflected Glory, riding Badger Land to a four-length victory.

“I like this colt’s last two races (the Flamingo and the Florida Derby),” Velasquez said. “He’s improved quite a bit, and the added distance (1 miles, an eighth farther than the two Florida races) in the Derby should help him even more. This colt was kind of clumsy earlier. He’s developed into a much more athletic horse.”

Velasquez kept the mount on Reflected Glory in the Flamingo only because Hirsch Jacobs, who trained the colt, kept his word.

Two races before the ’67 Flamingo, Velasquez was riding Reflected Glory and Bobby Ussery had the mount on Reason To Hail, another Jacobs trainee. Velasquez wanted to “save” with Ussery, the jockeys splitting their commissions based on where the two horses finished. “Saving” was a common practice at the time.

Ussery wasn’t interested in Velasquez’ proposition, because he thought Reason To Hail was easily the better horse. But Reflected Glory won and Ussery’s mount finished sixth.

The next race, Velasquez was sitting out a suspension and Ussery took over on Reflected Glory. Reflected Glory won again, Reason To Hail, with another jockey, finishing even farther back.

“Then came the Flamingo,” said Vic Gilardi, Velasquez’s agent since 1966. “Ussery did everything possible to keep the mount on Reflected Glory. This was after he said the colt didn’t belong in a mile-and-an-eighth race a few weeks before that. But Hirschy (Jacobs) kept his word and put me (Velasquez) back on. I (Velasquez) won easy.”

Some jockey agents talk in the first person, as though they are riding the horses. If Badger Land wins Saturday, Gilardi will say: “I rode that horse good.”

Historians of the Derby are saying that Snow Chief and Badger Land, coming into the race not having run in a month, are attempting something that hasn’t been done since the idle Needles won here in 1956.