Traffic Jam Leaves Several Derby Riders Upset : Even Ferdinand Is Bothered in the Early Going and Almost Brushes the Rail

Listening to many of the jockeys who rode in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, it sounded as though they had been in combat rather than a horse race.

Alex Solis, Gary Stevens, Jorge Velasquez, Pat Day, Larry Melancon--they all felt their horses might have done better if they hadn’t been banged around.

Even Ferdinand, the winner, was crowded by the horse outside him, Mogambo, running through the stretch the first time and came close to brushing the rail.

At the start, there was a chain reaction started by Melancon’s mount, Bachelor Beau, that contributed to an uncomfortable beginning for at least three horses on the inside.

Velasquez, aboard Badger Land, and Stevens, riding Wheatly Hall, were probably penalized the most. Badger Land finished fifth, and Wheatly Hall was sixth.

“I got killed,” Velasquez said. “The horse outside me (Wheatly Hall) came over and hit us. I was lucky I didn’t go down. For at least three or four strides, we were in trouble.

“Then we got bumped again in the rear end on the first turn. That left us so far back. The colt ran a hell of a race, considering. It was too bad I couldn’t get the job done for (trainer) Wayne Lukas. I knew how badly he wanted to win this race.”

Badger Land was the ninth Derby starter in the last six years for Lukas, who has never won the race.

While Velasquez was upset, Stevens was angry about the start.

“Snow Chief hit me and knocked me into Badger Land,” Stevens said. “My horse got cut up. He’s got nicks on his legs. I’m not too happy about what happened. In fact, I’m teed off about it. As a result, we were a lot farther back than we wanted to be. For the first 50 yards, I had to steady my horse, to keep from making Badger Land go down. That stopped my horse from running in the early part.”

Alex Solis, who rode favored Snow Chief, said they were “bumped around” in the run down the backstretch, after the colt had stumbled out of the gate.

“We were moving nicely on the turn, though,” Solis said. “But by the time we got to the quarter pole, I could sense that my horse wasn’t responding. At the three-sixteenths pole, four horses passed us, and I hit him again and he didn’t respond.

“The horse can’t talk. I wish he could. I wish he could talk to us and tell us why he ran like he ran.”

Rampage, the winner of the Arkansas Derby, ran fourth, and Day thought he deserved better.

“I said before the race that we would have to have racing luck to win, and that wasn’t the case,” Day said. “He got jostled on the first turn, and then I had to steady.

“Then he was making a bold move on the second turn, but he ran into traffic on the outside. I moved him back inside, and as soon as I did, they closed the hole on me. I believe that I was on the best horse today.”

Trainer Charlie Whittingham said Derby winner Ferdinand would go on to run in the Preakness at Pimlico on May 17, in search of the Triple Crown. The final race in the series is the Belmont Stakes in New York on June 7.

“This was my biggest thrill,” said Whittingham, who before Saturday had won almost all of the country’s major stakes except the Derby. “I’ve been living with horses for a long time (since 1931 as a trainer). I had a lot of confidence in this horse. I had a strong feeling he was going to be a real good horse and he proved it today.”

Shoemaker, who said the one achievement that has eluded him in a 37-year career was winning the Triple Crown, is high on Ferdinand’s chances in the next two races.

“This is a true distance horse,” Shoemaker said. “I think he’s good enough to win the Triple Crown.”

Shoemaker will be at Hollywood Park today to try to win another race for Whittingham. He rides Palace Music in the John Henry Handicap.

Jack Van Berg, who trains Wheatly Hall, said his colt was aiming for the hole that Ferdinand was able to use to reach the rail.

“Ferdinand made it, and we didn’t,” Van Berg said. “Of course, maybe the hole was faster than we were.”

Van Berg vowed that he’d back next year in an attempt to win his first Derby.

“I just hope that I don’t have to wait as long as Charlie (Whittingham) to win it,” Van Berg said.

Bold Arrangement and Chris McCarron were a Derby rarity--an entry that didn’t have any problems in the race.

“We got through, and my colt accelerated,” McCarron said. “The other horse was just a little better today. I saw Shoe getting his horse to start running down the backside. I’ll bet Ferdinand was one tired son of a gun when he pulled up.”

Ferdinand and Bold Arrangement were the only two horses in the 16-horse field that ran without medication. Ferdinand had run with a pain-killer in the Santa Anita Derby, but trainer Charlie Whittingham thought the horse didn’t need it here.

Jimmy Jones, who trained consecutive Derby winners for Calumet Farm with Iron Liege and Tim Tam in 1957-58, thought Snow Chief and Badger Land needed another race going into the Derby. Neither horse had run in a month before Saturday.

“I would have thought the Derby Trial (run a week ago at Churchill Downs) would have helped those colts,” Jones said.