Owner Says Bet Twice Wasn’t Drugged : Heavy Security in Kentucky for Beaten Florida Derby Favorite

One of the owners of Bet Twice, the 7-10 favorite who finished a well-beaten fifth in the Florida Derby two weeks ago, said here Thursday that an investigation has turned up no proof that the colt was drugged before the race.

“I don’t believe that something like that could happen at a major race track,” Bob Levy said. Bet Twice, who will be one of the favorites in the Kentucky Derby May 2, despite his sorry performance at Gulfstream Park April 4, races in the name of Levy’s mother, Blanche.

Security around Bet Twice will be heavy at Churchill Downs. Levy said that he has hired a Pinkerton agent, who will be responsible for the colt’s safety. Churchill Downs routinely provides extra security at Derby time, including an individual guard for each horse.

Reports that Bet Twice might have been drugged--possibly tranquilized--before the Florida Derby reached Levy, his trainer, Jimmy Croll, and Walter Blum, the senior steward at Gulfstream, after the race.

Although Florida tracks frequently test beaten favorites after races to see if they might have been medicated, a urine sample was not taken from Bet Twice.

“Because the Florida Derby was a roughly run race, all three of the stewards were reviewing the tapes afterwards,” Blum said. “By the time we thought to have Bet Twice tested, he was already being walked back to his barn.

We decided that it was too late.”

Levy, president of Atlantic City Race Course, said that his barn doesn’t have the facilities to test horses. Because Bet Twice’s performance was so dismal, however, he was given blood tests after the race and they showed the colt to be in perfect condition, except for a minor thyroid problem.

Levy pays a night watchman $1,000 a month to guard Bet Twice in Florida. The watchman reported that the night before the Florida Derby, there was a horse loose in an adjacent barn that took him away from Bet Twice. Levy said that he’s not sure how long the watchman was absent, but Blum said: “Somebody would have to move awful fast to get to that horse if he was left alone for only a few minutes, which I understand is what it was.”

Bet Twice won the Arlington-Washington Futurity and the Laurel Futurity last year and was a convincing winner in the Fountain of Youth Stakes two weeks before the Florida Derby.

Just before the Florida Derby, Bet Twice was listless in the paddock and had difficulty warming up, according to his jockey, Craig Perret. Perret said that he considered asking the stewards to scratch the colt, but realized that they wouldn’t approve the request because the horse didn’t show any soreness.

“If this horse had run the way he worked for the race, he would have won by five lengths,” Levy said. “This is the only bad race the horse has ever run.”

In nine previous starts, Bet Twice had six wins, a second, a third and a fourth-place finish in last November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, where he was handicapped by drawing the next-to-outside post position in a 13-horse field. The horse has earned $814,000.

Levy said there are two possible explanations for Bet Twice’s Florida Derby flop. It appeared that Bet Twice had not been extended in the Fountain of Youth, but he always runs hard and might have taken more out of himself than his handlers realized.

Then, in his first workout after the Fountain of Youth, Perret wasn’t available to ride and an exercise rider worked the colt three seconds faster than Croll wanted.

“Physically, he was great after that work,” Levy said. “But mentally, it might have hurt him.”

Croll thought he was meeting a different horse when he reached Bet Twice in the Florida Derby paddock. “It just wasn’t him,” the trainer said. “He had his head between his legs. I even expected him to be running a temperature the next day, but he was all right.”

Bet Twice’s handlers were debating whether to even run in the Kentucky Derby when the colt made the decision for them during a workout between races at Gulfstream last Sunday. Running against a headwind on a track that has been playing slow this season, Bet Twice zipped six furlongs in 1:11 3/5 and finished strongly.

Bet Twice will be flown to Louisville from Florida Saturday and probably won’t race until the Derby, although the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs a week from Saturday is a possibility.

Besides the regular win, place and show betting on the Florida Derby, there were perfecta (picking horses in 1-2 order) and trifecta (1-2-3) wagering.

“There were nine horses in the race, and you could throw out four, because they really didn’t have a chance,” said one Gulfstream horseplayer. “Then by possibly eliminating the favorite (Bet Twice), that meant you would have been able to box four horses in the perfecta and trifecta.”

Cryptoclearance, the second betting choice at 5-2, won the race, setting up a $2 perfecta that paid $81.80 and a $2 trifecta that returned $336.20.

Blum said that he checked with Gulfstream’s mutuel department regarding the betting of the race.

“There were no erratic betting patterns,” the steward said.