Oversight Costs Simply Majestic His Derby Run

Simply Majestic, the winner of Saturday’s California Derby, is not eligible to run in the Kentucky Derby or the other two Triple Crown races, apparently the victim of having too many trainers.

John Parisella, Simply Majestic’s current trainer, thought the colt had been made eligible for the Triple Crown series by the March 17 deadline. But Audrey Korotkin, executive director of Triple Crown Productions, which processes the nominations, said Sunday that Simply Majestic is not on the list.

“We got a call from Wayne Lukas’ office around the first of March, indicating that they might nominate Simply Majestic,” Korotkin said. “But the nomination blank and the money ($3,000) were never sent in.”

Simply Majestic’s career began in New York and Florida with Parisella, who is the principal trainer for Ted Sabarese, the New Jersey computer manufacturer who owns the colt.

After Simply Majestic was sent to Lukas’ barn early this year, he won an allowance race at Santa Anita on Feb. 21. On March 7, Lukas saddled Simply Majestic for his next-to-last finish in the San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita.

Shortly before the Triple Crown nominating deadline, Simply Majestic was turned over to trainer Bobby Wingfield, and Wingfield was listed as the trainer when the colt again beat only one horse on March 22, in the San Felipe Handicap.

“I’m guessing that when the horse was transferred out of my barn, nobody (none of the trainers) did anything about nominating him,” Lukas said. “I don’t think it was my responsibility by then.”

Parisella was listed as Simply Majestic’s trainer for the California Derby, but he remained with his horses in Florida, so Tom Pascuma saddled the horse at Golden Gate.

After the California Derby, Parisella announced from Florida that he was going to run the colt in the Kentucky Derby on May 2. Parisella could not be reached for comment Sunday, but there was a report that he was going to review the stable’s records to see if a check had been written for the nominating fee. Horses nominated by a mid-January deadline only cost their owners $600 apiece to be eligible for the Triple Crown.

Another horse owned by Sabarese and trained by Parisella--named Frank Wright--was made eligible for the Triple Crown.

“We sent the owner a confirmation on that horse,” Korotkin said. “You would have thought someone would have called us when no confirmation was sent out on Simply Majestic. I know our money balances--we have to the penny what was paid for the number of horses that were nominated.”

A total of 398 3-year-olds were nominated by the $600 deadline, then 24 more horses were made eligible with payments of $3,000.

In 1983, when horses had to be nominated separately for the Triple Crown races, Lukas was involved in a stakes winner not being eligible for the Kentucky Derby.

The Lukas-trained Codex won the Santa Anita Derby and the trainer said after the race that the colt had not been nominated to the Kentucky Derby because of an oversight. Codex won the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown.