Kentucky Derby Notebook : Favorite Has the Youngest Trainer at 29

The youngest trainer in Saturday’s 113th running of the Kentucky Derby will also be training the favorite--Demons Begone.

Phil Hauswald, 29, sees nothing wrong with either role. In fact, he’s rather enjoying it.

“A lot of people maybe do think I’m too young to be training a horse like this,” he said Tuesday, “but you never know when a horse like this is going to come along. Hopefully, you are prepared and are ready when the situation does arrive and maybe intelligent enough to appreciate it.”

Hauswald, from New Albany, Ind., a 15-minute drive across the Ohio River from Churchill Downs, has another advantage going into the race--since he is a local product, he’s the hometown favorite.

“Hopefully we are a little more familiar with the surroundings and the area and Pat (Day, Demons Begone’s rider) has got to be a little more accustomed to the race track than most of the other riders. He rides here on a daily basis. I feel like that has to be some advantage in our favor.”

Asked which horses he feared most at this point, Hauswald smiled.

“About 16 of them,” he said. “No, I think you have to look at Gulch and Cryptoclearance as being awful strong contenders. Cryptoclearance sure looks to me like he’s going around in awful good order. He looks like he’s doing real well, but most of them are. I think those two would be the ones I’d be most concerned about.”

Hauswald trained longshot Bachelor Beau in last year’s Derby and that, too, has helped him this time around.

“Last year, everything that developed was something I’d never been through before,” he said. “This year, it’s sure been a lot smoother.

“There sure are a whole lot more people around than there were last year with Bachelor Beau (who finished 13th).”

Hauswald bristles at suggestions that Demons Begone’s route to the Derby has not been the toughest, that he has perhaps avoided meeting other top 3-year-olds by running in Arkansas.

“Obviously, in the past, maybe Arkansas hasn’t been where the best 3-year-olds have come from,” he said. “This year, my horse was down there and doing good. Pretty much everyone knew where he was at. I don’t know if a lot of people saw he was there and decided they didn’t need to come that way.

“I feel like people came closer to ducking him than I did ducking anyone else. I feel like that’s where I was going and that was pretty well known.”

A million-dollar bonus awaits Demons Begone if he can add the Kentucky Derby to his earlier victories in the Rebel Handicap and the Arkansas Derby. To Hauswald, however, the money is unimportant.

“The Kentucky Derby means more to me than anything in racing,” he said. “The million-dollar bonus is just something I think you might wake up Sunday morning and realize, ‘Hey, on top of everything else, we got a million-dollar bonus.’ It’s just kinda like icing on the cake.

How many 29-year-olds can say that about a million dollars?

No matter who wins on Saturday, Joe Manzi, the trainer of Masterful Advocate, believes it will be a close finish.

“I don’t think it will be won by a large margin,” he said. “I think there are up to six horses in there that are very close together and very contentious. I don’t think it’ll be a cavalry finish, but there’ll be about three or four horses right on the wire.”

The horse Manzi fears most is Demons Begone.

“He just toyed with the other horses the other day (in winning the Arkansas Derby by three lengths on April 18). He won very handy, very easy. Gulch ran an excellent race (in winning the Wood Memorial), a very powerful race, but Demons Begone is coming up (to the Kentucky Derby) like you want a horse to come up. Cryptoclearance is coming up good, too.

“It’s not an easy race (to forecast). No races are easy, especially the Derby.”

With Santa Anita Derby winner Temperate Sil out of the running due to illness (he’ll return to California on Monday), trainer Charlie Whittingham might be considered more or less a neutral observer of this year’s Derby.

He, too, believes Demons Begone is the horse to beat.

“The favorite’s going to be Demons Begone,” Whittingham said. “He’s been running in a little easier company, but he’s handled them pretty well. As long as he’s coming up to the race good. (LeRoy) Jolley’s horse (Gulch), you don’t know how good he might be. I think (Jack) Van Berg has got a horse (Alysheba) that’s got a good chance. He’s a little better horse than he’s had a chance to show. He got sick before the (Santa Anita) Derby. He ran a good race the other day (in finishing first in the Blue Grass Stakes before being moved to third). He got disqualified, but he didn’t run too bad.”

Jack Van Berg, Alysheba’s trainer, took a moment to wax philosophical when asked how he approached the Derby.

“Well, it’s the Derby. It’s the only one. No matter how many big races they have during the year, no matter how big the purses get, the Derby is the race.

“You only have so much time to get ready for it. On that first Saturday in May, you have to have your horse ready and hope you have the best of luck. It’s the most prestigious race there is, I believe.”

Like Manzi, Van Berg also sees a close race developing.

“I think it’s probably one of the most evenly matched Derbies that we’ve had,” he said. “There’ll be 10 or 12 legitimate horses in the race.”

As for Alysheba, Van Berg was asked whether he was going into the race hoping to win or expecting to win.

“Well, let’s put it this way,” he said, “I’m praying to win. I’m very confident with this horse. I wouldn’t trade places with nobody. I don’t think anybody’s got a better horse than this horse. He might make a liar out of me, he might get in trouble, but I think that if everything goes right, it’s a good-run race, no trouble, that he’ll make a very good account of himself.

“I’m probably more confident with him than I’ve ever been in my life with any horse. I think he’s got an abundance of talent and is just at the top of his field.”

Woody Stephens, who will send Gone West and Conquistarose to the post Saturday, admitted that running the latter is something of an experiment since the colt prefers the mud and no rain is forecast.

“The horse seems to handle the (Churchill Downs) track real well,” he said. “I’m anxious for him to run just to see who he would beat. If he don’t run well, we’ll just put him away until the fall.

“He’s a nice-looking horse. The big thing against him is that he’s a June foal. But he looks good, he’s sound, his coat’s good and he’s won $500,000.

“I took him to Chicago last summer for the Arlington Futurity. He finished second that day and, heck, he beat a lot of these (Derby) horses that day.

Horse Racing Notes

The Derby field increased to a probable 17 starters with the addition of Aves Copy. Trainer Dave Kassen had not wanted to run Aves Copy but apparently was overruled by the owner, Brian Badgett. Aves Copy has won only two races, has earned only $54,200, the smallest amount of any of the Derby runners, but did finish fourth in the Florida Derby. . . . Trainer LeRoy Jolley still has not made an announcement on who will ride Gulch and Leo Castelli. Jolley has said he first wants to talk with owner Peter M. Brant, who is on his way to Louisville from a polo tournament in Argentina. The likely riders are Bill Shoemaker and Jacinto Vasquez, the latter having ridden both of Jolley’s previous Derby winners, Foolish Pleasure in 1975 and Genuine Risk in 1980. . . . Shawklit One, trained by Frank LaBocetta, arrived at Churchill Downs Tuesday, leaving only the Wayne Lukas-trained Capote yet to arrive.