Horse Racing / Grahame L. Jones : Pat Day Is Taking His Derby Debacle in Stride

Jockey Pat Day, whose Kentucky Derby ended on such an unhappy note when he was forced to pull favored Demons Begone to a stop on the Churchill Downs backstretch, remains phlegmatic about such experiences.

Day, who had won three of the first seven races on last Saturday’s Derby program, knows all too well that success and failure are the most common exacta in racing.

It’s a sure bet that one will follow the other.

“Things seemed to be going in our direction,” Day said of Saturday’s experience. “But that’s just part of this game. Chicken and feathers. It’s chicken one day and feathers the next.

“It don’t even take a day, just from the seventh race to the eighth race. Things like that happen. You’ve just got to be prepared to handle it and to accept it.

“That’s why if I had won (the Derby), I’d have been happy and excited. But I try not to get too excited over the highs or too depressed over the lows because it’s such a roller-coaster ride if you do.”

Although no final decision has yet been made on whether Demons Begone will run in the second leg of the Triple Crown--the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico May 16--chances are the colt will not be going to Maryland.

“We haven’t absolutely ruled it out yet,” trainer Phil Hauswald said Wednesday from Churchill Downs. “But it would be a longshot at best.”

The very fact that Demons Begone can even be considered a possible this soon after bleeding in the Derby is a tribute to Day’s handling of the colt in that race.

“It obviously was not going to do me any good or him any good for me to turn my stick up and beat on him or do something drastic at that point in the race,” Day said, explaining why he had eased Demons Begone to a stop.

“When they bleed, they just quit running. It’s their built-in protection system.”

Medical science may have a more logical explanation for why horses sometimes bleed, but to a self-proclaimed exorcist from Winchester, Ky., the answer in Demons Begone’s case is obvious.

“My first reaction is (that) the name itself is a challenge to the demon world not to be gone,” C. Mitchell Bedford said. “I assume that horse, to one degree or another, is possessed (by the devil).”

Bedford, 57, is a psychic who practices psychic healing and exorcism on horses at his Rising Star Horse and Health Farm near Winchester in central Kentucky.

He employs the help of spirits who were doctors, he said.

Ogygian, a 4-year-old colt who won 7 of 10 career starts, has been retired to stud because of injuries, according to John Nerud, the head of Tartan Stable.

“We are retiring him because of injuries to his front ankles and problems with his back,” said Nerud, whose son Jan trained the colt. “He ran the first bad race of his life in the Bold Ruler, and we felt that the situation was not going to improve. It was time to stop.”

Ogygian, a son of Damascus-Gonfalon, finished sixth in the Bold Ruler Stakes at Aqueduct April 11 in his only 1987 start after surgery last fall to remove nine bone chips from his front ankles.

Nerud said the colt will be sent to Tartan Farm in Ocala, Fla., but it has not been determined where he will stand at stud.

Triple Crown Productions Wednesday reversed its earlier decision and declared Capote, who finished 16th in the Kentucky Derby, eligible for a $1-million incentive bonus for horses running in all three Triple Crown races.

Triple Crown had originally ruled Capote ineligible for the bonus because he was eased, but a videotape replay showed Capote eventually crossed the finish line. That makes the horse an official finisher and therefore eligible for the bonus money.

The bonus is a $1-million payoff to the owner of the horse that finishes the best in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. To be eligible, a horse must run in all three races and finish in the top three at least once.

Capote’s trainer, Wayne Lukas, however, has said that the colt will not run in the Preakness, and instead will be rested to bring his weight back up.

After the Derby, the standings for the $1-million bonus are: Alysheba 5 points, Bet Twice 3, Avies Copy 1.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Jack Van Berg, asked before the Kentucky Derby how he’d like to see the race develop, came up with this answer: “I’d like to see five or six horses go out 100 m.p.h. and my horse (Alysheba) sitting behind them. And, naturally, if I had my druthers, I’d be in front at the end.” . . . Alysheba, Bet Twice and Avies Copy, the first three finishers in the Derby, are to be flown to Baltimore Friday for the Preakness. Other Preakness contenders coming out of the Derby include Templar Hill and No More Flowers.. . . Trainer LeRoy Jolley, who delayed picking the jockeys for Derby entries Gulch and Leo Castelli: “I assure you neither horse will go to the post without a jockey.”

Undefeated Tiffany Lass, winner of the Kentucky Oaks in 1986 and the Silver Spoon Handicap at Hollywood Park two weeks ago, is expected to be in the lineup for Saturday’s Hawthorne Handicap. Gary Stevens will be aboard. . . . Ferdinand, 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, will make his first start since finishing fourth in the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita in March when he goes to the gate in Sunday’s John Henry Handicap at Hollywood Park. As usual, Bill Shoemaker will have the mount for Charlie Whittingham. . . . Hollywood Park will offer wagering on Golden Gate’s San Francisco Mile as its seventh race on Sunday’s 10-race card. . . . As of May 13, the Inglewood track will switch its first post on weekdays from 2 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. . . . Snow Chief breezed a half mile in 49.2 Wednesday under the gaze of co-owner Ben Rochelle.