$500,000 Stakes in Kentucky : A Rainy Saturday Would Suit Drouilly’s Boy Just Fine

While trainer Bill Spawr talked with a couple of reporters in the stakes barn at Turfway Park Thursday morning, a cloudburst hit the track.

“There it is,” Spawr said, and then, pointing to the stall of Drouilly’s Boy, just a few feet away, he added: “Look at him. His ears went up when he heard that rain.”

Officials at this track outside Cincinnati hope that the sun will be shining when they run the $500,000 Jim Beam Stakes Saturday, but two more days like Thursday are preferable for Spawr. Mike Battaglia, the Turfway handicapper, gives Drouilly’s Boy only a 20-1 chance to win the 1 1/8-mile race on a dry track, but if it rains, the 3-year-old colt is dangerous.

With only four starts, Drouilly’s Boy is the most lightly raced of the 11 3-year-olds running Saturday, but he’s won three times and the victories--at Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows and Santa Anita--have all come on sloppy tracks. Drouilly’s Boy’s only loss came in his last race, on a fast track at Santa Anita Jan. 10, when he finished sixth, eight lengths behind, in the California Breeders’ Champion Stakes.

“From the time we found out that this horse liked off tracks, we’ve been thinking of getting him away from California and running him in the wet states,” Spawr said. “But we’re going to run Saturday no matter what the track condition is. Even if the track is fast, it’s softer going than in California, and that should still help him.”

Brian’s Time, the 33-1 longshot who won the Florida Derby in his last start, has been installed as the 9-5 favorite. Many handicappers are dismissing Brian’s Time out of hand, however, because his far-back, late-running style is a decided disadvantage on a track that has traditionally favored speed. John Veitch, Brian’s Time’s trainer, said he will not attempt to change the colt’s style, which means that he probably will be 10 or more lengths behind the leaders early.

Besides Brian’s Time, only two other starters--Dynaformer and Stalwars--have won at 1 1/8 miles and they are next on the morning line, Dynaformer at 3-1 and Stalwars at 6-1.

In post-position order, with jockeys in parentheses, this is the field: Delightful Doctor (Ruben Hernandez), Cannon Dancer (Mike Manganello), Drouilly’s Boy (Frank Olivares), Stalwars (Gary Stevens), Brian’s Time (Randy Romero), Dynaformer (Jose Santos), Buck Forbes (Sebastian Madrid), Glory Afar (Mike McDowell), Kingpost (Eugene Sipus), Jim’s Orbit (Shane Romero) and Longview Ashley (Donald Howard). All of the starters carry 121 pounds.

“We’re asking a lot of this horse, running him in this company,” Spawr said. “In order for us to consider the Kentucky Derby (on May 7), he’s going to have to show quite a bit in this race.”

Spawr wasn’t planning on running Drouilly’s Boy in his last race, which expected to draw two other leading California foals, Purdue King and Flying Victor.

“Just before entry time, Mike Marten (the Daily Racing Form columnist) came up and told me that the other two horses weren’t running,” Spawr said. “He said that this left my horse as the favorite, so I dropped his name in.”

At 3-2, Drouilly’s Boy was close in the beginning, then quit running on the far turn and beat only two horses. He ran so poorly that Olivares guessed that he might have bled internally, but that wasn’t the case.

Olivares, listed as one of the breeders of the horse, will be trying to duplicate an out-of-town upset that he registered with another unheralded California 3-year-old, Croeso, who won the Florida Derby at 85-1 in 1983.

Croeso was a gelding, and Drouilly’s Boy would have been castrated, too, had it not been for his best friend--rain.

“Before he ran his first race (at Hollywood Park last December), he was acting up and he cut his left eye, so we decided to cut him,” Spawr said. “But then it rained for several days, and you can’t take the chance on gelding a horse when there’s mud around, because he might get an infection. So by the time it dried up, we forgot about doing it.”

Suffering sore shins at Del Mar last summer, Drouilly’s Boy got a late start at the races, and even when he was ready to run, Spawr didn’t have much regard for him, because Smart Deception, a filly running for claiming prices in the $50,000 range, consistently beat him in morning workouts.

So for Drouilly’s Boy’s debut, Spawr picked a $32,000 claiming race at Hollywood. There were no takers and Drouilly’s Boy won by 7 1/2 lengths.

“As easily as he won, that was a big surprise for me,” Spawr said.

But of course it rained that day, giving Hollywood Park its first off track of the season. With Bill Spawr’s rainmaker leaving the barn, how could the weather have been anything else?