Kentucky Derby Notes : Big Payday for Lukas’ Stablehands, Too

Gene Klein picked up $611,200 for the win by his filly, Winning Colors, in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Several of the stablehands for trainer Wayne Lukas at Hollywood Park also had a big day--to the tune of $200,000.

Lukas said that early this year, a group of his exercise riders, hot walkers and grooms sent a $2,000 bet down to the future book at Caliente, where the odds were 100-1 on Winning Colors at the time.

“I’m a little concerned about what will happen to my work force at Hollywood Park Sunday,” Lukas said after winning his first Derby. “And they may have to form a committee to pick up the money. I don’t think they want to send just one guy down to Mexico.”

In previous Derby rides, Gary Stevens, Winning Colors’ jockey, had been 7th with Tank’s Prospect in 1985, 6th with Wheatly Hall in 1986 and 10th with On the Line in 1987.

“I’ve never experienced anything like I felt when I crossed the finish line,” Stevens said Saturday. “Wayne told me before the race that if I got the lead and I had the horse under me, to try and steal the race.

“I didn’t know who the horse was that was chasing us until I stood up after crossing the wire and Pat (Day, aboard Forty Niner) congratulated me.”

After riding Tank’s Prospect in the 1985 Derby, he was replaced by Lukas with Day, who rode the same colt to victory in the Preakness.

“This is the biggest thrill that I’ve ever had in 35 or 40 years in sports,” Gene Klein said. “There are about 50,000 horses foaled every year, and only 1 out of that crop wins the Derby.

“It’s going to take some time for all this to sink in. I know we’ve won, but I’m still not ready to believe it. I’ll have to see the tape of the race over and over before it really hits me.”

Early last week, Wayne Lukas arrived at Churchill Downs and said that he was on vacation.

“Jeff (Wayne’s son) is training the horse, I’m here to direct media relations,” the trainer said.

After the Derby, Wayne Lukas said: “I might have nudged here and pulled there a little bit, but day to day, Jeff has been with this filly all the time.”

Technically, Winning Colors is a roan, not a gray, and she is the first roan to win the Derby. A roan is a grayish horse with other colors of hair sprinkled in the coat.

Four grays have won the Derby, the last being Gato Del Sol in 1982.

Winning Colors is the 37th horse to win the Derby in wire-to-wire fashion, but only the 4th in the last 17 years.

The last three Derby winners have been California-based horses, Winning Colors following Ferdinand and Alysheba to the winner’s circle.

Eddie Delahoussaye, aboard Risen Star, failed to win his third Derby.

“The trip was all right, but we had to lose some ground on the last turn,” Delahoussaye said of his third-place finisher. “If I would have gone down inside, I don’t think we would have been third because there was so much trouble down there. I thought my colt would show more speed, but he acts like he’ll run the mile and a half (the distance of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown).

A Churchill Downs mutuel clerk made a mistake on a $20,000 place bet before Saturday’s first race.

The bet, which according to some mutuel-department employees came out of the track jockeys’ room, was intended to be on Seeking the Gold in the Derby, but the clerk punched the ticket on another No. 7, Briarwood, a first-time starter who was running in the first race.

The mutuel department questioned such a large bet on a longshot, and after checking with the clerk, who said the bettor had asked for Seeking the Gold, the track arbitrarily shifted the money from Briarwood to the Derby horse.

The bettor, who was also given correct tickets of $9,000 to win and $10,000 to show on Seeking the Gold, was located, apparently before the race, and agreed that changing his place ticket to the Derby horse was the right thing to do. But Seeking the Gold ran seventh and Briarwood won by a nose, paying $71 to win and $24 to place.

When the tote board showed that Briarwood was a longshot in the win pool but the second choice in the place pool because of the clerk’s error, numerous bettors raced to the windows to make hunch bets on the 3-year-old gelding.

An owner of a scrap-metal business in Illinois said that he bet on Briarwood only because of the apparent odd betting pattern in the place pool and collected $12,000.

Horse Racing Notes

The Derby-day handle of $15.4 million broke the national record, topping the betting at Santa Anita on Breeders’ Cup day in 1986. . . . The Wayne Lukas-Gary Stevens team won another race Saturday when Conquer took the $50,000 Churchill Downs Stakes. Other stakes winners at Churchill Saturday were Buoy, ridden by Pat Day, in the $50,000 Twin Spires, and Le L’Argent, also with Day, in the $50,000 Brown & Williamson. . . . John Veitch, the trainer of Brian’s Time, had predicted that the Derby winner would come out of the Wood Memorial field. The best Wood finisher Saturday was Brian’s Time in sixth place.