Sunday Silence a Derby Comer : Western Colt Seen as Victor or on Easy Goer’s Heels

There are clues if you look for them.

Patrick Valenzuela arrived Monday, five days before the Kentucky Derby. He is here to ride Sunday Silence, the West Coast colt who will be second choice to the Phipps family’s entry of Easy Goer and Awe Inspiring. He’s here to familiarize himself with the Churchill Downs racing strip, but five days is awfully early.

Then, there are interviews with trainer Charlie Whittingham.

Each one includes some variation of the statement, “If Easy Goer isn’t a wonder horse, he’s in trouble.”

Monday, Whittingham upgraded Sunday Silence’s standing. “Any horse that beats this horse (Sunday Silence) wins the race.”

Sunday Silence showed how good he could be when he won the Santa Anita Derby by 11 lengths. Before that, he won the San Felipe Handicap by 1 3/4 lengths. He has lost twice. The first was by a neck in his debut and the second was by a head to Houston, who is in the Derby but has not run well recently.

A clue as to how high Whittingham regards Sunday Silence came last fall. While most of the racing world was settling in at Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup, Whittingham was trying to get back to Hollywood Park to see the colt win a maiden race.

Whittingham had several good horses in million-dollar races, but instead he was thinking about a 2-year-old maiden back home.

The colt is by Halo from a mare named Wishing Well. It has overcome a troubled childhood to become a star.

Plain and simple, no one wanted the colt. Arthur Hancock of Stone Farm in Paris, Ky., wound up owning and racing him almost by default.

“He was a weedy horse,” said Hancock. “He reminded you of a skinny teen-ager.”

When Sunday Silence and Houston first raced, in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance at Hollywood Park last December, Whittingham told trainer Wayne Lukas in the paddock, “If I’m ever going to beat you, it’ll have to be today.”

Sunday Silence led until the last few strides before Houston won at the wire.

And there was then no doubt: Both colts were headed for the Kentucky Derby.

Four months later, Houston won the Bay Shore so impressively that when he returned to Santa Anita for that track’s Derby, he was favored. But he dropped out of contention after a half-mile. Sunday Silence moved into a top spot.

Sunday Silence won’t be favored Saturday. Easy Goer deserves that title. He probably will go off at odds of 1-2 or less. If he is bet down to less than 2-5, he would be the shortest-priced favorite in modern times of the Derby.

But Easy Goer still needs to win on the track.

Whittingham won his first Derby with Ferdinand in 1986. Three years later, he thinks he has another winner.