Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Worst Derby Entry Ever? Great Redeemer a Solid Contender

For a few lucky photographers, the Kentucky Derby that was run 10 years ago is memorable for lots more than Spectacular Bid’s winning it with the ease that a 3-5 favorite should.

These were the photographers who shoot the race from the grandstand side of Churchill Downs, then scurry across the track as soon as the last horse hits the finish line so they can also cover the winner’s circle.

In 1979, however, it took Great Redeemer, a 78-1 shot, a long, long time to reach the finish line in the 10-horse field. Spectacular Bid beat the last-place horse by 47 lengths, and Lot o’ Gold, who finished ninth, hit the wire 25 lengths in front of Great Redeemer.

When Lot o’ Gold reached the finish, the photographers thought he was the last horse because Great Redeemer couldn’t be sighted as he labored through Churchill Downs’ long stretch. When Great Redeemer finally neared the finish, the photographers were in the middle of the track. They had to stop, hoping that jockey Richard DePass would steer his colt around them.

DePass avoided the photographers, preventing the first mass trampling in Derby history.

It was one of the most bizarre chapters in Derby lore and some historians say that Great Redeemer was the worst horse ever to run in the Derby. That is arguable, but both the horse and his owner-trainer unquestionably qualify as the weirdest pair ever to be represented in the race.

Great Redeemer ran--plodded?--for Dr. James A. Mohamed, an Army radiologist from San Antonio, Tex., who had bought the horse for $2,100.

Holy Land, the colt’s sire, had had a checkered career of his own. In the 1970 Derby, Holy Land was running far back in the second turn when he ran up on another horse’s heels and fell, sending his jockey, Hector Pilar, flying. Pilar’s injuries were so serious that he spent almost a year in the hospital.

Mohamed, who was 47 then, had been buying mysterious advertisements in racing trade publications for weeks before the ’79 Derby. The ads said that Spectacular Bid and Flying Paster, the winner of the Santa Anita and Hollywood Derbies, would not win the Kentucky Derby.

Why not? According to an arcane theory that Mohamed said he developed, there was only one horse--Screen King--in the field who had the breeding to handle the 1 1/4-mile distance. Screen King was squeezed by horses at the start and wound up sixth.

Churchill Downs didn’t make a production out of entry day for the Derby then, and now there are stories that Mohamed walked into the racing secretary’s office about five minutes after entries had technically closed and dropped Great Redeemer’s name into the Derby.

There was widespread panic on the backstretch, because trainers of other Derby horses saw Great Redeemer’s record and worried that Mohamed’s horse might impede theirs. Great Redeemer was a maiden who had been running in Arkansas and Kentucky, not only failing to win his six races, but also losing them by a total of 85 lengths.

Mohamed named DePass to ride Great Redeemer at the time of entry.

“That was news to us,” says Don (Hee Haw) Alvey, DePass’ agent at the time and still working the Kentucky circuit.

“We had never ridden the horse, and had no idea who (Mohamed) was,” Alvey said. “Richard was skeptical, but then he said, ‘What the hell, it’s the Kentucky Derby, let’s do it.’ ”

The 36-year-old DePass retired from riding last year and now works as a jockeys’ agent at Churchill Downs. He says he rode 1,600 winners in his career and one day in 1980 at Florida Downs, the track that has become Tampa Bay Downs, he had seven mounts and won with all of them.

DePass had ridden in the Derby the year before Great Redeemer, finishing eighth with Hoist the Silver.

“We went by Great Redeemer’s barn the day before the Derby,” DePass said the other day. “I would have ridden a donkey just to get a chance in the Derby. The owner told me what he wanted me to do in the race. The only thing I had in mind was to try to run a decent last.

“The day of the race, some of the other jockeys told me I ought to gun the horse to the front. They said that the track announcer would say, ‘There goes Great Redeemer,’ and everybody would remember me forever.”

Great Redeemer’s trainer, James E. James, told Mohamed that he wanted no part of running the horse in the Derby and resigned. Mohamed, who had been licensed to train in Canada and a few American states, took out a Kentucky license so he could saddle the horse.

For half a mile, Great Redeemer was actually in contention, in fifth place, nine lengths behind Shamgo, who had taken the lead. But the stamina problems that Mohamed attributed to Spectacular Bid and Flying Paster really belonged to Great Redeemer. The rest of the field shot by on the backstretch.

“I said I’d ride a donkey, and that’s the way he ran,” DePass said.

So Spectacular Bid became one of the most famous Derby horses and Great Redeemer turned into one of the race’s most infamous. He finally won a race 13 months later, at Calder in Florida, but by that time Mohamed had sold him to a Miami couple.

Great Redeemer reportedly was stabbed by someone after the Derby. Mohamed said after the Derby that the colt had broken a bone in his leg in the race.

DePass, who received the standard mount fee of $35 for riding in the race, heard that the horse eventually became a jumper and broke a leg in a race.

Hee Haw Alvey said: “I remember that that owner kept saying that he had strong convictions about that horse. I think the horse should have been convicted of something. I hope I never see him again.”

Horse Racing Notes

The jockey assignments for the 16-horse Kentucky Derby field were completed Wednesday with the naming of Corey Black on Flying Continental and Herb McCauley on Notation. Donnie Miller had been named Tuesday to ride Wind Splitter. . . . Derby post positions will be drawn today.

There’s a good chance of rain in Louisville today, Friday and Saturday, with temperatures ranging from the 60s to the low 70s. There hasn’t been an off track for the Derby since Dust Commander won here in 1970. Western Playboy would benefit the most from mud, although Sunday Silence won on a sloppy track early this year at Santa Anita. On a fast track Tuesday morning, Western Playboy worked five furlongs in a slow 1:03, reviving suspicions that the leg infection he had at Keeneland may have taken something out of him.

The $200,000 Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies on Friday at Churchill Downs drew six starters, headed by the Wayne Lukas-trained pair of Open Mind and Imaginary Lady. Here’s the lineup for the 1 1/8-mile race: She’s Scrumptious, with Gene St. Leon riding; Open Mind, Angel Cordero; Key Flyer, Randy Romero; Imaginary Lady, Gary Stevens; Love That Native, no rider named; and Blondeinamotel, Pat Day.

In other stakes Friday, Equalize heads a nine-horse field in the $150,000 Early Times Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles and Savannah’s Honor carries top weight of 119 pounds in the $150,000, 1 1/16-mile Louisville Budweiser Breeders’ Cup for fillies and mares. . . . Pat Valenzuela, the rider of Sunday Silence, will ride Seaquay in a $50,000 stake for 3-year-old fillies today.

For betting purposes in the Derby, there will be two two-horse entries, three horses assigned to the mutuel field by Churchill Downs handicapper Mike Battaglia and nine individual horses. This is because there’s only room on the track tote board for 12 betting numbers. The entries are Easy Goer with Awe Inspiring and Houston with Shy Tom. . . . The other starters are Northern Wolf, Dansil, Wind Splitter, Irish Actor, Triple Buck, Hawkster, Faultless Ensign, Clever Trevor, Sunday Silence, Western Playboy, Notation and Flying Continental.

If 16 horses start, as expected, the Derby will be worth $759,200, with the winner getting $584,200. Second will be worth $100,000, third $50,000 and fourth $25,000. That means the owner of the fourth-place horse doesn’t even break even, after the deduction of expenses and the $20,600 that it costs to run.