Easy Goer Can Save the Week : Victory by Favorite Would Be First Derby Activity to Go Right

It’s been one bummer after another lately for the good burghers of this Ohio River town.

Several days ago, the Derby Balloon Race was canceled because of high winds. One entrant had driven here all the way from Utah.

Next, the $2.9-million Louisville Falls Fountain, the lighted river attraction advertised as the world’s largest floating fountain, was knocked out of commission when underwater debris clogged its pipes.

In the Derby Steamboat Race, the Louisville Belle was beaten badly by the invader, Delta Queen. There was no exacta betting.

Thursday night, the Pegasus Parade, a Derby tradition, was held in a steady rain.

But today is Kentucky Derby day, No. 115 in the series, and the residents are determined to turn things around for the 125,000 or so--most of them visitors--who will cram historic, gussied-up Churchill Downs.

If Easy Goer wins, many of them will go home singing into their mint juleps, because most of the money will be bet on that brilliant 3-year-old.

Easy Goer has won seven of his nine races and is being described as the best candidate to sweep the Triple Crown since Spectacular Bid won the 1979 Derby. Spectacular Bid also won the Preakness, then finished third in the Belmont Stakes.

This Derby is being called a two-horse race, despite the presence of 14 other 3-year-olds. Support has built in recent weeks for Sunday Silence, the Santa Anita Derby winner who came here as a good horse and seems to have trained into a better one.

He and Easy Goer have never run against one another, though, so there is no way to gauge them. Easy Goer has won three straight races as a 3-year-old and was never really pressed in any of them. Sunday Silence also has won all three of his races this year and overall is four for six, with two second-place finishes.

Another $2.9-million attraction--Houston--figures to be a factor in the 1 1/4-mile Derby, and although he was soundly beaten by Sunday Silence at Santa Anita, trainer Wayne Lukas is typically confident.

One thing certain about Houston, he will be in front for much of the race. Even though there are other speed horses in the field, they are what’s known on the backstretch as cheap speed. After their initial bursts, they run out of gas, and heaven help a horse and jockey running close behind a horse that stops in the Derby. They don’t just slow down, they almost come to a full stop.

Charlie Whittingham, the wily trainer who won the Derby with longshot Ferdinand in 1986, gives Easy Goer his due, but Whittingham believes that his horse--Sunday Silence--has faced stronger opposition in California than Easy Goer has encountered in New York.

That’s precisely the reason why Ben Perkins Sr. and his trainer son are here with Faultless Ensign, who is 50-1 in the morning line. Easy Goer and his entrymate, Awe Inspiring, were 3-5 before Friday’s advance Derby betting began, but at the end of the day the entry was listed at even money. Sunday Silence is the 3-1 second choice based on Friday’s betting, and the entry of Houston and Shy Tom is next at 7-2.

“Easy Goer deserves the respect he’s gotten but he hasn’t beaten a good horse yet,” Perkins said. “He’s got his work cut out for him. I know Sunday Silence is a good horse, and Lukas can’t be that wrong about Houston.”

A strong possibility is Houston establishing an early lead while posting quick fractions, with Sunday Silence staying close to his pace and Easy Goer lurking not far behind the first two. How far Easy Goer trails early will probably be up to his jockey, Pat Day. In winning the Wood Memorial two weeks ago, the son of Alydar showed that he has a nice early lick, too.

The weatherman keeps changing his mind, but if the latest forecast is correct, Churchill Downs might have its first off track for the Derby since Dust Commander won in the mud here in 1970. It rained Thursday and Friday, and there’s a 40% chance for more rain this morning and this afternoon. The temperature probably won’t get above 55.

It could be a day not unlike the Breeders’ Cup last November, when Easy Goer suffered one of his two defeats, losing to Is It True by 1 1/4 lengths in the mud at 1 1/16 miles.

Day didn’t like his ride that day, and Shug McGaughey, Easy Goer’s trainer, didn’t like the track.

“I’ve seen a lot of muddy tracks here but never one like that day,” McGaughey said. “Usually, this is a good track, even when it rains. They didn’t harrow the track that day, and it made a difference. I don’t think they’ll make the same mistake again, and this colt should handle it better if it’s off.”

A son of Halo, Sunday Silence is considered a good off-track horse. He won comfortably on a sloppy track at Santa Anita in March.

After the big two and Houston, the field is heavy with horses whose trainers were brought here kicking and screaming by their owners. Dansil, Wind Splitter, Notation, Flying Continental, Irish Actor and even Awe Inspiring, McGaughey’s other starter, are in that category.

It has been written that Hawkster also qualifies for that group, but his owner, Shelly Meredith, bristles at the suggestion.

“Ron McAnally (Hawkster’s trainer) had only one reservation about coming,” Meredith said. “He told me how expensive it would be to come here, but as far as I was concerned, that could never be a consideration as long as you felt that you had a horse who belonged.”

Jim Murphy, the trainer who went until only a couple of days ago before he found a jockey--Herb McCauley--for Notation, was hardly diplomatic in indicating his feelings.

“We don’t have a jockey yet,” Murphy said before he had hired McCauley. “The owners are the ones who want to run, let them get out of it.”

Finishing second, third or fourth today might not make expenses. The winner gets $584,200 of the $759,200 pot, but payoffs for the other top finishers drop to $100,000, $50,000 and $25,000, respectively.