It’s Business as Usual for the Whittinghams

The scene was in the parking lot of a hotel near Churchill Downs a couple of days before Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

Peggy Whittingham, the trainer’s wife, was in blue jeans, washing the windows of one of the luxury white sedans that were loaned to all of the Derby trainers by the automobile company that sponsors the Triple Crown and its $5 million bonus.

“These are nice cars, but the birds did a number on this one,” she said.

Charlie and Peggy Whittingham are probably millionaires, but it is difficult to tell. After Sunday Silence’s 2 1/2-length victory Saturday in the 115th Derby, it was business-as-usual for the blackish colt’s 76-year-old trainer.

He said he returned to his hotel for a quiet celebration, which enabled him to get to bed early enough to be at Sunday Silence’s barn the day after the Derby.

There was no silence this Sunday. Waves of reporters and telecasters surrounded Whittingham, trying to discover how this Hall of Fame trainer finally found the correct combination to win the Derby after so many years of shunning the race.

Whittingham unsuccessfully raced two 3-three-olds in the Derby long ago, and then, in his first trip to Churchill Downs in 26 years, he won the race in 1986 with Ferdinand. Whittingham has returned every year since, finishing far back with Lively One last year, and being forced to scratch Temperate Sil after he started hacking a week before the Derby.

And it’s never too late to learn. While many of this year’s Derby trainers allowed their horses to graze on the outer perimeter of Churchill Downs’ backstretch, Whittingham made the grassy area off limits for Sunday Silence.

“The grass can be rough here this time of year,” Whittingham said. “You’ve got a lot of 2-year-olds at this track, and where there’s 2-year-olds there can be coughing. I can’t be sure, but Temperate Sil might have got that cough off the grass. When you hit a guy in the butt once, you shouldn’t have to catch him again.”

Sunday Silence emerged from his Derby upset of Easy Goer, the odds-on favorite who finished second, in fine condition. Whittingham plans to ship the Halo colt to Baltimore on Tuesday for the May 20 Preakness, confident that he has an excellent chance of sweeping the Triple Crown for the first time since Affirmed in 1978.

Sunday Silence has made Whittingham more confident than he usually is publicly.

“Unless somebody drops out of the sky, I think we’ll win all three races,” he said. “We should only have to beat half as many in the Preakness.”

Actually, there may be a good turnout for the Preakness, although not as many starters as the 15-horse Derby. Easy Goer will be running at Pimlico, along with Dansil (fourth in the Derby), Northern Wolf (sixth) and Houston (eighth). Hawkster, who made a late run to finish fifth, is a possibility, although there’s also a chance that his handlers may find another prep race for the Belmont, the final Triple Crown race, on June 10. Hawkster’s come-from-behind style is better suited for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont than the Preakness, which at 1 3/16ths miles is 110 yards shorter than the Derby.

Some other probable Preakness starters are Rock Point and Diamond Donnie, who didn’t run in the Derby. The status of Awe Inspiring, Easy Goer’s stablemate and the third-place Derby finisher, is indefinite.

Sunday Silence’s slow time--2:05 for the 1 1/4-mile Derby was the slowest running since Tim Tam in 1958--and his curious weaving through the stretch have apparently convinced many trainers that the horse can be had.

“The time doesn’t mean anything, because of the condition of the track,” said Craig Perret, who rode Awe Inspiring.

The track, which had been rained on for three days, was listed as muddy.

“The horse ducked around because he saw those soldiers (security personnel) in the infield,” Whittingham said. “He’s like a kid, he’s still green. He’ll get over that weaving. He won’t always be running at a place like the Derby, where you’ve got all kinds of extra things to look at.”

Whittingham bought a half-interest in Sunday Silence from Arthur Hancock and then sold 25% of his share to Ernest Gaillard, a retired La Jolla surgeon.

“The doc wanted to buy part of a horse, so I sold him this one,” Whittingham said. “It was before he ever ran a race, before he even breezed (in a workout). If I had seen this horse breeze first, I might not have sold part of him.”