COMMENTARY : Untested 3-Year-Old Takes Unusual Path to Kentucky Derby

Trainer Howard Tesher has watched, with more than academic interest, as the country’s most prominent 3-year-olds have tarnished their reputations at Gulfstream Park this winter. One after another, colts billed as Kentucky Derby candidates have been discredited by mediocre performances or sidelined by injuries.

Having observed this trend, Tesher said, “I may never run my horse. I may just keep talking about how great he is.”

But the time has come for Tesher’s horse, Champagneforashley, to prove himself, and the trainer has chosen such an unorthodox way for him to do it that one of his friends cautioned, “Don’t get beat, or you’ll look like an idiot.”

Champagneforashley will bypass two important stakes at Gulfstream on Saturday and ship north for the Tampa Bay Derby on Sunday. When all of the weekend activity in Florida is finished, it is possible that the colt will have established himself as the East’s leading candidate for the spring classic.

Champagneforashley compiled a glittering record in New York last winter. He made his debut at Belmont in a maiden race for New York-breds and romped to victory by 14 1/2 lengths. Sidelined by an injury, he returned to action in November and won a stakes for New York-breds by seven lengths. Then he captured a stakes race against open company by nine lengths.

His looks were impressive and his times were fast, but the horses he beat were nonentities. So he was a hard horse to evaluate--for his trainer as well as handicappers.

“I’ve known all along that he’s special,” Tesher said. “But I know as little about him today as I did the first time I breezed him. He’s never been asked to run. Last year I never killed him, and he was never even really fit. This winter I haven’t really honed him down either. Jacinto (jockey Jacinto Vasquez) keeps saying, ‘I’d love to test him one time.’ ”

With a 3-year-old possessing such talent, Tesher came to Florida this winter with his mind on the Kentucky Derby. But while other colts were running in various prep races at Gulfstream, Champagneforashley wasn’t running.

Tesher sought a 1 1/16-mile race with conditions suitable for the colt but couldn’t find the appropriate spot.

Without a prep race, Champagneforashley couldn’t run in Saturday’s $500,000 Florida Derby here. Tesher didn’t want to sprint the colt in the Swale Stakes on the same day. So he chose to ship Champagneforashley to little Tampa Bay Downs for its 1 1/16-mile derby Sunday--not exactly a tried-and-true steppingstone to the Derby.

“Everybody worries about what I’m doing with him,” Tesher acknowledged, but he dismisses these concerns with characteristic irreverence. Tesher had become interested in horses because he was first and foremost a bettor--his father was also a gambler--and as he observed the work of leading trainers, he concluded that you didn’t have to be a genius to be a horse trainer.

“If a horse can run, he can run,” Tesher said. “It’s like coaching the San Francisco 49ers. Here’s Bill Walsh; he’s the greatest genius in the world coaching them. Then another guy comes along and does even better. Don’t put the people in my business on a pedestal.”

So Champagneforashley will launch his preparation for America’s most famous race at a track where $3,500 claiming races are the norm. Assuming he runs well, Tesher will take him to New York for the Wood Memorial Stakes on April 21--and from there to Louisville.

For a 3-year-old to have only two prep races before the Derby would also be unusual, but Tesher figures it will be enough--as long as Champagneforashley is a good enough race horse.

And Tesher suspects that he is. “So far,” Tesher said, “he does things so easily, so willingly, so fast that he scares you.”

And with such a horse, Tesher isn’t scared to be a little unorthodox.