Jockey Mike Smith to Live Dream

The way Mike Smith recalled his first moment of Derby fever, he was afflicted while at home in Roswell, N.M. Because he wasn’t yet 8 years old and he was small enough to envision a future as a jockey, he had an unusual vantage point for the 1973 telecast of the Run for the Roses. “I was sitting on the coffee table,” he said.

Because his uncle was a trainer and his father rode for a time, Smith already had been on horseback. But these were quarter horses, blocky sprinters, not the elegant-looking creatures who were going to the post at Churchill Downs. Certainly, he never had seen anything like the winner that day, a future immortal named Secretariat.

“I told my uncle,” Smith said, “that I was going to be there some day, with the horses that run long, that run around two turns. I didn’t even know what you called them then.”

Thus began his romance with thoroughbreds, one that led him to the winner’s circle at Aqueduct Saturday and, barring any accident, will take him to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby on May 5. His ticket to the most celebrated race in America is Thirty Six Red, who followed a smashing victory in the Gotham Stakes with a gutty performance in the Wood Memorial. “I think he’s going to Kentucky with a good shot,” Smith said, “a real good shot.”

It’s a development that the 24-year-old jockey couldn’t have imagined as recently as a year ago, one that he said probably would cause him to pass out from excitement when the realization sank in Saturday night. Not until last November did he decide to move his tack to New York, to take a shot at the big time. Now he’s the second-leading winner at the Aqueduct meet. Not until two days before the Gotham did he get the mount on Thirty Six Red. Now he’s going to the Derby to ride the rapidly improving horse that probably will be the third choice, behind Summer Squall and Mister Frisky, in the big race.

His prospects appear significantly better than they were in 1984 when, as an 18-year-old riding on the Midwest circuit, he was boosted aboard Pine Circle on Derby Day. More than anything, Smith happened to be handy. Besides, Pine Circle was the weaker half of a Shug McGaughey entry.

“We were about 5-1,” he said, “because we were an entry with Vanlandingham. Otherwise, we would have been more than 100-1.” As it turned out, Pine Circle ran a better race than his stablemate, finishing sixth to Vanlandingham’s 16th. Five weeks later, Pine Circle would finish second in the Belmont Stakes but with a more prominent rider, Pat Day.

The experience alone was a thrill for Smith. He grew into one of the most successful riders on the Kentucky-Chicago-Arkansas trail. As recently as last fall, he finished one victory behind Day at the Churchill Downs meeting.