KENTUCKY DERBY : The Maiden Draws Attention Aplenty for the Wrong Reasons

The maiden walked off the track at Churchill Downs Monday morning, trainer Bobby Frankel at his side.

The maiden--a horse who has never won--is properly registered with the Jockey Club as a foal of 1987, and racing’s bookkeeping organization knows him as Pendleton Ridge.

Around Churchill Downs, where the 116th Kentucky Derby will be run Saturday, Pendleton Ridge is more likely to be called “the maiden.”

It’s not a term of affection, more one of derision. There are a lot of maidens on the grounds, and for today’s program, Jerry Botts, the racing secretary, has written three races exclusively for them.

But a maiden in a Kentucky Derby is a hobo in a tuxedo. There hasn’t been a maiden in the Derby since 1979, when Great Redeemer, winless in six starts, ran last, reaching the finish line so belatedly he almost trampled a group of photographers trying to cross the track.

Maidens have won the Derby. The first was Buchanan, in 1884. Sir Barton won as a maiden in 1919 and went on to sweep the Triple Crown. Brokers Tip, the final maiden to win the Derby, in 1933, never won another race, finishing his career with one victory in 14 starts.

Now the Derby has Pendleton Ridge, who not only is a maiden, but who also is trying to win after not having raced as a 2-year-old. The last unraced 2-year-old to win the Derby was Apollo in 1882.

Pendleton Ridge is unseasoned, besides being winless. He finished second by three-quarters of a length at Santa Anita on March 18. He was second again, by a nose, at Aqueduct on April 8. In his only other start, the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, he ran fourth but closed a lot of ground and was only 1 3/4 lengths behind the winner, Thirty Six Red, at the wire. Thirty Six Red is given a good chance to upset the co-favorites, Summer Squall and Mister Frisky, in the Derby, but he has won stakes in his last two starts and has 11 races worth of experience.

“This horse belongs,” Frankel said of Pendleton Ridge. “The distance won’t bother him. He was too close (to the pace) in the Wood. I’d like to see him farther back in the Derby.”

Pendleton Ridge has had a different jockey in each race, and Laffit Pincay will ride him for the first time Saturday. He replaces Richard Migliore, who rode the colt in the Wood.

“I’m inexperienced, and the other jock (Migliore) is inexperienced,” Frankel said. “At least we got one guy (Pincay) who’s experienced.”

Migliore has ridden in only two Derbies, finishing 11th and 12th, and Frankel, 48, has never saddled a Derby starter in his 24-year training career. Pincay has ridden in 16 Derbies, winning with Swale in 1984.

Frankel bought Pendleton Ridge at a Hollywood Park auction for $160,000. The son of Cox’s Ridge and Space Angel races in the name of Bruce McNall, the owner of the Kings; Wayne Gretzky and Craig Stadler, the golfer. The owners are expected to attend the Derby.

Pendleton Ridge didn’t race as a 2-year-old because he chipped a bone in his left front ankle and underwent arthroscopic surgery. He rejoined Frankel’s barn in December at Santa Anita.

Frankel is starting two horses in the Derby and, although Burnt Hills, his other horse, has form more befitting a contender, the attention has shifted toward the maiden because he’s such a curiosity. In the Wood, Burnt Hills was second to Thirty Six Red, beaten by a head, but he is a horse with the wrong running style for this Derby. Burnt Hills likes to run on the lead and doesn’t appear to have enough speed to keep up with Summer Squall, Mister Frisky and others.

Pendleton Ridge, on the other hand, likes to make a late run and might benefit from a fast early pace that could exhaust the leaders. At least that’s the way Frankel would like to see the race develop.

“I’m not running one horse to set up the other one,” Frankel said. “These horses have different owners (Edmund Gann of San Diego owns Burnt Hills), and I think they’ve both got a shot.”

Burnt Hills and Pendleton Ridge worked in company at Aqueduct before the Wood, and both horses blazed away for five furlongs. But under similar circumstances Monday at Churchill, something went wrong. Burnt Hills worked five furlongs in 1:01 3/5, but Pendleton Ridge couldn’t keep up and was clocked in 1:03.

Craig Perret, a leading jockey who will be aboard Florida Derby winner Unbridled in the Kentucky Derby, was Pendleton Ridge’s exercise rider Monday. As they came off the track, Frankel asked for an explanation.

“Every time I got close to the other horse, he pulled away from me,” said Perret, riding the horse back to the barn. “I couldn’t get him to keep up.”

Frankel was disappointed.

“Perret didn’t know the horse,” the trainer said. “He’s a big, lazy horse. I’ll have to do something with him later in the week.”

Frankel is a blunt former New Yorker who frequently waxes sarcastic. Monday was one of those times.

“Whatever I do with that horse might make him run better,” Frankel said. “None of us (trainers) know what we’re doing. We all copy each other. I think the Derby’s wide open. Every time a horse wins a race, somebody says that he’s not beating anything. What’s the difference if you win by a nose or lose by a nose?”