KENTUCKY DERBY : Losing Race to Her Doesn’t Seem So Bad : Aftermath: ‘I don’t believe I tried to beat that sweet little lady,’ Kent Desormeaux says of Frances Genter, the 92-year-old owner of Unbridled.

They ordinarily would have been grumbling and throwing towels, kicking trash cans and making excuses. For the “other” 14 jockeys in the 116th Kentucky Derby, the big one had just gotten away. A chance of a lifetime gone--at least for another year.

But the scene in the Churchill Downs jockeys’ room after Saturday’s Derby had a kind of “aw shucks” feel, as the riders gathered around the television replay of the race and were reduced to misty-eyed Boy Scouts.

On the screen, in an ABC isolated shot during the stretch run, folksy trainer Carl Nafzger was screaming a delirious, running commentary into the right ear of 92-year-old Frances Genter, like big Sheriff Taylor yelling at Aunt Bea in the middle of a Mayberry thunderstorm.

“He’s fourth!” Nafzger shouted. Mrs. Genter stared straight ahead.

“He’s third!”

She began to smile.

“He’s second! He’s taking the lead. . . . “ And by the time Unbridled crossed under the wire 3 1/2 lengths in front, Genter had turned to and received a king-size Derby kiss from her elated trainer.

The jockeys went wild at the sight. Kent Desormeaux, who finished third on Pleasant Tap, shook his head and grinned.

“I don’t believe I tried to beat that sweet little lady,” said Desormeaux, who was riding in only his second Derby.

At the back of the crowd, two-time Derby winner Angel Cordero Jr. snacked on a doughnut and spoke for the room.

“If I’ve got to lose,” said Cordero, who was seventh on Land Rush, “I’m glad I lose to her.”

Even Pat Day, whose Kentucky Derby wounds were opened another inch with his second-place finish on Summer Squall, took some solace in the fact that it was Genter’s horse who beat him.

“That scene brought tears to my eyes,” said Day, who answered questions for an hour after the race, questions such as: Why can’t you win the Derby (he’s 0 for 8)? Why do you always finish second (for three consecutive years)? And why did you choose to ride Summer Squall last month when you could have been on Unbridled?

“I’m a firm believer that God makes all things happen for good reason,” Day insisted, quoting a verse from the book of Romans to illustrate his point.

“But, frankly, I was having a hard time understanding why the race came out the way it did today. Then I saw Mrs. Genter, and her wonderful reaction, and I understood why I lost.”

Day was not content, however, to blame everything on fate. He suggested that Summer Squall suffered a costly lapse of attention as he took the lead at the head of the stretch. Then, said Day, his colt was unable to respond when Unbridled sped past on the outside.

“My colt had never been in that situation before, on the lead all alone,” Day said. “And believe me, there is no noise to compare with the sound you hear from both sides when you turn into the stretch in the Derby.

“I did everything I knew how to do to get him motivated again,” Day added. “I hit him right-handed, left-handed, changed holds, smooched to him. Nothing seemed to work.”

But for Day, nothing ever seems to work in the Derby.

“I don’t like finishing second three straight years, but it’s better than finishing third. And finishing third is better than not being in the race at all,” he said.

“One thing is for certain, though,” Day added. “When you wait so long for something like the Derby, it will be unbelievably sweet when it finally happens. You will see one emotional young man when that day comes.”

Across the room, Gary Stevens expressed his sympathy for Day’s plight. Two years ago, Stevens and Winning Colors beat Day and Forty Niner by a head.

“He’s been under a lot of pressure all week long,” Stevens said. “I’m sure this is not a pleasant situation for him, but he’s handling it.”

Of more immediate concern to Stevens was the condition of his Derby mount, favored and formerly unbeaten Mister Frisky, who finished eighth after pressing the pace to the middle of the last turn.

“He bobbled once on the backstretch, and then again when I asked him to run on the turn,” Stevens said. “The same thing happened in his workout last Tuesday, but that day he leveled out and finished real smooth.”

“That’s why I was worried he might have hurt himself,” Stevens continued. “I paid special attention to the way he pulled up. But he kept his head straight and he jogged right out, and normally they won’t do that if they’re hurting anywhere.

“And he wasn’t blowing hard at all. There wasn’t a wet hair on him. Even if a horse doesn’t run his race, if he’s hurting somewhere he’ll come back tired and wet from being in distress.

“As far as I’m concerned, blaming the race track is a lame excuse,” Stevens concluded. “You can be carrying your track around with you. But this colt has handled every different kind of track thrown at him before, so that’s all I can think of as an excuse for his race today.”

Chris McCarron, who rode fourth-choice Silver Ending to a fifth-place finish, also suggested that the his colt had trouble with the racing surface.

“He never really felt comfortable with it,” said McCarron, who was riding the Arkansas Derby winner for the first time.

Cordero, on the other hand, said his mount, Land Rush, was finished on the backstretch when he was forced to take up in close quarters.

“My horse was going fine,” Cordero said. “Then (Pat) Valenzuela’s horse (Burnt Hills) stopped in front of me.” Burnt Hills finished next to last.

“Last year everybody wanted to talk to me,” said Valenzuela, who won the 1989 Derby on Sunday Silence. “Today, nobody is coming around.”

Neither Desormeaux nor Ron Hansen, who rode fourth-place Video Ranger, had complaints with the performance of their longshots. Desormeaux, however, wished he could take another crack at the start.

“My horse was sitting back on his heels,” said Desormeaux, who finished next-to-last in his only other Derby try.

“I hollered for (the gate crew) to wait a second, but when they sprung it my colt was just getting set right. Another second and he would have been perfect.

“I figure it cost me about six lengths worth of position early,” Desormeaux. “But still, at the quarter pole, I thought I had a chance to be second. I knew I wasn’t going to be catching the winner, though. I was running right with him earlier, and when he went by me he was really motoring.”

And Hansen, the Northern California rider who has been plagued by allegations of race-fixing schemes, was relieved to make headlines in a different way.

“At the head of the stretch, with all that horse under me and a chance at a piece of the Derby, there’s no feeling like it in the world,” Hansen said. “It made my life.”

Derby Notes

On the Derby undercard, Angel Cordero lost a heartbreaker on longshot Traskwood as Beau Genius took the $58,200 Churchill Downs Stakes, then won a headbanger aboard the Alydar filly Foresta in the $55,700 Capital Holding Mile. Foresta and favored Saros Brig leaned back and forth all through the stretch before Cordero’s filly got the win by a head, and survived a long look by the stewards . . . Pat Day took the Brown and Williamson Stakes on favored Medicine Woman, catching Lost Lode at the wire.