For Horses, Experience Is Still the Best Teacher

It is long established that every trainer has a science of his own for getting a horse ready for the Kentucky Derby, which opens for business in 1875, or 50 years before the race comes to be known as the “Run for the Roses.”

And how does this grandiose sideshow acquire that label? It is so dubbed by Bill Corum, late sports columnist, reflecting the brilliance customarily linked to that line of work.

As the creatures prepare to run for the roses for the 117th time May 4, we ask Jack Van Berg, one of the land’s most distinguished horse coaches, the secret to coming up sharp the day of the race.

Mr. Van Berg has saddled more than 5,500 winners, ranging from runners whose hides are now wrapped around baseballs to the aristocrat, Alysheba, winner of the Derby and Preakness in 1987.

If credentials impress you, Alysheba also wins the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, the Charles Strub Stakes and the Woodward, among others.

OK, leveling an eye on the Derby, what would Van Berg recommend to colleagues who have horses in this year’s race?

“The more you study horses, the more they remind you of people,” begins Jack, dispelling a school of thought that horses make more sense. “They start out in life shy. They learn from experience. They learn to cope with bumps, with dirt clods in the face, with close quarters next to the fence, with crowd noise. Experience is their teacher.”

“And the point you’re making?”

“The point I’m making is, you don’t coddle a horse if you want to get him ready for the Derby. It is a crowded race, usually rough. The noise is deafening. You keep a horse out of competition, trying to sharpen him through workouts, and you are apt to get some excellent times. But you also are apt to get a horse that isn’t ready for what is going to happen in the Derby.”

Sheltered horses have been sent to the Derby and some have won, a fact Van Berg acknowledges. But anticipating a tough race, he adheres very much to the old Woody Hayes philosophy, namely, “When you fight in the North Atlantic, you train in the North Atlantic.”

Van Berg is asked if he recommends hauling food and water for one’s horse to Louisville, which normally offers both. To reconstruct everyday environment, some trainers even are known to bring along the stable cat and rooster.

“In all the years I have been shipping horses,” says Jack, “I never have brought along food and water, unless you want to count the peppermints I brought for Alysheba the year he won the Derby. Horses, as I say, are like people. And most people don’t travel with their own food and water.”

You do find young people today boarding airplanes with bottles of Evian, leading horses to conclude such individuals might be packing their security blankets, too.

It has been the feeling here that we are going to read one day that the Kentucky Derby has been shifted to night to accommodate television.

The same genius arranging a Super Bowl kickoff at 5:17 p.m. to maximize ratings during the game will find that if the Derby goes off at, say, 8:28 p.m., the TV numbers will explode.

If a night Derby sounds preposterous, would you have believed a Chrysler Triple Crown? Did you picture giveaway days at race tracks? Doc Strub would take a rotisserie turn in his resting place.

And exotic bets--daily doubles, exactas, trifectas, boxes, wheels, pick-sixes, pick-nines? You once would have been told, “Take your action to Caliente.”

Recalls Van Berg: “It used to be they wouldn’t even allow children at the track. If you couldn’t find a sitter for your kid, you stayed home.”

You ask Jack: “If kids aren’t allowed in bars or at Burlesque shows, should they be allowed at the track?”

Jack laughs. “Let me tell you something. Kids couldn’t find more wholesome company than horses. My father wouldn’t buy me a bicycle, but he bought me a horse. Horses don’t start wars. They don’t use drugs. They don’t even bet. The only thing polluting race tracks is people.”