Win or Not, They Can Smell Roses

I don’t suppose Quintana is going to win the Kentucky Derby today.

But maybe when a horse’s owner already has survived a terrifying ordeal and nearly the loss of his life, he doesn’t lose much sleep about losing some race.

And maybe when a horse’s trainer already has survived mortifying scandal and shame and then the loss of his wife, he doesn’t worry much about winning some horse race, either.

Gary Garber and David Cross can’t lose.

Just being here is enough for both of them. They will send forth their roasted chestnut Quintana, 30-1 in the morning line, with little chance of winning America’s most famous merry-go-round. And whatever happens, happens.

“Hey, don’t feel sorry for me,” says Cross, trudging around the Churchill Downs barns in a black letterman’s jacket with his name stitched across the pocket. “I’ve driven Cadillacs since my teens, I’ve drunk the best brand of Scotch and I’ve already won a Kentucky Derby.

“I’ve had enough good times that I can’t feel bad about the bad times.”

Oh, yes, he could.

He could feel bad about his trainer’s license being revoked for two years just because Sunny’s Halo--the 1983 longshot Derby winner he trained--tested positive for a banned antihistamine after a race at Arlington Park outside Chicago.

Cross, 55, couldn’t believe his bad luck. All he had done, he claimed, was treat Sunny’s Halo for a skin rash.

“Been around horse racing for 40 years and never had a positive test--never,” he said. “I was as proud of that fact as anything. And when that thing happened, it was just like dropping a trapdoor on me. They made me a scapegoat, and if I died tomorrow or lived to be 100, I’d feel the same way.”

It hurt. And shortly thereafter, his wife died. Personally and professionally, Cross was devastated.

He remarried. And he received a new license. But his pockets were empty. What he needed was work--somebody to show some faith in him.

“If Gary Garber hadn’t come along, I don’t know where I’d be,” Cross said.

Garber came along and handed Cross the reins of Quintana, one of the offspring of the great Triple Crown champion Affirmed.

Quintana was a $50,000 claimer from Wayne Lukas who went out and won the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn a week later, upsetting Lukas’ Corporate Report.

That put Quintana--and Cross--back in the Kentucky Derby picture. Maybe not the photo, but at least the picture.

Good thing Garber did come along.

But he damn near didn’t.

In 1989, Garber was a passenger on a United Air Lines jet that was flying over the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of Hawaii when a cargo door sprang open. Nine passengers were sucked out of the aircraft to their deaths.

Garber was as lucky as lucky can be. He literally held on for dear life, held on with a strip of metal piercing his hand. Half of his body was inside the plane, half outside when crew members pulled him back in.

To this day, Garber says, the happiest sound in the world is that of landing gear touching down.

So, he isn’t going to be too anxious when he hears “My Old Kentucky Home” today. Nor will he be too discouraged if Quintana comes loping along at the back of the pack.

“Just happy to be here,” Garber says. “Just happy to be anywhere.”

And Quintana?

Well, since April 20 alone, Cross says, the horse has dropped 50 pounds. Which led somebody to suggest that he could become the first colt ever to win a Kentucky Derby by dieting.

That made Cross laugh.

“Yeah,” he said. “George Foreman should’ve tried it.”

He said it felt good to be laughing again.