HORSE RACING BREEDERS’ CUP : Nafzger Hopes to Relive Unbridled Success

Trainer Carl Nafzger doesn’t know how many videotape cassettes he owns of the 1990 Kentucky Derby. That’s the race for which he saddled Unbridled and then gave a wire-to-wire account of his victory to Frances Genter, the colt’s 93-year-old owner, on national television.

“I’ve got 25 of those tapes,” Nafzger said, laughing. “No, not really. All I know is that I have more than one. When I’m depressed, I pop one into the player and watch it.”

Nafzger’s morale has needed that boost frequently this year, which has removed the 50-year-old former rodeo bull rider from the limelight as quickly as Unbridled and a powerful supporting cast of horses catapulted him into it.

Besides winning the Kentucky Derby, Unbridled was back in October and won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park. Nafzger finished 1990 with $6.1 million in purses--$4.7 million more than his horses had ever previously earned--and won the Eclipse Award as the year’s best trainer.

This year, Nafzger’s decline has dovetailed with Unbridled’s. Unbridled has won only two of six starts, his only stakes victory coming seven months ago. Nafzger has 31 victories and slightly more than $1 million in purses, which ranks the trainer 36th on the national money list.

“Nothing brings you to your knees faster than racing,” Nafzger said. “After the Derby, they tried to make me out to be something I was not. And they tried to make the horse into a Greek god, which he was not. It’s unfair that this is what happens, but it does.

“That Derby seems like it was so long ago that it seems like it was in another era. But this is proof again that trainers don’t train horses. Horses train trainers.”

Midway through this year, Unbridled’s racing career was in jeopardy. He suffered a recurrence of a bleeding problem while running next to last in the Pimlico Special. Then the Midwest-based Nafzger picked a tough spot for the colt’s return to the big leagues, the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August. Unbridled reinforced the trainer’s reputation as a solid horseman by running a respectable third behind Best Pal and Twilight Agenda, earning $150,000.

Off that race and Unbridled’s second-place finish to Summer Squall in the Fayette Handicap at nearby Keeneland on Oct. 6, Nafzger has his Derby winner ready to run again in Saturday’s $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Unbridled was 10-1 when he won the Derby, and 6-1 as an entry with Home At Last in last year’s Classic. On Saturday, in his first race at Churchill since the Derby, he probably will have longer odds than 10-1, because of the quality of the field. Even Strike The Gold, the winner of this year’s Derby, will be a longshot.

It is not Nafzger’s style to predict a victory, but much as he said before the Del Mar race, he thinks Unbridled will not discredit himself Saturday.

“The horse had a strong half-mile workout at Keeneland after the Fayette, and that told us we were on target,” Nafzger said. “I’m not concerned about the opposition, I’m just concerned that my horse runs his race. If he fires, we’ll be right there.”

Kentucky Derby winners--Ferdinand, Alysheba, Sunday Silence and Unbridled--have won the Classic the last four years, and in 1987, the same year he won the Derby, Alysheba finished second in the Classic to Ferdinand.

Trainer Nick Zito’s assignment with Strike The Gold would appear to be even tougher than Nafzger’s. Strike The Gold has had six winless starts since the Derby, and hasn’t been close except for his loss by a head to Hansel in the Belmont Stakes.

The other day, at Zito’s barn at Churchill Downs, one of his stablehands was reading the Louisville Courier-Journal of May 5, 1991--a souvenir section published the day after this year’s Derby.

“Where’d you get that?” Zito asked.

“My grandmother sent it to me,” was the answer.

“Good,” Zito said. “Maybe it’ll bring us luck.”

As usual, Zito is optimistic.

“We just missed in the Belmont,” he said. “If we had won two out of three in the Triple Crown, there would have been no pressure, but now there’s a lot of pressure. His last two races (fourth in the Woodward, third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup) have been good, and I thinkif you handicap this race, we belong in there. I think he’ll run credibly.

“I thought we’d have won the Gold Cup if (jockey) Pat (Valenzuela) had gone inside. The horse likes Kentucky, he likes this track and Pat fits him. Since the horse has been here, he’s been skipping over the track like he was galloping on pillows.”

A good horse who forgets how to win is burden enough for a trainer, but Zito’s life and Strike The Gold’s career have been further complicated since the Derby by a squabble among the colt’s three owners over who should manage the colt.

While the feud has festered, there have been multiple jockey changes--Derby winner Chris Antley is nowhere in sight--and a disagreement about which racing silks should be worn. B. Giles Brophy had been in charge, but his partners, William Condren and Joe Cornacchia, sought to strip him of that authority, and the matter is now in the courts.

Zito says that he doesn’t know who’s right, and generally sidesteps questions about the rift.

“But I will say this,” Zito said. “When you get lucky enough to win the Kentucky Derby with a horse this good, something like this should not take place. It’s something that should have been avoided.”

No matter who calls the shots, Strike The Gold is scheduled to run next year. Nafzger says he doesn’t know about Unbridled’s future beyond Saturday.

Churchill Downs won’t play “My Old Kentucky Home,” because that’s reserved for the Derby, but these are smart horses. They should be able to look up at the twin spires and figure out where they are.

Horse Racing Notes

Bruce Jackson, who trains horse-of-the-year candidate In Excess, hasn’t announced whether he will run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic or the Mile on the grass. Walker and In Excess’ owner, Jack Munari, have until entry time Wednesday morning to decide. Other trainers expect In Excess to run in the Classic. . . . The weather here is unseasonably warm, with temperatures as high as the mid-70s. There was steady rain Sunday, the sun was out Monday and more rain is in the forecast for today and Wednesday. Thursday is supposed to be partly cloudy, with a probability of more rain Friday and even Saturday.

If that forecast holds up, the turf track will be soft, which should favor foreign horses, who are more accustomed to running on yielding courses. . . . When the Breeders’ Cup was run at Churchill Downs in 1988, the temperature was 50 degrees, with drizzle and a muddy track.

Besides their Derby horses, trainers Carl Nafzger and Nick Zito have other probables for the Breeders’ Cup. Nafzger is running Til Forbid, without much hope of winning, in the Distaff, and Zito’s contenders are Agincourt, a $120,000 supplementary in the Juvenile, and Lady d’Accord in the Distaff. . . . Safely Kept, last year’s Sprint winner who was retired last week after suffering a training injury, will be bred next year to Mr. Prospector.

Pat Day, who has won five Breeders’ Cup races with 34 mounts, has calls in all seven races Saturday--Summer Squall in the Classic, Sky Classic in the Turf, Star of Cozzene in the Mile, Dance Smartly in the Distaff, Deposit Ticket in the Sprint, Dance Floor in the Juvenile and Speed Dialer in the Juvenile Fillies. . . . Laffit Pincay is the leading Breeders’ Cup jockey based on victories, with six in 43 races. Jose Santos shares second place with Day with five.