NOTES : Whiting Hands the Ball to Day, and He Scores

The son of a trainer, Lynn Whiting walked horses when he was 6, worked as a groom at 10 and has been training them since 1968.

At 52, Whiting won the Kentucky Derby with the second horse he ran in the race.

Early Saturday, there was a phone conversation between Whiting and Pat Day, who was going to ride Lil E. Tee for him in the Derby.

Day had ridden in nine Derbys. Whiting had sent out only Lil E. Tee’s sire, At The Threshold, in 1984 and finished third.

Whiting reasoned that the jockey didn’t need much advice about riding Lil E. Tee.

“Pat can run with the ball when you hand it to him,” Whiting said.

Whiting has been training for Lil E. Tee’s owner, Cal Partee, for all the years he has been at Churchill Downs.

“When we bought this horse,” Whiting said, “I said to Mr. Partee, ‘He could be anything.’ ”

Lil E. Tee was a 16-1 longshot Saturday because he hadn’t been spectacular beating what was thought to be a mediocre group of opponents in the Jim Beam Stakes, and Pine Bluff, another Derby starter, had beaten Whiting’s colt in the Arkansas Derby.

“He wasn’t really ready for the Arkansas Derby,” Whiting said. “I didn’t get the work I wanted for him going into the race.”

Whiting thought there were reasons for Arazi’s eighth-place finish.

“I don’t know if this was a fair test for that horse,” he said. “He only had one race to get ready. I think there are some questions to be answered before you can say he’s not a top-class horse.”

Having bought Lil E. Tee after he ran two races, Partee doesn’t know the origin of the colt’s name.

“I’m going to change his name to Big E.T,” Partee joked.

Toni Stevens, wife of jockey Gary Stevens, lost track of the horses and wasn’t aware that Casual Lies almost won the Derby. Gary Stevens rode Winning Colors to victory in the Derby in 1988 and was riding Casual Lies for the first time.

“This colt is big and strong and talented,” Stevens said. “We had a little trouble leaving the gate. The horse inside me (Snappy Landing) came out a bit and the horse outside me (Thyer) came in and I had to steady back.

“Then we went by Dance Floor and opened up a length and a half in the stretch with no effort. I wish I’d had something to run at, because when he made the lead, his ears went up. Lil E. Tee came up so fast on the outside that it surprised him. My colt re-broke, but by then the race was as good as over because Lil E. Tee had too much momentum. I think this horse (Casual Lies) is going to have a say in the Triple Crown, because he acts like he’s going to stand the long journey.”

Casual Lies’ training had been interrupted at Churchill Downs after he got sick from eating bedding that had been chemically treated.

Dance Floor had run two lackluster races before the Derby.

“I called on him a little bit at the three-eighths pole, and he eased away from a couple of horses,” jockey Chris Antley said Saturday. “I still had another gear left. He turned for home and I punched him and he fired hard, and my stomach curled again. He hung on to third, and I was really happy with his race.”

The first three Derby finishers are likely to hook up again in the Preakness at Pimlico on May 16.

Francois Boutin will be in Lexington, Ky., today, to discuss plans for Arazi with the colt’s owners. Arazi probably will be sent back to France, to prepare for the English Derby on June 3.

Horse Racing Notes

Of the $14.9 million bet on all the races at Churchill Downs Saturday, $1.4 million was bet on Arazi, a record for a Derby horse. . . . In another stake on the card, Ifyoucouldseemenow won the $75,000 Brown & Williamson. The 4-year-old filly was saddled by April Mayberry, whose father, Brian, was unable to be in Louisville because of travel problems out of LAX. . . . Pleasant Tap, another California-based horse, won the $75,000 Churchill Downs Stakes for trainer Chris Speckert. Eddie Delahoussaye, unable to ride the ailing A.P. Indy, rode Pleasant Tap.

Free-lance writer Jay Privman contributed to this story.