He Not Only Won Race, He Saved Face

The story of the eighth race at Churchill Downs on Saturday was etched on the faces of the 14 riders.

Chris McCarron’s was clean.

Most of the others were caked with mud.

Go For Gin had turned what might have been the most exciting 2:03 3/5 in sports into a stroll in the slop.

No bull. Go For Gin did what Holy Bull was supposed to do. He got the early lead and improved his position to win by two lengths.

McCarron, the Hall of Fame jockey, was happy to be along for the ride.

His experience on Go For Gin had consisted of a single workout Sunday morning.

Last year, 2-year-old-old Eclipse Award winner Dehere looked as though he would be McCarron’s mount the first Saturday of May in 1994.

After Dehere got hurt during the winter, it was going to be Numerous from the Charlie Whittingham stable.

However, Numerous was a disappointment in the Santa Anita Derby and wound up winning the Derby Trial, but not racing in the Derby.

Three weeks ago, Go For Gin, with Jerry Bailey aboard, finished second to Irgun, with Gary Stevens, in the Wood Memorial.

No fool, Bailey chose to ride Irgun in the Derby. Stevens already was booked on Brocco.

I mean, how was Bailey to know that Irgun would come up with a hoof problem and wouldn’t even be able to watch the Derby on TV?

McCarron’s agent, Scotty McClellan, called Go For Gin’s connections about the opening.

“The decision took about five or six seconds,” co-owner William Condren said.

“Chris’ ride was perfect,” trainer Nick Zito said. “That’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.”

It was a far less eventful trip than the one that brought McCarron his first Derby victory in 1987.

Down the stretch, Alysheba nearly went to his knees after clipping heels with Bet Twice.

This time, McCarron got the job done more with brain than brawn.

The instructions from Zito were to press the pace if nobody else went after Holy Bull.

Well, the Bull didn’t fire on the kind of off track that he was bred to love, and McCarron had the 9-1 fifth choice in front by the clubhouse turn.

He never looked back. Oh, McCarron did once or twice to see if anyone was coming, but nobody made a big move at him although Eddie Delahoussaye tried and got Strodes Creek within two lengths at the end.

None other than Jerry Bailey rode Blumin Affair to a third-place finish.

The second choice of the public, Brocco, was fourth. It wasn’t a case of nerves. In fact, he was too relaxed, taking in the Derby scene as the gates opened and getting left.

What Brocco saw was a lot of women wearing plastic hats, instead of their more fashionable and traditional bonnets, because of the rain.

The sun was greeted by a tremendous ovation at 12:15 but didn’t stay long.

Listed at 20-1 in the morning line, Soul Of The Matter was bet down to 16-1 by hunch players who liked the chances of a horse owned by the composer, Burt Bacharach, of “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.”

Ridden by Santa Anita leading man Kent Desormeaux, Soul Of The Matter got home fifth.

McCarron, the redhead from Massachusetts who lives in Beverly Hills, became the first Southern California-based rider to win the Derby since Patrick Valenzuela on Sunday Silence in 1989.

Asked why he didn’t take up horseback riding until the advanced age of 17, McCarron, 39, replied that he was too busy finishing high school.

He is an articulate spokesman for the sport that he loves so much and tries to pay back.

While being interviewed after the Derby, he made sure to plug a benefit hoedown and barbecue for the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund June 16 in Burbank.

McCarron, his wife, Judy, and comedian Tim Conway established the fund for disabled riders seven years ago.

Judy hadn’t planned on making the trip to Louisville this year.

“When I got home Sunday from the workout back here and was feeling so good about Go For Gin’s chances, I told her that she had to come,” Chris said.

“She asked me why,” he said.

“I told her because she was my good-luck charm. That was a little joke. It seems that I hadn’t been doing too well in big races when she was at the track.

“But I won the San Juan Capistrano with Bien Bien when she was there, and I told her that the jinx was over.”

It sure seemed like it during the eighth at Churchill Saturday.