KENTUCKY DERBY : He’s Still Derby-Crazy After 50 Years : Fred Hooper, 97, Is Unbeaten When the Race Is Run on Second Saturday in June, as It Was When Hoop Jr. Won in 1945

The horse sale was supposed to have been at Saratoga Springs, in Upstate New York. But wartime restrictions on rail travel prevented Kentucky breeders from shipping their yearlings. So Keeneland, the racetrack in Lexington, Ky., threw up a few tents in the paddock and conducted its first thoroughbred auction.

The year was 1943. Fred Hooper, a 45-year-old construction man from Montgomery, Ala., had come to buy his first racehorses. Hooper already knew all about selling horseflesh. Growing up with nine brothers and sisters in rural Georgia, Hooper would rehabilitate $40 draft horses and sell them for $400.

At Keeneland, then, Hooper was no neophyte shopper.

“I knew the difference between a filly and a colt,” he said.

Hooper had studied the sales catalogue and fancied some daughters of Sir Gallahad III, who had already sired two Kentucky Derby winners, one of them Gallant Fox, winner of the Triple Crown in 1930. But before he could get to the fillies, he spotted a bay colt with a scattering of white hairs on his forehead. It was a son of Sir Gallahad III out of One Hour, a Snob II mare.

“When I saw him, I fell in love with him,” Hooper said the other day from Florida, where he and his wife, Wanda, were about to leave for next Saturday’s 121st Kentucky Derby.

Hooper kept going back to look at the slightly built colt. The third time, he patted the horse on the forehead.

“I was determined to buy that colt,” Hooper said.

He did, too, for $10,200.

That was a lot to pay for a horse in 1943. A total of 873 yearlings were sold that year, and the average price was $1,865.99.

“He didn’t have a lot of flesh on him,” Hooper said of his colt. “But he had a smart, smooth walk and he caught my eye.”

Hooper named his first thoroughbred Hoop Jr., after his 4-year-old son. Two years later, in 1945, Hooper and Hoop Jr. were back in the bluegrass--in Louisville this time--where they won the Kentucky Derby.

“I never thought I’d make it this quick,” Hooper said.

Eddie Arcaro, who rode Hoop Jr. and led wire to wire in a six-length victory on a muddy track, had won the Derby twice before and would win two more.

He dismounted and said to Hooper, “That’s the most expensive race you’ll ever win.”

“What?” Hooper said.

“You’ll spend the rest of your life trying to win it again,” Arcaro said.

Arcaro was right. Fifty years later, at 97, Hooper is still chasing a second Derby victory.

“I’d rather win the Derby than make a million dollars in the construction business,” he said.

A man who quit buying horses because he thought it was better and cheaper to breed them on his 1,200-acre farm at Ocala, Fla., Hooper has won the Kentucky Oaks, Churchill Downs’ Derby-eve race for 3-year-old fillies, three times. But the best finish he’s had in three other Derby starts was Crozier’s second place behind Carry Back in 1961.

Hooper’s most promising colt this year, Testability, didn’t develop enough in Florida, missed the important Derby preps there and will not be running Saturday.

Carry Back was clearly a better horse than Crozier, outrunning him seven of 10 times, but Hooper still thought he had the better horse in the Derby and took the loss bitterly. Hooper wouldn’t speak to Jack Price, Carry Back’s owner and trainer, for years after the Derby, and the statute of limitations hasn’t run out for Braulio Baeza, the jockey relentlessly accused by Hooper of moving too soon with Crozier.

“Hooper took it personally for a lot of years, but he’s not a bad guy,” said Price, who is in ill health and will miss his first Derby since Carry Back’s victory.

In a manner of speaking, Ivan Parke was Hoop Jr.’s trainer, but the strong-willed Hooper always called the shots for his stable. When Hoop Jr. was a 2-year-old stabled at Suffolk Downs in Boston, Parke made arrangements to ship him by train to Chicago for the Washington Park Futurity. At the last minute, Hooper called and said, “Forget about Chicago. Ship him to Montgomery for a rest.”

Hoop Jr. won two of five starts in 1944, earning only $5,300. He had sore legs and Hooper wanted to give him time to recover for his 3-year-old campaign. The colt wintered at Hialeah but never ran in Florida. He made his first start as a 3-year-old at Jamaica, N.Y., on May 22, and finished fourth as the 7-10 favorite. Fred Hooper had bet $10,000 on his nose.

May 22? Yes, the first Saturday in May had come and gone without a Derby. Because of World War II, the government ordered all tracks to suspend operations in January. Matt Winn, president of Churchill Downs, wasn’t even sure the Derby was going to be run when nominations closed on April 25.

On May 9, two days after Germany surrendered, the tracks got the federal green light to reopen. The Derby was scheduled for June 9.

The Wood Memorial was scheduled for Jamaica on May 30, and there were so many horses that the race was split into divisions. Hooper bet $10,000 to win again and told Arcaro to rate Hoop Jr. just off the pace. Arcaro said he couldn’t hold the colt, and they went to the lead and stayed there for a 2 1/2-length victory in that division. The win mutuel was $15.20, and Hooper netted $66,000 for his bet, more than three times the purse money.

In Louisville, it rained every day of Derby week. The morning of the race, Hooper and Parke debated about scratching Hoop Jr.

“Let’s put the saddle on him and gallop him around,” Hooper finally said.

The owner and the trainer stood on the rail along the backstretch and watched as Hoop Jr. appeared to revel in the sloppy going.

About eight hours later, it had stopped raining, and Hooper showed up in the old Churchill Downs paddock, wearing a snap-brim fedora, a double-breasted suit and a flowery necktie. At 6 feet 4, he towered over Parke, a former jockey. Parke was nervous, his hands shaking, but Hooper was resolute, his arms folded at the chest, waiting for Arcaro to come out.

In the adjoining stall was Jeep, winner of the other half of the Wood, and his owner, C.V. (Sonny) Whitney, who was wearing his Army colonel’s uniform. Hooper and Whitney spotted each other and politely bowed at the same time.

At $3.70-1, Hoop Jr. was the second choice, behind Calumet Farm’s Pot O’Luck at $3.30-1.

“My colors will look a lot better without the mud,” Hooper told Arcaro. “Just go to the front.”

Hoop Jr. splattered mud on everyone else. He was ahead by six lengths at the top of the stretch, and only the positions of the 15 horses behind him changed, with Pot O’Luck finishing second. Hoop Jr.’s time of 2:07 for 1 1/4 miles was the slowest by a Derby winner in 15 years.

Hooper led his horse into the winner’s circle. He had bet another $10,000, winning $37,000 at the windows and $64,850 at the track paymaster’s office.

Hoop Jr. had worked 1 1/8 miles just two days before the race.

“Those workouts weren’t artificial,” Hooper said. “When you have a horse that can turn in works like that, you haven’t got just a plug.”

The Preakness was only a week later. Arcaro, under contract to Greentree Stable, had another commitment, and Albert Snyder took over. Hooper didn’t make any bets. Hoop Jr., crowded into the rail, rapped himself and finished second to Polynesian, suffering a career-ending tendon injury.

He had raced only nine times, the shortest career of any Derby winner. He was 22 when he died in 1964. Hooper buried him in Alabama, later moving the remains to his Florida farm. On their father’s 75th birthday, Hooper’s four children gave Hoop Jr. a marble headstone.

“He was training so well as a 3-year-old that I had a lot of confidence,” Hooper said this week. “You always want to win another Derby, but at least I’ve done something nobody else has, winning a Derby with my first horse. Hoop Jr. could have been one of the top horses in racing history. He could run fast and he could also go a distance. He could do anything a racehorse should do.”

Fred Hooper Jr. coaches high school football in Montgomery, Ala. His father, who is not a full 6-4 anymore, suffered a broken back three years ago at his Ocala farm.

“Some people were talking about giving me $1 million for an Alydar colt, out of Susan’s Girl,” the senior Hooper said. “I went out into the paddock to show them the horse. I gave him a couple of carrots and petted his face. Then when I turned around to leave, he jumped on me. He must have thought it was time to breed.”

The $1-million offer disappeared. Maybe Fred Hooper will win another Derby instead.