PREAKNESS STAKES : Thunder Gulch Looks Better in Hindsight

Trainer John Kimmel watched the Kentucky Derby on television at his home in Rumson, N.J. When the horses hit the top of the stretch, he shouted to his wife, “Thunder Gulch’s going to win this race!”

Janine Kimmel picked up a pillow and started hitting her husband with it.

“That horse was in your barn! That horse was in your barn!” she yelled.

Thunder Gulch did win the Derby, by 2 1/4 lengths, and John Kimmel had, indeed, once had him.

Kimmel saddled Thunder Gulch for his first race, the colt finishing third in September at Belmont Park. Kimmel was also the trainer of record when Thunder Gulch won his first race, 18 days later. Kimmel was still in charge for Thunder Gulch’s second-place finish in the Cowdin Stakes on Oct. 23. But on the day of his fourth-place finish in the Nashua Stakes, at Aqueduct on Nov. 11, Thunder Gulch changed hands and Wayne Lukas became his trainer.

Now Lukas will try to win Saturday’s Preakness at Pimlico with Thunder Gulch, and if that happens, the colt will have a shot at winning the Belmont Stakes on June 10 and sweeping the Triple Crown. All three victories would be worth $5 million, and Lukas’ share would be $500,000.

Kimmel, a practicing veterinarian before he got his trainer’s license in 1987, is philosophical about having lost the horse that went on to win the Kentucky Derby. From his barn at Belmont Park, he fielded questions gracefully.

“Hindsight is always 20-20,” he said. “It just wasn’t my destiny to win the Derby with this horse.”

Besides Kimmel, there are other have-nots in the complicated Thunder Gulch saga. Pay close attention:

Peter Brant, who raced Gulch, a champion sprinter, and Line Of Thunder, a pocket-sized filly who was difficult to train and won only three races, bred Thunder Gulch and consigned him to a Keeneland yearling auction in 1993. Brant hoped to get $70,000 for the colt, but he was small, like his dam, and brought only $40,000.

The buyer, Floridian Ken Ellenberg, is what’s known in the horse business as a pinhooker, someone who buys young horses with the intention of re-selling them for profit before they ever race.

Ellenberg, through a sales agency, consigned Thunder Gulch to an auction for 2-year-olds in training at Keeneland in April 1994. Ellenberg put a $125,000 reserve on the horse, which meant that he didn’t have to sell if the bidding fell short of that amount. Once again, Thunder Gulch wasn’t worth as much as his owner thought he would be.

This is where Kimmel came in. One of his clients, Howard Rozins, formed a group to buy Thunder Gulch in a $125,000 deal, but when Rozins’ partners didn’t raise their share of the money, Rozins bought 60% of the colt and Ellenberg retained the rest.

Before Thunder Gulch’s first race, Ellenberg was shopping around his 40% interest for $80,000. Kimmel said that several potential buyers backed off after the colt’s third-place finish in his debut. Thunder Gulch raced greenly that day, got into trouble at the head of the stretch and bounced off the rail, but still he was beaten by only a neck.

Next came his maiden victory and a 2 1/2-length defeat in the Cowdin, and by now an Irish veterinarian, Demi O’Byrne, was looking to buy an American horse for Michael Tabor, a Monte Carlo resident and a major shareholder in Arthur Prince, a company that runs licensed betting shops in the United Kingdom.

Kimmel said that on the morning of the Nashua, Tabor paid $475,000 for 100% of Thunder Gulch. He went off the even-money favorite, was fourth early on and never improved his position, losing by almost five lengths.

“After that race, buying him didn’t look like the greatest decision in the world,” Tabor said.

Minutes after the Nashua, Thunder Gulch was led over to Lukas’ barn. Lukas had met O’Byrne much earlier at the Keeneland sales.

“He became a friend,” Lukas said. “We respected each other, because we both had an eye for a horse.”

Both Thunder Gulch’s former trainer and his new conditioner thought that Tabor had paid a “fair price” for the colt.

“It was a win-win situation,” Lukas said. “I thought the price was right on the money. The colt always had the ability to be a solid horse, but we just didn’t know how solid.”

Lukas didn’t waste any time in finding a race for the new horse in his barn. Two weeks after the Nashua, Thunder Gulch won the 1 1/8-mile Remsen at Aqueduct.

While with Kimmel, Thunder Gulch was an immature horse, getting into trouble, leaning on other horses. For the race after the Remsen, the Hollywood Futurity, Lukas put blinkers on Thunder Gulch, to keep him more focused, and the horse has been running with the extra equipment ever since.

After a second-place finish behind Afternoon Deelites at Hollywood Park, Lukas sent Thunder Gulch to Gulfstream Park for the start of his 3-year-old season, and he won the Fountain of Youth Stakes and the Florida Derby before that inexplicable fourth-place run in the Blue Grass at Keeneland, three weeks before the Kentucky Derby.

“He improved beyond any of my estimates,” Kimmel said. “I thought he might be a stakes winner, but I never thought he’d be a horse that would win the Kentucky Derby.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Preakness Stakes

Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch drew the outside post for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes. A look at the field in order of post position:

PP Horse Jockey Odds 1. Itron Frazier 20 2. Our Gatsby Desormeaux 10 3. Mystery Storm Perret 20 4. Talkin Man Smith 4 5. Tejano Run Bailey 6 6. Pana Brass Maple 30 7. Timber Country Day 9-2 8. Star Standard McCarron 12 9. Mecke Davis 15 10. Oliver’s Twist Delgado 12 11. Thunder Gulch Stevens 2