After a 24-Year Absence, Jockey Earlie Fires Gets Another Shot at First Kentucky Derby Victory

Talk about a long time between drinks! Earlie Fires, who last rode in a Kentucky Derby in 1974, is back after a 24-year hiatus. That’s a record gap for a jockey in the Derby.

Fires, 51, rode in the 100th Derby, and now he’ll make a belated encore in the 124th, riding longshot Robinwould on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

“I’ve just never got a good 3-year-old,” Fires said in explaining his prolonged absence here. “I’m like Dan Marino. I win all the races, but never the big one. He wins all the games, but never gets the Super Bowl.”

Fires is bearing down on 6,000 wins, a level reached by only 11 other jockeys, and he said that his passion for horse racing has not lessened from the day he posted victory No. 1, at Oaklawn Park in his native Arkansas in 1965.

Jerry Calvin, the trainer of Robinwould, said that Fires’ fitness hasn’t suffered over the years, either.

“Earlie’s been riding for me for a lot of years,” Calvin said. “There’s nobody stronger who’s now riding. He’s just as fit as he was 25 years ago.”

In five tries, Fires has never won a Derby. His best finishes were a third with Blue Skyer, a horse from the mutuel field who missed by less than a length against Kauai King in 1966, and a second by Francie’s Hat, who was moved up from third place after the disqualification of the winner, Dancer’s Image, in 1968.

The centennial Derby was a 23-horse free-for-all, a race won by Cannonade on a day when hardly a horse in the field escaped trouble. Little Current, stopped repeatedly by bottlenecks, was probably best, but ran fifth, and it cost him the Triple Crown, as he went on to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Fires finished 13th with Sharp Gary, another horse that had been dropped into the mutuel betting field because the Churchill Downs handicapper thought he had little chance.

“My horse was all over the place,” Fires said.

Riding Robinwould on Saturday, Fires will break the record held by Bobby Baird, who rode in the 1956 Derby and then waited 22 years before he reappeared. And who was waiting behind a jockeys’ room door, ready to spray Fires with champagne, when he reached the 5,000-win mark at Arlington International in August 1990? It was Eddie Baird, the riding son of Bobby Baird.

In Fires’ last Derby in 1974, the other jockeys included Angel Cordero, who won with Cannonade, and Bill Shoemaker, Darrel McHargue, Bobby Ussery, Milo Valenzuela, Don MacBeth, Laffit Pincay, Bill Hartack, Howard Grant, Braulio Baeza, Don Brumfield, Mike Manganello and Eddie Maple.

That’s a prestigious group--some of them are in the Racing Hall of Fame--but only Pincay is still active. At 52, he’s in California, sitting on more than 8,600 wins and chasing Shoemaker’s record of 8,833.

Fires was on the Hall of Fame ballot this year, but when the election results were announced Tuesday, the inductee was Jacinto Vasquez. Fires will have to wait another year.

Talking about his Hall of Fame prospects last weekend, Fires seemed unconcerned.

“It’d be an honor, sure,” he said. “But I’ve already won the thing that means the most to me. I won the George Woolf Award at Santa Anita [in 1991], and that came from a vote of my peers, the other riders. That’s the one that counts.”

Willard Proctor, a trainer who was on the ballot this year--Bill Mott won that vote--started Fires on his way 33 years ago, holding his riding contract and sending a lot of mounts his way. In 1965, after a start at Oaklawn, Fires moved on to the old Miles Park, which used to be about five miles from Churchill Downs, and he finished the year with 224 wins.

Then and now, Fires’ reputation revolved around being an early-speed rider, a jockey who could fire his horses from the gate. Fires said that is a bum rap, an oversimplification, but it’s a label that might have kept him from riding promising 3-year-olds that would be expected to stretch out to 1 1/4 miles in the Derby. Truth be known, Calvin said, Fires is one of the best grass riders around, and, like Pincay, he’s a strong finisher with a horse.

“I’m a race rider, period,” Fires said. “If my orders [from the trainer] are to be on the lead, I’ll be there, but that’s not the only way I can ride. If my orders are to sit back, that’s where I’ll be. I ride a lot of horses now for Tom Proctor [Willard’s son], and most of them come from off the pace. I don’t think he’d use me if he didn’t think I could win with that type of horse.”

Diogenes, looking for the last honest man, would have quit with Fires. They tell the story in Chicago about Mark Guidry, a jockey who was frequently in trouble with the authorities, repeatedly calling in sick. After another sick call, the stewards were about to throw the book at Guidry when Fires intervened.

“Oh, no,” Fires said. “He really was sick. We went out to dinner, and something he ate didn’t agree with him.”

Fires didn’t have to say one more word. The stewards accepted Guidry’s excuse.

Fires has ridden most of his career at Arlington, before and after the fire in 1985, but the track, once the jewel of Midwestern racing, has suspended operations because of competition from riverboat casinos.

“It makes me sick to think Arlington’s not there anymore,” Fires said. “Now I’ll stay at Churchill to ride. But here, it’s like starting all over again, convincing trainers that you can still do it.”

The night Arlington burned, Fires and two other jockeys crossed firemen’s lines to go into the jockey room and save their saddles and other equipment.

“These were special saddles, made with wood instead of plastic,” Fires said. “The guy who made them had died, and there wasn’t anybody around to make them anymore.”

Fires also pulled out tack for jockeys who weren’t there.

“But I’ve got to tell you the truth,” he said. “I got my stuff out first. Then I went back.”

Fires is an honest man, even when the truth’s against him.

Horse Racing Notes

Indian Charlie, listed by the Daily Racing Form as the 2-1 favorite for the Derby, worked five furlongs Tuesday in 1:00 4/5. His stablemate, Real Quiet, was timed in :59 1/5. . . . Nite Dreamer, Heart Surgeon and Voyamerican, who had been possible starters for the Derby, won’t run, and a decision on Smolderin Heart won’t be made until entry time today. . . . The status of Yarrow Brae is still uncertain. . . . The definite starters are Artax, Basic Trainee, Cape Town, Chilito, Favorite Trick, Halory Hunter, Hanuman Highway, Indian Charlie, Nationalore, Old Trieste, Parade Ground, Real Quiet, Robinwould, Rock And Roll and Victory Gallop.

A field of 13 is entered for Friday’s $500,000 Kentucky Oaks, the stake for 3-year-old fillies, at Churchill Downs. Trainer Wayne Lukas, who has won the race four times, but not since 1990, will run both Well Chosen, the Ashland Stakes winner, and Star Of Broadway. The field, in post-position order: Let, Occhi Verdi, Really Polish, Keeper Hill, Roza Robata, Banshee Breeze, Diamond On The Run, Came Unwound, Well Chosen, Nurse Goodbody, Try N Sue, Star Of Broadway and Soft Senorita.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

KENTUCKY DERBY AT A GLANCE

When: Saturday

Where: Churchill Downs, Louisville

Post: 2:30 p.m.

TV: Channel 7

Probable Starters: Artax, Basic Trainee, Cape Town, Chilito, Favorite Trick, Halory Hunter, Hanuman Highway, Indian Charlie, Nationalore, Old Trieste, Parade Ground, Real Quiet, Robinwould, Rock And Roll, Victory Gallop