Lincoln Glad When Shoe Is on Other End

Chris Lincoln, the ESPN broadcaster who accepted the blame for the mix-up at the post-position draw for the Kentucky Derby on Wednesday night, was in a deep funk when he arrived at his Louisville hotel room a few hours later.

There was a new format for the draw, and Lincoln’s mistakes on the live national telecast had resulted in the first round being discounted. A second round had to be drawn as trainers were assigned an order of selection to pick their own post positions. Wayne Lukas, who’ll run Cape Town in Saturday’s race, went from having the first pick to No. 10. Tom Meeker, president of Churchill Downs, called Wednesday’s exercise “an embarrassment.”

Back at his hotel, Lincoln anticipated a tough night for sleeping. Then the phone in his room rang.

“Don’t worry about it,” said a voice from California. “I screwed up pretty bad at the Derby too, you know. Nobody’s screwed up like I did. You just got to forget these things and don’t let it bother you.”

The caller was Bill Shoemaker, who misjudged the finish line in the 1957 Derby. Shoemaker stood up for an instant on Gallant Man, his horse broke stride for an instant and they lost by a nose to Iron Liege.

“What a wonderful call,” Lincoln said. “That was great of Shoe to do that. There’s nothing that could have made me feel better Wednesday night. It was still a bad boner, and I’ll take all the blame, but at least I slept a little better after that.”