Winning Part of Couple’s Charm

Bob and Beverly Lewis hold hands as sweetly as two teenagers testing new love. They have come to the Arrowhead Pond on a Tuesday afternoon to share their love--of themselves by example and of horse racing by conversation.

Beverly is wearing a black and white checked jacket and a black skirt. Bob has on a blue blazer, khaki pants, a shirt with no tie. Bob and Beverly are tanned and relaxed and seem as if they haven’t a care in the world.

The Newport Beach couple answers questions with humor and sincerity to a group of businessmen and women who are attending the monthly Newsmakers luncheon, a place where people can come and meet famous sports figures.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux had already made the people put down their forks and open up their eyes as he spoke about riding his first Kentucky Derby winner, about how it was when he crossed the finish line. “As a kid, did you ever get lost or hurt and then you suddenly see your mom and you run into her arms? That’s how it was riding across that finish line. Like running into your mother’s arms.”

But Desormeaux was only the warmup act.

It was the Lewises, after all, who captivated the country this summer. This tiny, happy couple were the owners of Charismatic and it was Charismatic, a sweet-faced dynamo of a horse, an athlete bursting with desire, who had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and who came oh, so close to winning the Belmont and the Triple Crown. The world was paying attention to horse racing. The Lewises held their breath, and hands. Until Charismatic tried too hard and hurt its leg.

Strangers cried as Charismatic limped the last few yards of the Belmont, as jockey Chris Antley tumbled from the saddle to grab Charismatic’s leg, to keep the frightened horse from hurting himself further. “We cried too,” Beverly says, four months after the accident. It’s OK to talk about Charismatic now.

The 3-year-old horse has had surgery, has gotten through his three months of stall rest, not easy for an eager athlete. “I understand you can’t even tell by looking which leg was hurt,” Beverly says.

You can’t tell by looking how difficult this summer has been on Bob either. He is 75 years old and looks 60. Beverly looks 50, but we don’t want to blab about the woman’s age. Just the way it is.

On Sept. 2 Bob had heart bypass surgery. It was his second such procedure. “The first time was 16 years ago and if this one lasts 16 years, I’ll be happy,” Bob tells the audience. “That’ll take me into my 90s.”

Beverly says that as she looks back now, as she remembers how excited she and Bob were when Charismatic won the Derby, then the Preakness, as she remembers the parties and the media obligations, as she remembers the hectic travel and the way your heart pounds when the horse you own is bursting down the track, trying to make history, she can be a little scared.

“Knowing how close Bob was to needing the surgery, you think about what could have happened. . . .”

Bob spent 18 days in the hospital. He doesn’t have all his strength back yet, he says, though you can’t tell by looking. He has lost 16 pounds, he says proudly. Though you mentally add 16 pounds and think that Bob would look just fine.

There is no one in racing who doesn’t meet Bob and Beverly Lewis and fall in love with them. It’s hard to root against them.

They are humble. “We only got into this business in 1990,” Bob says, “and there are people who have been in the racing business all their lives and haven’t had the success we’ve had. We know how lucky we are.”

Bob and Beverly take no credit for their winning horses, for Charismatic and for Silver Charm, who also won the first two legs of the Triple Crown before losing in the Belmont. “Our nemesis race,” Bob says. But not with disappointment. With good humor.

Luck does seem to love the Lewises.

Bob had his first bypass after suffering a heart attack. He had the heart attack only a couple of days after returning home from a 33-day boat trip. The boat trip was to bring a new vessel from South Carolina to California. Bob and Beverly decided to bring the boat home themselves, through the Panama Canal.

“Trip of a lifetime,” Beverly says. But if Bob had his heart attack at sea? “What then?” Bob says. “I don’t know.”

But Bob and Beverly know what’s next.

The Breeders’ Cup races next month in Miami. This is the season-ending extravaganza. “Each race that day is like a Super Bowl,” Desormeaux says. “Imagine a day like that.”

The Lewises will have an entry in the race for 2-year-olds. These are the stars-in-waiting, the 2000 Triple Crown hopefuls. “His name is High Yield,” Bob says. “He’s a beautiful horse, just beautiful,” Beverly says. Wayne Lukas is the trainer, just as he was for Charismatic. The future is bright. You can believe that because the Lewises do.

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com