Fusaichi Pegasus Ends 20-Year Run of Favored Losses

Besides carrying 126 pounds Saturday, Fusaichi Pegasus was shouldering 20 years of baggage that two decades of fallen Kentucky Derby favorites had strewn around. In infamy, some of their names have formed a roster of standout horses--such as Chief’s Crown, Snow Chief, Easy Goer, Arazi and Holy Bull.

Either they found the 1 1/4 miles of the Derby too demanding, or they were unable to run their best race on the big day. In the 126th Derby, Fusaichi Pegasus winked at the distance and authoritatively reached back for a closing kick, blasting apart a field that had been characterized as the most talented in years. This $4-million yearling dazzled a Churchill Downs crowd of 153,204--second largest ever--with a win that was far more convincing than the 1 1/2 lengths the official race chart shows.

Kent Desormeaux, winning his second Derby in three years, virtually carried his whip as an ornament, needing only three cracks of the whip for trainer Neil Drysdale’s strapping colt. The temperature cleared the 82-degree mark, the hottest Derby day in 31 years, and not all the sizzle was in the thermometer.

“This is a brilliant horse,” said Desormeaux, who won his first Derby with Real Quiet in 1998. A man [Japanese owner Fusao Sekiguchi] saw a pretty horse and put his money out. Well, I’ll tell you: This pretty boy can run.”

Fusaichi Pegasus paid $6.60 to win, becoming the first Derby favorite to win the race since Spectacular Bid in 1979. The Preakness at Pimlico on May 20 and the Belmont Stakes in New York on June 10 are the last two legs of the Triple Crown, and already there’s a groundswell of momentum that says this colt can end another of racing’s neglects, a Triple Crown champion. The last horse to sweep was Affirmed in 1978.

“With luck and health, he’s capable of doing that,” said Desormeaux, whose suspect ride in the 1998 Belmont left Real Quiet with a second-place finish against Victory Gallop and only two-thirds of the series.

In one of the cleanest, trouble-free Derbies in a long time, Aptitude, an 11-1 shot, closed well to take second place, four lengths in front of Impeachment. More Than Ready was fourth; Wheelaway, a lightly regarded member of the parimutuel field, finished fifth, and he was followed across the wire by both of Sheik Mohammed’s Dubai imports, China Visit and Curule. Then came Captain Steve, War Chant, Deputy Warlock, Trippi, Exchange Rate, Anees, The Deputy, High Yield, Hal’s Hope, Commendable, Ronton and Graeme Hall.

The biggest disappointment was The Deputy, who was 14th in the 19-horse field. The Santa Anita Derby winner, sent off the second choice at 9-2, did no running for Chris McCarron, racing wide all the way. He was beaten by 23 1/4 lengths. Jenine Sahadi, The Deputy’s trainer, was trying to become the first woman to saddle a Derby winner.

“He never was in the race,” McCarron said. “He broke OK, but he never ran a jump. I can’t say it was the track, because he trained well over it all week. He usually is pulling me the whole race. He never took hold of the bridle.”

Fusaichi Pegasus, a son of Mr. Prospector and Angel Fever, a Danzig mare, was timed in 2:01, tying for the sixth-fastest Derby. For his fifth consecutive victory since he lost by a neck to David Copperfield in a maiden race at Hollywood Park on Dec. 11, the colt earned $1,038,400 of the $1,388,400 purse. Sekiguchi, a 64-year-old Tokyo investor, also earned $150,000 from the New York Racing Assn., which promised a bonus to any horse that swept its Wood Memorial and the Derby. Drysdale’s payoff from that accomplishment is $100,000. Fusaichi Pegasus is the first Wood-Derby winner since Pleasant Colony in 1981.

Angel Cordero, a three-time Derby-winning jockey who was in the press box Saturday, helping with a Derby telecast back to his native Puerto Rico, was asked if he thought Fusaichi Pegasus was Triple Crown timber.

“He’s good enough to win it all,” Cordero said. “The way he won was the best part. [Desormeaux] hardly touched him with the whip. I’d sure come out of retirement if I could ride him.”

Since the Wood on April 15, Fusaichi Pegasus’ pre- and post-race comportment was a talking point, and when he reared up, unseated his exercise rider and tumbled to the ground during a morning gallop at Churchill, Drysdale was bombarded with daily inquiries about whether his colt would survive the Derby’s mob scene. As it turned out, the only untoward thing before the race was when the horse sweated up around the shoulders in the long walk from the barn to the paddock. Turned out that Fusaichi Pegasus, like anyone except other flies, can’t stand flies.

“He got sticky because he had flies on his back,” Drysdale said. “I didn’t think the flies would be a problem, but then on the way over there, I put a fly net on him, and that upset him.”

Fusaichi Pegasus and War Chant were Drysdale’s first Derby starters. He had one of the favorites for the 1992 race, but A.P. Indy was scratched because of a foot bruise on the day of the race.

Fusaichi Pegasus is the fourth Derby winner in the last six years to break from the auxiliary starting gate, which accommodates the overflow when more than 14 horses start. Fusaichi Pegasus originally had the No. 16 stall, but he moved one spot inside with the Thursday scratch of Globalize.

“I was glad we moved to the 15-hole,” Drysdale said. “We were on the rail through much of it, and I’m thankful that the racing gods smiled on us and the rail opened up.”

Farther back than usual, Fusaichi Pegasus broke well, but after half a mile he was 13th, six lengths behind. Hal’s Hope, the Florida Derby winner running for Harold Rose, his 88-year-old owner-trainer, set a solid pace of 45 4/5 for the half-mile, 1:09 4/5 and 1:35 3/5 for the mile. At the quarter pole, Fusaichi Pegasus was in sixth place, Desormeaux having moved him seven lanes wide to find some room. They had the lead by the head of the stretch.

“Every time there was a horse in front of us,” Desormeaux said, “they peeled out to make room. My horse was very attentive any time I wanted to do anything with him. He was easy to ride. The first time I rode him [a win against maidens at Santa Anita on Jan. 2], he was so aggressive. Today he just floated around there. He wasn’t concerned about anything.”

Desormeaux’s encore to Real Quiet was a fifth-place finish with the filly Excellent Meeting in last year’s Derby.

“Last year, they whisked me out of here, to go to another feature event,” Desormeaux said. “Now I don’t need wings, I have wings of my own. I feel like I can fly. I’m going to fly to the roof of this building and take a look around and enjoy some of the bubbly. I might be here for a couple of days.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE FINISH

1. FUSAICHI PEGASUS

*--*

$6.60 $5.60 $4.00

*--*

2. APTITUDE

*--*

$9.80 $5.80

*--*

3. IMPEACHMENT

*--*

$4.00

*--*

*

COVERAGE

APTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

Trainer of Derby runner-up says horse will not run in the Preakness so he will be rested for the Belmont Stakes and a favorable 1 1/2-mile distance. Page 13

RACE CHART: Page 13

TRACKING THE LEAD: Page 13