Trainer Drysdale Does It His Way

By BILL CHRISTINE

May 18, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BALTIMORE —

The quirky ways of Neil Drysdale are well-known in California racing circles and became familiar at Churchill Downs, where the English-born trainer saddled Fusaichi Pegasus to win the Kentucky Derby 12 days ago.

But over the years, Drysdale had seldom run a horse at Pimlico Race Course, so officials at the Baltimore track, where he will try to win the Preakness Saturday, didn’t know what to expect.

Now they know: With Neil Drysdale, you never know.

First, Drysdale told the Pimlico management that the Preakness stakes barn, on the front side of the track, wouldn’t do for his colt. He wanted Fusaichi Pegasus bedded down on the backstretch, perhaps half a mile away from the media crush and the stakes barn that has housed almost every Derby winner for more than 30 years.

Then, when Fusaichi Pegasus arrived at Pimlico Wednesday, fresh from a 65-minute flight from Louisville, Ky., Drysdale sent track executives scrambling when he decided that the horse’s big white van should be unloaded within a few feet of the barn, rather than in an area next to the running strip, where a mob of cameramen had assembled.

After Fusaichi Pegasus was safely deposited in his stall, where he was last seen slurping water from a large blue pail, Drysdale spent some time with reporters. Away from the mob, Joe De Francis, the president of Pimlico, seemed exasperated.

“Far be it from me to second-guess a trainer who just went into the Racing Hall of Fame,” De Francis said. “But why is he putting this horse all the way over here? On the other side, we have a nice grazing area for the horses. It’s quiet over there. And over here, in these barns, it’s a lot hotter than where the Derby winner usually stays. I just don’t understand it.”

Drysdale has frequently confounded racing offices, the media and his owners with unorthodox moves, but the bottom line is that he is in the Hall of Fame. In a career as a head trainer that started in 1974, after an extended apprenticeship with some of the most knowledgeable horsemen in the world, Drysdale has won about 950 races, including many of the most prestigious stakes in the game. Even before his Derby win, his horses had earned more than $50 million. He has won five Breeders’ Cup races--one on the grass with Prized, a horse that had never run on turf--and trained five Eclipse award winners, the most noted A.P. Indy, who was voted horse of the year in 1992.

For Drysdale, however, the success and accolades that have come his way seem to make him blush. Unlike a Wayne Lukas or a Bob Baffert, he doesn’t toot his horn. Unlike most high-profile trainers, he doesn’t run many horses. In 1998, one of his best years, Drysdale saddled horses that earned $6.5 million, yet he had only 277 starters, half what many of the other leaders on the national money list sent to the track.

The Drysdale method is to fine-tune horses until they’re ready to run in races carefully selected and best suited to their individual talents and skills. And if Drysdale doesn’t believe a horse is ready to run, you won’t see that horse in the entries.

At 52, he still doesn’t especially relish dissecting his methods, even though, under the glare of the Triple Crown races, he has been asked often about his avant-garde style. A few days before the Derby, coming about as close as he’s going to come to explaining himself, he said: “I train all my horses individually. I stay fairly flexible about what I do. There is a game plan, but there are no ground rules.”

His training job with Fusaichi Pegasus is unsurpassed. The $4-million yearling, described as a “mental case” by another trainer, went into the Derby after only five races, the last of those a curious appearance at Aqueduct in the Wood Memorial, a race no longer known as a productive prep for Churchill Downs. Most trainers based in California would have stayed home, running their horses in the Santa Anita Derby, or perhaps as a second option, would have run in the Blue Grass at Keeneland, where many Derby winners have built their foundations.

But because Drysdale wanted to test the waters in the East, to see what the head-case horse could do on the road, and because Drysdale trusted the Aqueduct racing strip in case of rain, Fusaichi Pegasus was sent off to New York. He blew away the Wood field and duplicated that effort three weeks later in the Derby.

“I had full faith in Mr. Drysdale,” said Fusao Sekiguchi, the owner of Fusaichi Pegasus, after the Derby. “I know that he is a remarkable horseman. Whatever he does, I knew it was the right thing to do. He never really talks to me in detail about the horse and how he’s being trained. But when I see his eyes, I know he has confidence.”

Neil Douglas Drysdale was born in Surrey, England, on Dec. 11, 1947. His father, an officer in the British Royal Marines, had hunted foxes and Drysdale worked with jumpers on the showhorse circuit and spent time at breeding farms in Europe and South America before he took a post with Tartan Farms in Ocala, Fla., in the late 1960s.

“I worked under John Hartigan at Tartan, and he was the first person to be strict with me about what I was doing,” Drysdale said. “It was a good experience.”

From there, he spent a couple of years as an assistant to trainer Roger Laurin, whose father Lucien had trained Secretariat. Drysdale caught the eye of Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe, who ran the racing department at Santa Anita. Kilroe recommended him to trainer Charlie Whittingham, who was looking for an assistant, and that was the start of a four-year stint that led to Drysdale’s first head training job.

“The influence of Charlie Whittingham on my life cannot be underestimated,” Drysdale said. “We spent a lot of time talking horses, and I was able to watch what he did every day. Two summers, he sent me overseas to work with such respected trainers as Vincent O’Brien. I don’t know if Charlie wanted me to learn more, or whether he was just hinting that I leave.”

Among other things, Whittingham passed on his patience with a horse. The best example of Drysdale’s conservative bent is A.P. Indy. The Santa Anita Derby winner, who would have been the second choice in the 1992 Kentucky Derby, bruised a foot the day before the race, and Drysdale and Alex Harthill, the master veterinarian, worked through the night to keep him in the race. But on Saturday, Drysdale scratched his horse.

A.P. Indy probably could have run in the Preakness, two weeks later, but Drysdale cautiously chose to give him extra recovery time.

“The Peter Pan [Stakes] at Belmont Park was a week after the Preakness,” Drysdale said, “and I thought we would be better off waiting for that race.”

A.P. Indy won the Peter Pan, then captured the Belmont and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the fall to become national champion.

When he was elected to the Hall of Fame, the announcement coming four days before this year’s Derby, Drysdale said he was humbled. After the Derby win, he again said he was humbled. Asked what he meant, he said: “It’s the horses that get you here. When you train horses, you lose a lot more than you win, but it still comes down to the horses. Without them, there isn’t a sport.”

Fusaichi Pegasus, the Kentucky Derby winner, was made the 3-5 favorite Wednesday, when eight horses were entered for the Preakness

If Fusaichi Pegasus goes off at 3-5 in the middle race of the Triple Crown, he will become the lowest-priced Preakness horse since Easy Goer was 3-5 in 1989. Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer by a nose after a torrid stretch duel.

Fusaichi Pegasus will break from the No. 7 post position in the 1 3/16-mile race. Representatives of five other horses had already selected their posts before trainer Neil Drysdale took his turn. The selection procession is determined by a blind draw.

“There are only eight horses,” Drysdale said, “and there’s a quarter-mile run to the first turn. I don’t think the draw is that important in this race.”

Red Bullet, who finished second to Fusaichi Pegasus in the Wood Memorial and then skipped the Derby, is second on the morning line at 9-2, followed by Impeachment and Captain Steve, both 8-1.

“I’d feel better if Fusaichi Pegasus would start behind the gate,” said Captain Steve’s trainer, Bob Baffert, who won the Preakness with Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in 1998.

The eight-horse field is the smallest for the Preakness since Hansel beat seven rivals in 1991.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Preakness Post Positions

The field for Saturday’s 125th Preakness Stakes. Post time: 2:25 p.m. PDT. Weights: 126 pounds; Distance: 1 3/16 miles; Purse: $1 million--First place: $650,000. Second place: $200,000. Third place: $100,000. Fourth place: $50,000.

PP & Horse: 1. Hugh Hefner

Jockey: Victor Espinoza

Trainer: Martin Jones

Owner: King Edward Racing Stable

Odds: 20-1

PP & Horse: 2. Snuck In

Jockey: Cash Asmussen

Trainer: Steve Asmussen

Owner: Ackerley Brothers Farm

Odds: 12-1

PP & Horse: 3. Impeachment

Jockey: Craig Perret