Winless Tincin Won’t Give Up

For once, officials at Churchill Downs may be privately rooting for an overflow at entry time for the Kentucky Derby. Anything to keep a maiden by the name of Tincin from running in the race.

There’s a 20-horse limit for the Derby, and should more than that want to enter, preference is given to the horses with the most earnings in graded stakes. That would leave the hapless Tincin on the sidelines, where all but a few think he belongs. In seven races, all devastating defeats, Tincin has earned $390. None of that amount is in a graded race, since Tincin--like most maidens--has never run in a stake.

But Steve Larue, Tincin’s trainer, is determined, if not reliable. Larue told Churchill Downs that he’d be bringing his colt from Ellis Park, 120 miles away in Henderson, Ky., for a Thursday workout at the Derby track, but they never showed up. Now Larue plans to work Tincin six furlongs today at Churchill. The 127th Derby will be run two weeks from today.

Powerful wins by trainer Bob Baffert’s two colts--Point Given in the Santa Anita Derby and Congaree in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct--have discouraged many trainers from taking a shot at the Derby. When entries are drawn for post positions on May 2, three days before the race, it’s unlikely that the names of 20 horses will be submitted. In that event, Churchill Downs might have to dust off some loophole to keep Tincin out. Larue is ready to pay the $30,000 that’s required to run in the Derby.

Larue, 45, once worked for Jack Van Berg, the Hall of Fame trainer, and has had his own training license since he was 18.

“I’ve dreamed of running this horse in the Derby from the word go,” Larue said. “He’s a big, long-striding horse with a lot of ability. People might laugh at me, and I can understand that, but I’m still going ahead.”

In a field in Lexington, Ky., about a mile from Keeneland, Larue picked out Tincin from a group of 50 yearlings.

“He was the biggest, that’s why,” Larue said. “I paid $10,000 for him.”

A Kentucky-bred son of Discover and Call Me Whitney, a Jade Hunter mare, Tincin began his career in November at Churchill Downs. Started off at 1 1/16 miles, he finished eighth in a 12-horse field, losing by 12 3/4 lengths.

Then he had some bad races.

Since his debut, Tincin has run six more times--once more at Churchill and five races at Turfway Park--and finished last twice and next to last twice. His best finish came in December at Turfway, where he was fifth, six lengths behind the winner, in a 6 1/2-furlong sprint. In his last start, on April 5 at Turfway, Tincin was 11th in a 12-horse field. The only horse he beat was eased on the far turn, and the Daily Racing Form’s chart footnotes couldn’t have been more dismissive. “Tincin,” the comment read, “was no threat.”

Larue is undeterred. “This horse is a wonder horse in the mornings,” he said. “He gets black type [indicating the fastest workout] every time he goes out there. What we got to do is get him to do the same thing in the afternoons.”

For a shin problem, Larue swam Tincin at Riverside Downs--as David Cross did with Sunny’s Halo at Hollywood Park before he won the 1983 Derby--and Larue may put cotton in Tincin’s ears--as Van Berg did with his stakes-winning Gate Dancer--to keep out the Derby crowd noise.

Larue said that Tincin needs two good workouts--today and next Saturday--to get into the Derby. He said he has hired Mike Morgan, a veteran rider on the Kentucky circuit, to ride in the Derby. In Morgan’s only Derby appearance, he rode Withholding to a ninth-place finish in 1980. Morgan, 47, has never ridden Tincin in a race, but has been on his back for a few workouts.

According to Larue, Churchill Downs officials have not discouraged him from running. He said a track vice president “invited” him to run.

Stewards at Churchill Downs were able to exclude a maiden from the 1991 Derby because he refused to train and wouldn’t break from the starting gate for a morning workout. That was Big Al’s Express, who traveled by van 2,500 miles from Northern California to Kentucky, a trip that took four days. Big Al’s Express and his trainer, Thomas Allen, went away after the horse slammed into another horse out of the gate and finished last in the Derby Trial.

Pendleton Ridge was the first maiden to run in the Derby since Great Redeemer in 1979. In “Kentucky Derby Stories,” a book written by the late Jim Bolus, there’s a chapter called “The Derby’s Dirty Dozen.” Bolus ranked Great Redeemer as one of the 12 worst horses to run in the race.

Great Redeemer finished 47 1/4 lengths behind Spectacular Bid and 25 lengths behind the next-to-last horse. At the other end of the spectrum, three maidens have won the Derby. Buchanan was the first, in 1884, and he was followed by Sir Barton in 1919 and Brokers Tip in 1933. Sir Barton won a couple of races after the Derby. The Preakness and Belmont Stakes.