Really, What’s Not to Like?

There’s at least one in every Kentucky Derby: A sentimental choice, a horse the public can’t help but latch on to.

Two years ago, that horse was Funny Cide, a pitiable New York-bred gelding who was bought on the cheap by a group of former schoolboy chums.

Last year, it was Smarty Jones, a wrong-side-of-the-tracks Pennsylvania-bred from Philadelphia Park, which is neither Main Line nor mainstream in the world of horse racing.

When both horses won, the sentimentalists danced all the way to the windows. Funny Cide paid $27.60 for $2, Smarty Jones $10.20. In the press box, there were cartwheels all around. True, there’s not supposed to be any cheering up there, but this was the kind of feel-good story that racing gets too few of.

Smarty Jones made his co-owner, a man in a wheelchair, extremely happy, and for the 131st Derby, to be run Saturday at Churchill Downs, there’s a breeder in Florida who could also use some cheer. John Martin Silvertand, who bred Derby contender Afleet Alex by sending his mare, Maggy Hawk, to the stallion Northern Afleet, was diagnosed with colon cancer two years ago. At Breeders’ Cup time last year, his prognosis was not good.

Afleet Alex, the Arkansas Derby winner, will probably be the third choice, behind Bellamy Road and Bandini, in the Kentucky Derby. Named after children of three of the five owners of Afleet Alex, the colt has helped raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a Philadelphia-area charity that funds research for neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of children’s cancer. The posthumous poster girl for the cause is Alexandra Scott, who was 8 when she lost her battle with the cancer last year.

Alexandra is not related to the owners of Afleet Alex, but one of them, managing partner Chuck Zacney, took interest in the cause after his son, Alex, told him about Alexandra’s fatal condition.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand is expected to get another boost Tuesday when Taylor Made and WinStar, the Kentucky farms who direct the stud career of Northern Afleet, will auction off a breeding to the stallion at Churchill Downs. Proceeds will go toward the cancer research.

The soap-opera trappings with Afleet Alex go on and on. His trainer, Tim Ritchey, who has never had a Derby starter, said that Maggy Hawk, the dam, did not have enough milk to feed her colt after he was foaled.

“Two girls with bottles fed him at the farm,” Ritchey said. “They kept him alive. This is a horse who’s not trained by a Todd Pletcher, a Wayne Lukas or a Bob Baffert, and he’s not being ridden by a John Velazquez or an Edgar Prado, so he’s an underdog, and we like it that way.”

Silvertand, whose illness has forced him to cut back on his breeding operation, was in a foal-sharing situation with a partner, and lost a coin flip that determined who would take over the young horse. Still unnamed, Afleet Alex was consigned to an auction of unraced 2-year-olds in Timonium, Md., and Zacney’s Cash Is King Stable bought him for $75,000. The group was formed early last year and a month later Afleet Alex was its first purchase.

Running nine times, Afleet Alex has six wins, two seconds and purses of $1.3 million. None of the 21 Derby probables -- only 20 will be allowed to run -- has earned more, and only one -- Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Wilko -- has banked more than $1 million. Wilko, third in the Santa Anita Derby last month, was shipped from California to Churchill Downs on Sunday.

In the Breeders’ Cup, run at Lone Star Park near Dallas, Afleet Alex took the wide way around and was beaten by a half-length. Since then, he spent the winter with the rest of Ritchey’s horses at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., where he won a minor sprint stake, finished last at 1 1/16 miles in the Rebel and then rebounded to win the 1 1/8 -mile Arkansas Derby by a record eight lengths. Smarty Jones’ prelude to Kentucky was also the Arkansas Derby.

At 7-10 in the Rebel, Afleet Alex ran so poorly that Ritchey had him scoped after the race.

“We had scoped him three days before the race and he was fine,” Ritchey said. “The analogy I make is that it was like a kid going to sleep, then waking up sick the next morning. The scoping after the race turned up a lot of mucous. It was in his lung cavity. It hadn’t traveled up the trachea, and wasn’t visible when we first scoped. He missed a week of training, but then he came back and ran a big race. I feel good about the Derby. If he has a good week, I think we’ll be right on track for Saturday.”

Smarty Jones was ridden by Stewart Elliott, who had never competed in the Derby and had ridden in only one race at Churchill before his Derby win. Afleet Alex will be in the hands of Jeremy Rose, likewise a Derby rookie.

Rose, 26, won 312 races, primarily in Delaware and Maryland, in 2001, when he was voted an Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice.

He plans to ride at least six races at Churchill before Saturday.

In the days after the Arkansas Derby, on April 16, there was no word from the Afleet Alex camp about who would ride the colt in the Kentucky Derby. John Velazquez, last year’s Eclipse Award winner for journeyman jockey, had been called in from Florida to ride in the Rebel, the only time Rose wasn’t aboard, but Velazquez was committed to Bandini, the Blue Grass winner. Finally, Ritchey and his owners huddled and decided to stick with Rose.

“It’s fate that Jeremy is riding this horse,” Ritchey said. “And I don’t want to be tempting fate.”

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Sunday’s five-furlong workouts at Churchill Downs by Kentucky Derby probables: Bellamy Road and High Fly, both 1:00 2/5 ; Noble Causeway, 1:00; Bandini, 1:00 3/5 ; Spanish Chestnut, 1:00 2/5 . Giacomo worked six furlongs at Hollywood Park in 1:11 4/5 and will be flown to Kentucky, along with Buzzards Bay, on Wednesday.... Joe Bravo will ride Spanish Chestnut, expected to be the Derby pace-setter, and Jose Valdivia Jr. has the assignment on Going Wild.

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Triple Crown Ratings

Tribune Co. ratings for 3-year-olds leading to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes:

*--* Horse Jockey Tra St W P S Last race Next race ine r 1. Javier Nic 5 4 0 0 Wood Memorial Kentucky Bellamy Castell k (1st) Derby, Road ano Zit Saturday o 2. John Tod 5 3 1 0 Blue Grass Kentucky Bandini Velazqu d Stakes (1st) Derby, ez Ple Saturday tch er 3. Jeremy Tim 9 6 2 0 Arkansas Derby Kentucky Afleet Rose Rit (1st) Derby, Alex che Saturday y 4. Gary Nic 6 2 3 0 Florida Derby Kentucky Noble Stevens k (2nd) Derby, Causewa Zit Saturday y o 5. High Jerry Nic 6 5 0 1 Florida Derby Kentucky Fly Bailey k (1st) Derby, Zit Saturday o 6. Sun Edgar Nic 7 3 0 2 Blue Grass Kentucky King Prado k Stakes (4th) Derby, Zit Saturday o 7. High Ramon Bob 4 3 1 0 Blue Grass Kentucky Limit Domingu by Stakes (2nd) Derby, ez Fra Saturday nke l 8. Wilko Corey Cra 14 3 2 6 Santa Anita Kentucky Nakatan ig Derby (3rd) Derby, i Dol Saturday las e 9. Coin Javier Tod 5 2 1 1 Coolmore Kentucky Silver Castell d Lexington Derby, ano Ple (1st) Saturday tch er 10. Mark Jef 8 3 1 2 Santa Anita Kentucky Buzzard Guidry f Derby (1st) Derby, s Bay Mul Saturday lin s

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Triple Crown panel: Bill Christine, Los Angeles Times; Tom Keyser, Baltimore Sun; Dave Joseph, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Neil Milbert, Chicago Tribune; Paul Moran, Newsday