Spate of bad news precedes Kentucky Derby

It’s Kentucky Derby time again, and Nick Zito is looking toward the winner’s circle as always. Not for himself, though. For the sport.

These are the darkest days for thoroughbred racing.

Hardly any of the news leading up to next Saturday’s Run for the Roses has been good. And with no clear-cut favorite, the upcoming Triple Crown series has an unsettled feeling to it.

Zito can’t win this time because he has no starter in the field, but he hopes whoever does “goes into the winner’s circle and preaches the good of the sport.”

“I would like to see something nice happen -- and something nice might happen,” he says.

Thoroughbred racing fans would probably would like that, too, particularly since most of the sport’s recent headlines have been more heartwrenching than heartwarming:

* Owner-breeder Ernie Paragallo was arrested and charged with cruelty to animals for allegedly neglecting 177 thoroughbreds on his farm in upstate New York.

* Jeff Mullins, who trains early Derby favorite I Want Revenge, was fined and suspended for illegally injecting another of his horses in a security barn in New York.

* The co-owners of two-time horse of the year Curlin were convicted of scamming millions of dollars from clients who won settlements in the fen-phen diet drug scandal. Each faces more than 100 years in prison.

* Magna Entertainment Corp., the largest racetrack owner in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy in March, jeopardizing the future of tracks including Pimlico, home of the Preakness Stakes.

Though it had nothing to do with the Triple Crown, the worst of all horse news involved the deaths in Florida of 21 prized polo ponies who ingested an improperly mixed supplement before one of the sport’s top tournaments.

It’s against this backdrop that the 135th Derby will be raced, with an expected full field of 20 colts bucking to wear the garland of roses at Churchill Downs.

Last year, Big Brown gained a popular following by winning the Derby and the Preakness but finished dead last in the Belmont Stakes. Fans forgave the horse, but weren’t so keen on his human handlers. Rick Dutrow admitted to injecting the colt with a then-legal anabolic steroid, and the trainer’s own history of drug violations, combined with his frequent boasting, drew flak.

Though the more than 30 prep races since January failed to produce an overwhelming favorite for the 1 1/4 -mile Derby, there are a handful of standouts.

Bob Baffert, three-time Derby winner and newly elected to racing’s Hall of Fame, will saddle Pioneerof the Nile, who is unbeaten in four starts under Baffert. The Santa Anita Derby winner, however, is untested on dirt after spending the winter on synthetic surfaces. The white-haired trainer is seeking his first trip to the Derby winner’s circle since 2002.

“You need a lot of luck and you have to be doing great that week,” he said. “You may have the best horse, but if he doesn’t break well or something happens, that’s what makes the Derby so intriguing.”

Another California horse, I Want Revenge, headed east to race on the dirt, and came away with wins in the Gotham Stakes and the Wood under 19-year-old jockey Joe Talamo.

“In the Gotham, he awed me,” Mullins said. “We figured he would like dirt, but that race, it took a couple days for that race to sink in. It was amazing.”

I Want Revenge never seemed to find his stride on Santa Anita’s synthetic track, but once he hit the dirt, Mullins noticed the colt’s action changed.

“On synthetic, he holds his head really low and his knees come real high, but on dirt he holds his head straight out and throws his feet straight out and is more fluid,” the trainer said.

Mullins was suspended for seven days beginning May 3, the day after the Derby, and fined $2,500 for violating New York racing rules by giving one of his horses an over-the-counter medication while in a security barn at New York’s Aqueduct track. He has said it was an honest mistake.

I Want Revenge also has a Big Brown connection -- Michael Ivarone, whose IEAH Stable bought an ownership interest in the colt.

The Derby field will include Blue Grass winner General Quarters, whose 75-year-old owner-trainer Tom McCarthy is old-school, saying he gives his colt only “good water, good feed and good attention.”

“I’m not much on any type of drug or anything,” the retired Louisville high school principal said. “He’s never been on steroids or anything of that nature. Once you put ‘em on something like that you’ve got to keep it up and when you take it off they run downhill.”

Another top Derby contender, Quality Road, might be sidelined before he even gets to Louisville.

The Florida Derby winner developed a crack on the inside of his right front hoof, just after the same injury to the right hind hoof was declared healed.

Trainer Jimmy Jerkens said if the injury creates a setback in Quality Road’s training it’s unlikely he’ll run in the Derby.

Quality Road has won three of four starts, including a 1 3/4 -length victory in the Florida Derby over Dunkirk, another top contender.

Trainer Todd Pletcher is expected to start Dunkirk and Advice in an attempt to end his 0-for-21 streak in the Derby.

If one of his colts is in front down the stretch, Pletcher didn’t dismiss the possibility of jumping out of his box seat.

“Man, there better be some sort of parachute in place,” he said.

That kind of exuberance has been missing lately.

Aside from deaths of the polo ponies, the allegations against Paragallo set off the most shock waves. The owner-breeder who has started four horses in the Derby, most recently in 2004, is accused of neglecting horses on his farm by leaving them with little food and shelter to survive the New York winter.

“Ernie’s been really good, generous with all his people,” Baffert said. “I just don’t know what happened there.”

And then there are the awful memories from last year’s Derby of the filly Eight Belles, who was euthanized with two broken ankles following her runner-up finish to Big Brown. Her trainer, Larry Jones, said tearfully that he would retire but he’s back again with Friesan Fire, who swept three preps at the Fair Grounds, including the Louisiana Derby. This is expected to be Jones’ last Derby.

The trainer’s preparations haven’t been without hardship. His other contender, Old Fashioned, was injured in a runner-up finish in the Arkansas Derby and had to be retired.

“The industry as a whole is certainly more aware and more cognizant of trying to be safer,” Pletcher said. “Just like other sports of high speed, there is potential for injury. You cannot completely prevent it.”

Will Graves of the Associated Press contributed to this report.