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April 23, 2002 By ED GOLDEN
EDDIE D. COULD HAVE �PERFECT� ENDING TO HIS CAREER This could be the last Kentucky Derby for Eddie Delahoussaye. The 50-year-old Hall of Fame jockey said last week he is thinking seriously about calling it a career before the year is out. "I�ll take it day-by-day, like I�ve been saying all along," Delahoussaye said about retiring after nearly 35 years as a thoroughbred rider. "It depends on how the rest of the year ends up, how things go at Hollywood Park. But I am thinking about it, because I don�t like what I�m seeing in California, with short fields and a shortage of horses. "Let�s face it; we don�t have a lot of horses and there are a lot of top riders and I�m one of them, but I�m also one of the senior riders, and I don�t want to ride the cheaper horses, so that�s going to hurt my business. There are a lot of good horses around, but trainers tend to go to the younger riders. "I started to think about retiring early in the year. It�s not a definite. It just depends on the horses (he rides for major stables). I ride once in a while for (Bobby) Frankel, I don�t ride for (Neil) Drysdale, and once in a while (Bob) Baffert will put me on a few horses." But before he hangs up his tack, Delahoussaye has a few more photo finishes to win. He hopes one comes aboard Perfect Drift on May 4 in the Kentucky Derby, the classic Eddie D. won back-to-back in 1982 and 1983 on Gato del Sol and Sunny�s Halo. "The horse is fit and the trainer (Murray Johnson) knows him well," Delahoussaye said of Perfect Drift, a Kentucky-bred son of Dynaformer who has never been worse than second in six starts. But the gelding�s last race was on March 23, when he won the Spiral Stakes by a neck. Can he get a mile and a quarter after a six-week layoff? "In 1983, when I won with Sunny�s Halo, he had (only) two races before the Derby," Delahoussaye said. "He won the Rebel and he won the Arkansas Derby, and from there went straight to the Derby. So that tells me it can be done. And maybe the horses that ran in the Wood and the Blue Grass had something taken out of them from those races. Perfect Drift is coming in fresh, plus he�s kind and he�s tractable. Unless something unforeseen happens, he�s got a legitimate chance." Delahoussaye says he wouldn�t trade places with anyone, "because the Derby is very wide open. To me, Harlan�s Holiday is definitely the horse to beat, based on his performance, his track record and his consistency. What I like about my horse is the horse that was third behind him in the Spiral, Request for Parole, finished second twice to Harlan�s Holiday, once by only a neck, so that gives you an idea where my horse stands." Delahoussaye says there is little margin for error in the Run for the Roses. "Everything has to go your way," he said. "You�ve got to get the trip. The best horse doesn�t all the time win. But I think it�s a great Derby this year. Harlan�s Holiday is not a cinch, but he�s definitely the one to beat. If Johannesburg and Castle Gondolfo run, you don�t know how they�re going to perform, especially at Churchill Downs. That�s another key factor. How many horses are going to like that track? We know Harlan�s Holiday and my horse like it (Harlan�s Holiday won the Iroquois there as a 2-year-old and Perfect Drift was second there last year), but I don�t know about the rest of them." This would mark Eddie D.�s 13th Kentucky Derby. Last year, he finished sixth on Jamaican Rum, a 20-1 longshot. Eddie likes his chances a lot more with Perfect Drift. "The last time I felt this good about a Derby horse was A.P. Indy (in 1992)," Delahoussaye said, "and he fell out right before the race." And if Eddie D. "falls out" by the end of 2002, will he maintain his blue-collar, grass roots, low-profile persona and make a quiet and sudden exit, or go in style, with a trumped up farewell tour, as have some of his contemporaries? "No farewell tours," Delahoussaye said. "I might walk away from riding, just like that. I didn�t have a welcoming tour when I began. Why should I have a farewell tour?" |
THE HOMESTRETCH: Jack Carava figures if it ain�t broke, don�t fix it. The successful trainer, who will be 36 on April 28, plans to remain stabled at Santa Anita and ship to Hollywood to run when the Inglewood track starts its 65-day summer meet on Wednesday. He doesn�t anticipate any major form changes due to the racing surfaces. "Last year it worked out good, keeping my horses at Santa Anita where I train and shipping to run at Hollywood," said Carava, who won 18 races at Santa Anita to finish fifth in the standings, and tied for fourth at Hollywood last fall with seven wins. "I wasn�t sure what was going to happen but it worked out OK. Hopefully, it will be the same this year, but I don�t have a real strong barn right now. I lost quite a few horses (through claims) and I haven�t been replacing them, so I don�t know what kind of meet to expect. I�ve had a slow last three-four weeks at Santa Anita, but maybe things will pick up. Last year I went into the Hollywood meet thinking the same thing, that I wasn�t going to do very well, but I decided to keep my horses at Santa Anita because it�s closer to my home, and we had a great meet, so I�m going to try it again. I don�t want to change anything.". . . Oak Tree Racing Association, which lost the Breeders Cup the past two years due to construction at Santa Anita, will host racing�s greatest day on Oct. 25, 2003. "You can set this one in stone," said Oak Tree executive vice president Sherwood Chillingworth. |
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GOLDEN GLIMPSES #413
Ed
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