Less Horses, Maybe Less Derby Problems : Trainers, Owners Say Race Getting Too Crowded, Suggest New Rules

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  Less than 24 hours after the running of one of the rowdiest Kentucky Derbys, trainers and owners of competing horses suggested rules changes that would reduce the size of future fields and lead to fewer traffic problems in the race.

Alysheba’s 3/4-length win in Saturday’s 113th Derby was marred by bumping and crowding that affected at least 8 of the starters in the 17-horse field.

None of the 3-year-olds survived more trouble that Alysheba, who was in tight in the first turn, almost fell in the stretch and then had to be swung to the outside by jockey Chris McCarron to avoid another collision before reaching the wire.

Other horses in distress sometime during the Derby included Bet Twice, the second-place finisher who caused Alysheba’s problems through the stretch; and Cryptoclearance (4th), Leo Castelli (7th), Candi’s Gold (8th), Masterful Advocate (12th), War (13th) and Momentus (14th).

The most dramatic changes in the Derby rules were proposed Sunday by trainer Wayne Lukas, who besides War started On the Line (10th) and Capote (16th).

Lukas has now started 12 horses in the Derby, none finishing better than third.

Lukas suggests that the fee for an owner to start a horse in the Derby be raised from $20,000 to $100,000. According to his plan, any horse that finishes in the top five would retrieve the $100,000 for the owner, besides winning a share of the rest of the purse.

“An owner would clean out his sinuses before he wrote that check for $100,000,” Lukas said. “It would eliminate the tire kickers that run in the race every year. Money is so worthless these days, maybe the fee should be $200,000. Nowadays, everybody’s got $20,000--even sportswriters.”

After the centennial Derby in 1974, when 23 horses ran, fields have been restricted to 20 runners, with highest career earnings determining the starters if more than 20 want to enter. The average field has been 18 for the last seven Derbys.

LeRoy Jolley is another trainer who feels that future Derby fields should be more limited. Jolley has started 11 horses in the Derby, winning with Foolish Pleasure in 1975 and Genuine Risk in 1980, and Saturday, besides saddling Leo Castelli, he was sixth with Gulch.

“Maybe there are too many horses running in this race,” Jolley said. “One gateful should be enough. It would be unfair to people who couldn’t get their horses in, but it would be safer and fairer for the horses who are running.”

Churchill Downs’ main gate holds 14 horses. Others must start from an auxiliary gate, which is a disadvantage even though Avies Copy, breaking from the No. 16 stall, finished third on Saturday. Only one horse--Gato Del Sol in 1982--has won the Derby after starting from the auxiliary gate.

None of the horses that ran Saturday, including Demons Begone, who didn’t finish the 1 miles and may be the first Derby favorite to fail because of a nosebleed, came out of the race with any serious injuries. Momentus, however, suffered several superficial cuts on his rear legs after tangling with Candi’s Gold leaving the gate.

“I think the field should be limited to 14,” said Sherwood Chillingworth, one of the owners of Momentus. “Ten could be determined by money won, as the entire field is now, and the other four could be picked by a panel of top racing secretaries, which would be similar to how the Breeders’ Cup establishes its fields.”

Jack Liebau, an L.A. attorney who runs some horses in partnership with Chillingworth, thinks a rule to reduce Derby fields has merit, but disagrees with Lukas’ proposal.

“Paying $100,000 to run in a horse race is a terrible idea,” Liebau said. “How many people would be able to do that?”

No matter how loud the clamor to make the Derby more of a horse race than a survival test, it is unlikely that any changes would be coming from Churchill Downs. The Derby has long been unofficially considered America’s Race--open to everybody--and although track President Tom Meeker is regarded in some circles as a maverick, many members of his board are conservatives who probably would be reluctant to tamper with the race, which accounted for a crowd of 130,532 and a record handle of $13.5 million Saturday. More than $21 million was bet on the Derby at 73 off-track locations around the country.

Churchill Downs and the Derby are fortunate, however, that Alysheba is such an athletic colt that he regained his balance after clipping the heels of the weaving Bet Twice at the 3/16-pole.

If Alysheba hadn’t won after that mishap, the Derby would have been the most infamous since 1968, when Dancer’s Image finished first but had the win taken away and given to Forward Pass after a post-race test showed that he had run with an illegal pain-killer in his system.

If Alysheba had gone down, Bet Twice would have been disqualified and Avies Copy, who passed tired, troubled horses to finish third, three lengths behind Alysheba, would have become the hollowest of winners.

At least that’s the way most observers theorized the finish. Bob Levy, however, didn’t think so.

“They’ve never disqualified the Derby winner, and I don’t think they would have taken this number down, either,” said Levy, whose family owns Bet Twice. “Not in the Derby.”

Levy could be right. In as rough a run race as Saturday’s Derby, the stewards usually flash their “inquiry” sign right after the horses cross the finish line, just as a precaution.

But no sign was flashed Saturday.

“I was surprised at that,” Lukas said. “What happened Saturday would have even got the light turned on in the third race at Hollywood Park.”

Horse Racing Notes

The first five finishers in the Derby--Alysheba, Bet Twice, Avies Copy, Cryptoclearance and Templar Hill--are scheduled to run in the Preakness, the second jewel in the Triple Crown, at Pimlico on May 16. . . . The Preakness would be the 11th race in five months for Avies Copy, but trainer Dave Kassen’s thinking is affected by the $1-million bonus that goes to any horse who runs in all three Triple Crown races and accumulates the most points for high finishes. . . . Demons Begone’s loss Saturday saved Oaklawn Park from paying a $1-million bonus to any horse who won two of its stakes and the Derby. . . . Other Preakness probables are Phantom Jet, who won at Pimlico Saturday; Gone West; Harriman; and possibly the Wayne Lukas-trained Lookinforthebigone and Pledge Card, who won at Aqueduct Saturday. . . . Some people consider Java Gold, missing from the Derby, to be the best 3-year-old in the country, but he will miss running in Wednesday’s Withers Stakes at Belmont Park because of a fever and a cough. This could jeopardize Java Gold’s chances of running in the Belmont, the third Triple Crown race, on June 6. . . . Fast Forward, another Lukas trainee, is scheduled to run in the Ohio Derby at Thistledown on June 15. . . . Capote, who led the Kentucky Derby for a half-mile, then faded quickly and was eased to the finish line by jockey Angel Cordero, is headed back to California after going 0 for 3 in the East. “It’s like a basketball coach after he loses three straight games,” said Lukas, who used to be a basketball coach. “You try to find a different way to win.” . . . Bel Sheba, who produced Alysheba after a mating with Alydar, was bred Sunday in Kentucky to Cox’s Ridge, the stakes-winning stallion managed by Ed Anthony, the owner of Demons Begone. . . . Alysheba, who cost $500,000 as a yearling, is the most expensive, public-sold horse to win the Derby since Majestic Prince, who won in 1969 after being purchased for $250,000. . . . As far back as last week, trainer Jack Van Berg had scheduled a plane to take Alysheba to Baltimore for the Preakness. “I wasn’t cocky, was I?” Van Berg said Sunday.