KENTUCKY DERBY : Short Thrill for Hennig, Long Misery for Lukas

LOUISVILLE, Ky. â€”  At dawn at Churchill Downs on Sunday, about 13 hours after Sea Hero made sure that an unpredictable Kentucky Derby lived up to its billing, the losers huddled and licked their wounds on the backstretch.

Trainers Wayne Lukas and Mark Hennig, who used to work as an assistant to Lukas, sat on ponies, watching horses work out. On the other side of a chain-link fence that separates the barn area from the track, trainer Howie Tesher stood atop a small clockers’ stand, stopwatch in hand.

“I had the thrill of my life for a mile and an eighth,� said Hennig, 28, whose Personal Hope led into the stretch of the 1 1/4-mile Derby before finishing fourth, beaten by less than three lengths as Sea Hero stormed to a come-from-behind victory.

“Get ‘em to write the race at a mile and an eighth next year,� Tesher shouted.

Tesher’s Bull Inthe Heather and Lukas’ Union City were major disappointments in the Derby, running 11th and 15th, respectively.

Tesher had been fearful as to how Bull Inthe Heather, the Florida Derby winner, would run.

“When I heard that a horse had broken the record (for 6 1/2 furlongs) in the second race, I didn’t even want to bring my horse over there,� Tesher said. “They had scraped the track, and that made it very hard. It was the kind of track that Bull Inthe Heather had trouble handling the first part of the winter at Gulfstream Park. The ground there jarred him when he ran, until they added dirt and made it OK.�

Bull Inthe Heather went off at 5-1, the second betting choice after Prairie Bayou, who finished second at 4-1, the 14th consecutive Derby favorite to lose.

Sea Hero was 12-1.

“I’m disappointed, because everything had gone so right for us going into the race,� Tesher said. “But then when the track surface changed, I might just as well have shipped the horse in the day of the race, instead of coming two weeks early.�

Bull Inthe Heather will not challenge Sea Hero’s attempt to sweep the Triple Crown, a feat that has not been accomplished since Affirmed in 1978. Tesher said that Bull Inthe Heather will skip the next leg of the series, the Preakness at Pimlico on May 15, and wait for the finale, the Belmont Stakes on June 5.

The three horses that finished just behind Sea Hero in the Derby--Prairie Bayou, Wild Gale and Personal Hope--are Preakness-bound. So, probably, are Diazo, who was fifth, and El Bakan, who finished 18th.

Prairie Bayou had to take an outside route down the stretch Saturday because of the traffic. His trainer, Tom Bohannan, said: “We lost a little ground by going wide, but I can’t criticize Mike Smith’s ride and he’ll be back for the Preakness.

“Jerry (Bailey) rode a good race on Sea Hero. He saved some ground, and that’s what won the race for them. Mike had no choice but to take the route he did. We didn’t have any problems. We were just second best.�

The Preakness, at 1 3/16 miles, is 110 yards shorter than the Derby.

“We’ll try to be not as wide with the horse in the Preakness,� Bohannan said. “And maybe we can place our horse closer. We ought to be closer to Sea Hero before we have to make a run at him.�

“My horse ran well,� Hennig said of Personal Hope, the Santa Anita Derby winner. “He had a perfect trip, but just got outrun. We thought that the distance might be a factor, and he just couldn’t handle the last sixteenth of a mile.�

Personal Hope stayed close behind Storm Tower, the Derby pace-setter, before taking the lead on the turn. The owners of Storm Tower, the winner of the Wood Memorial, brought their colt to the Derby after saying they would skip the race.

“If he hadn’t been in there, it might have helped some,� Hennig said. “We might have been able to back the pace up to where we wanted it to be.�

The pace wasn’t blistering. The first quarter-mile was brisk, at 22 4/5 seconds, but the rest of the early fractions were moderate.

Lukas was puzzled by Union City’s race. He was third after a mile but beat only three horses.

“Pat (Valenzuela) rode him perfectly,� Lukas said. “He didn’t switch (lead feet) at the top of the stretch, but I would be straining to give that as a reason. I can’t build a case for anything that would have caused him to stop so suddenly. I don’t know about the Preakness. I owe the horse another chance, but I don’t want to run him just to be running.�

Horse Racing Notes

Rockamundo, 17th in the Derby after winning the Arkansas Derby, raced with a displaced palate Saturday and is to undergo throat surgery today. . . . Tossofthecoin, last in Derby, bled in the race. He is headed back to California, where trainer Ron McAnally will replace Thomas Bell for the colt’s new owners, Sidney and Jenny Craig. . . . The Craigs’ Lunar Spook, a disappointing ninth in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks, will undergo surgery for a chipped knee. Trained by Bert Sonnier before the Craigs recently bought her, Lunar Spook will be sent to Bill Spawr in California when she returns to action in the fall.