Noses for the Roses

One way to describe this week's 94th Kentucky Derby is to say that it bears a certain resemblance to a political campaign. The original favorite was Ogden Phipps's Vitriolic, last year's two-year-old champion and winner of $429,896, who has since developed weak knees and will sit out the race. Hirsch Jacobs' Wise Exchange made a good showing in the primaries, winning two big winter stakes in Florida, but he is footsore from his strenuous campaign (27 races in two years) and has also been scratched. There is no shortage of favorite sons: Derby officials predict a field of 17 horses, most of whose owners would happily settle for second spot on a parimutuel ticket. At the moment, the Derby looks like a two-horse race--between a front runner who has scored four stakes victories this year, and a come-from-behind colt with connections in Massachusetts and New York.

For sentiment's sake alone, Calumet Farm's Forward Pass would figure to be the post-time favorite at Churchill Downs. Winner of more Derbies (seven) than any other stable, the farm that produced such champions as Citation, Whirlaway and Armed has fallen on hard times recently: not since Tim Tam carried her devil's red and blue silks to victory in the 1958 Derby has Calumet's owner, Mrs. Gene Markey, even entered a horse in the Run for the Roses. Forward Pass is a throwback to the good old days. A rangy bay with tremendous early speed, he won last March's $134,000 Florida Derby, followed that up with a smashing five-length victory in last week's $32,300 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in Ken tucky. With Jockey Milo Valenzuela holding on for dear life, Forward Pass led every step of the way, sped H miles in 1 min. 47 4/5 sec.--just 2/5 sec. off the Keeneland track record.

The Grey & the Gig. That was enough to convince the odds makers, who installed Forward Pass as the early-line Derby favorite (at 2-1). The second choice (at 4-1) is Dancer's Image --who is exactly that. Owned by Massachusetts Auto Dealer Peter Fuller, who turned down an offer of $1,000,000 for the colt last month, Dancer's Image is a son of Native Dancer. Like his daddy, he is a grey. Like his daddy, he prefers to come from off the pace: two weeks ago, at New York's Aqueduct Race Track, he made up four lengths in the stretch to win the $113,500 Wood Memorial--the same race Native Dancer won en route to the 1953 Kentucky Derby. Oh, oh. That 1953 Derby was the only race Native Dancer ever lost; knocked off stride as he rounded the first turn, he lost by a head to a 26-1 long shot named Dark Star and owned by Captain Harry Guggenheim.

Oh, oh again. Captain Guggenheim has a dark horse in this week's Derby too. His name is Captain's Gig, his odds are 5-1, and if anything in the field is likely to turn the tables on the favorites, he is it. The 1 1/4 miles of the Derby may be too much for Captain's Gig; he has never raced beyond a mile. But there is no faulting his record (three for three this year) or his speed. Last year he broke the Aqueduct track record for 61 furlongs. And last week at Churchill Downs, Captain's Gig tuned up for the Derby by breezing to an eight-length victory in the seven-furlong Stepping Stone Purse.

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