Roses for a Fast Female

A filly wins the Derby for the first time since 1915

The 106th running of the Kentucky Derby was a handicapper's nightmare. After the past three years of supercolts and solid favorites, bookmakers and bettors were forced to sort through a bewildering field of sometime winners, oftentime also-rans and even a filly. Not only was there no 1980 equivalent of Seattle Slew, Affirmed or Spectacular Bid among the current crop of three-year-olds, there was not even an Honest Pleasure around to make things interesting.

Last season's top two-year-old, Rockhill Native, entered the 1980 season as the whiter book favorite, but when it came time for winter racing, he could not match his illustrious predecessors. Rockhill Native campaigned in Florida, at times giving a good imitation of a colt slogging through the swamps, not tuning up for the Triple Crown. Horseplayers promptly started looking for other contenders.

What they found was a series of colts whose owners could not even keep matters straight. Actor Jack Klugman gave his horse a feminine first name, apparently in hopes that Jaklin Klugman would become the first colt to win the Kentucky Derby in drag. Plugged Nickle's chances were rated highly after he won the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park and the Wood Memorial at New York's Aqueduct Racetrack, but the odds on his owner's winning a spelling bee were not worth a plugged nickel.

To misnomer and misspelling was added missed opportunity. The top California colt, Codex, was ineligible to com pete after his trainer forgot to enter the horse's name on the Kentucky Derby nominating list. Codex had won the Hollywood Derby and beaten Affirmed's time in winning the Santa Anita Derby, so his absence weakened the field considerably. Training injuries kept other key colts from the contest. Adelphi University Mathematics Professor William Quirin ran a computer comparison of Derby entries and passed harsh judgment: "This is the second worst crop of three-year-olds to come along in 25 years."*

Indeed the lineup was so unimpressive that Trainer Leroy Jolley took the uncommon step of entering a filly against the colts. Genuine Risk was the first filly to make the run for the roses since 1959. Only one female had ever won the race, Regret in 1915. Said one bookmaker: "Any time a Derby field isn't strong enough to scare off the girls, you've got trouble."

As it turned out, this girl had nothing to fear. While 132,000 fans watched in astonishment, she roared into the lead at the top of the home stretch, rushing away to a one-length victory over two California horses, Rumbo and Jaklin Klugman. The filly, carrying 5 Ibs. less than her male counterparts over the 1 1/4-mile Derby distance, was still running strongly at the wire, adding a convincing show of stamina to an upset victory that may well rank among the most remarkable in thoroughbred racing history. Genuine Risk won $250,550 for Owner Diana Firestone, and, as a 13-to-1 long shot, $28.60 for each of her $2 bettors.

Genuine Risk was brilliantly ridden by her jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, who laid on the outside, far from traffic and the soft footing on the rail as the 13-horse field battled into the back stretch. With one-half mile to go, Vasquez made his move, gave the filly her head, and she swooped into the lead just as she reached the start of the home stretch. Running freely, fluidly, the big, lovely chestnut required just three taps of the whip to hold off Rumbo's late charge.

Genuine Risk's victory vindicated the controversial decision to enter her against colts, which are usually bigger and stronger than fillies; thus the 5-lb. weight allowance to even up the disparity. Colts mature more quickly too, coming into their full strength as runners months ahead of the female of the species. But exceptional fillies have proved the match of the males, at least on paper. The great Ruffian, who broke down in a 1975 match race against the colt Foolish Pleasure, clocked times significantly faster than any of the colts of her class over the same distances on the same tracks. But Ruffian was never entered in a race against the boys until the fateful one in which she fractured her foreleg and had to be destroyed. A haunting irony: Vasquez, Genuine Risk's jockey, was riding Ruffian in that tragic race. He vaulted from her back and tried to cradle her head in his arms as she staggered on her shattered leg.

Calumet Farm's Twilight Tear was Horse of the Year in 1944, but she too was held out of the Triple Crown races as a three-year-old. She went on to beat colts in handicap races later that year. Now, for the first time in 65 years, a filly has beaten the colts in one of the spring classics of the Triple Crown.

Diana Firestone and her husband Bert, owner of 1975 Derby winner Foolish Pleasure, bought Genuine Risk at auction for $32,000. Her bloodlines were impressive: her sire, Exclusive Native, was also the sire of Affirmed, the 1978 Triple Crown winner, and her grandsire, Gallant Man, won the Belmont Stakes in 1957. The Firestones, who breed and occasionally break their own horses at the family's Virginia farm, register the colts under Mr. Firestone's name and the fillies under Mrs. Firestone's.

After Genuine Risk proved impressive in filly races this spring, Jolley decided to enter her in the Wood Memorial, where she finished a strong third, l 1/2 lengths behind Plugged Nickle. After extended debate, it was decided to put her in the Derby against 1980's weak crop of colts. Vasquez underlined the wisdom of the decision: "Against the colts out there today, she could have run two miles."

*The worst, according to Quirin, was 1974, when Cannonade won the Kentucky Derby and Little Current captured the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

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