Louisville Magazine

APR 2014

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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4.14 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 1 2 3 Say, have you turned the pages Back to the past once more? Back to the racin' ages An' a Derby out of yore? Say, don't tell me I'm dafy, Ain't that the same ol' grin? Why it's that handy Guy named Sande Bootin' a winner in! Sande's third Derby victory tied him in wins with Isaac Murphy, later equaled by Angel Cordero Jr., Stevens, Desormeaux and Calvin Borel. Five wins is the Kentucky Derby record, held by Eddie Arcaro and Bill Hartack. Shoemaker is alone with four. So a writer wonders how dearly Stevens yearns to win another to equal Shoemaker. Stevens kicks back with a laugh: "Hell," he says, "I'd like to have fve, like the greatest of all time, Bill Hartack." U nder a tree leafng out for spring, beside barn 43, numerous sports scribes fock around Shug McGaughey. It's Monday morning of Derby Week and the sun is up pretty good. Birds chirp. Orb is being bathed after clicking of four furlongs in 47 4 ⁄₅ seconds. Clockers catch the last quarter-mile down the Churchill Downs stretch in a sharp 23 seconds fat, and word will circulate around Louisville in less time than that. It is fve days until the Derby, and McGaughey is grinning ear to ear. "I thought everything was smooth. I have no quarrels with anything," McGaughey says. Back in 1989, McGaughey thought he had a terrifc Derby chance with Easy Goer, but Sunday Silence, trained by Charlie Whittingham, beat him. "I remember when Sunday Silence won the Santa Anita Derby I was standing with some people at Aqueduct," says McGaughey. "Easy Goer had just won the Gotham that day . . . and I said I wished somebody else besides Whittingham was training him. He was 80 and I was 37 (actually, the ages were 76 and 38), so I knew he knew a whole lot more about it than I did. "But you know, we thought we had the right horse." Tat's it. Tat's the thing. A horse gets only one chance to win the Derby, but people can fnd "the right horse" anytime in a lifetime body of work. It was Pat Day who coined these words: "Tere's a Derby out there with my name on it." Tat's the dream. "I'd always thought there was one that had my name on it," McGaughey says. "It was just a matter of getting the right horse. Getting there on the right day. Ten that's what happened." His Shugness: McGaughey leading Orb to the winner's circle, and dealing with the press during Derby Week. 112-128.indd 123 3/19/14 5:39 PM

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