Unbridled’s Song Will Try to Hoof It From Outside

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Unbridled’s Song, a horse who doesn’t know where his next pair of shoes is coming from, must overcome a left-front hoof problem, a bad post position and the early favorite’s bugaboo if he is to win the 122nd Kentucky Derby today.

Unbridled’s Song isn’t the only horse with a foot problem. City By Night, who had an abscess in his left front foot, was scratched after he was relegated to the parimutuel field, which meant the Churchill Downs handicapper, Mike Battaglia, gave him little chance.

The winner of the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, City By Night had drawn the No. 15 post, so his departure moves Unbridled’s Song one stall closer to civilization--No. 19 in the 19-horse field. It’s the equivalent of starting from the hot-dog stand instead of the men’s room, and still the kind of post that helped beat Marfa and Private Terms, two of the favorites from the 1980s, and worked against Timber Country, the public choice last year.

Unbridled’s Song, 8-5 on the morning line, is trying to become the first winning Derby favorite since Spectacular Bid in 1979.

But Unbridled’s Song doesn’t figure to go off as the favorite. After preliminary wagering on Friday, when $800,000 was bet, Unbridled’s Song dropped to 10-1, with Prince Of Thieves becoming the early betting choice at 7-2.

An estimated crowd of 130,000 is expected today, with a good chance for a fast track. The weather forecast is for temperatures in the high 70s, with a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms late in the afternoon.

“The main drawback with Unbridled’s Song is the post position, not the foot,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who is starting a pair of horses, Santa Anita Derby winner Cavonnier and Semoran, winner of the Remington Park Derby. Baffert’s horses have been sharing a barn with Unbridled’s Song this week, so the trainer has been in a good position to see the hectic goings-on at the other end of his shedrow.

“Unbridled’s Song is ready,” Baffert said on a bright, comfortable Friday morning. “The foot’s a minor thing, and his people have handled it perfectly. He’s been walking perfect. I give [trainer] Jim Ryerson a lot of credit. There was some serious shoe-changing down there, but they did it right.”

At the other end of Barn 33, Buzz Chace, the general manager for Ernie Paragallo’s racing interests, and Ryerson, the trainer of Unbridled’s Song, were confident that their gray colt would run, and probably in the egg-shaped bar shoes that he used on his front feet for his spectacular workout Wednesday. The last option is conventional racing plates, which could be added as late as an hour before the race. There’s always a blacksmith a beeper call away from the Unbridled’s Song barn.

“There’s the slight possibility that this horse might run better in bars than without,” Ryerson said. “You get a million opinions on how to shoe the horse, but I don’t think he could look any more comfortable in a shoe than he did for that work the other morning.”

Three weeks ago, Unbridled’s Song came out of his win in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct with a cracked hoof, and Ryerson has experimented with two other types of protective bar shoes before settling on the egg-bar plates on Wednesday. One of the bar shoes was irritating the colt’s foot and caused a bruise. With the egg-bars, Unbridled’s Song worked half a mile Wednesday in :46, and finished off five furlongs in :59 1/5.

Horses seldom win big races running in bar shoes, and the last horse to be so shod and win the Derby might have been Lawrin, Eddie Arcaro’s first of five Kentucky Derby winners, in 1938.

“Sometimes a horse can have a problem with a bar shoe leaving the gate,” Baffert said. “He can overreach and pull the shoe right off. But I’ll say it again: If there’s going to be an equalizer, it will be the post position.”

Just inside Unbridled’s Song and jockey Mike Smith in the gate is Matty G, the Hollywood Futurity winner whose gate problems have compromised his chances as a 3-year-old. Matty G, under Alex Solis, is expected to be part of the pace, as are Skip Away, the Blue Grass winner, and Honour And Glory, the third-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby. Skip Away has the No. 16 post and Honour And Glory is in No. 13.

“I think we’ll get good position,” Chace said of Unbridled’s Song. “There’s nobody on the outside, and this is a free-running horse. If Matty G and Honour And Glory go for the lead, then maybe four or five of the other horses inside of us will separate and we’ll be able to drop inside.”

The Unbridled’s Song camp is dismissing Skip Away, who won the Blue Grass in record time. The candid, blunt-talking Paragallo is throwing him out; Chace fears Editor’s Note, one of the five starters from trainer Wayne Lukas’ barn, and Ryerson, perhaps impressed most by the horse he has seen the most during Derby week, said that Cavonnier has the come-from-behind style and toughness to win the race.

“I’m not going to be betting Skip Away [in exactas],” Paragallo said. “I think his Blue Grass was a freak race. I expect him to bounce [go backward]. And I don’t think he’s a mile-and-a-quarter horse. If there are any mile-and-a-quarter horses in there, they might be a couple of the Arkansas horses.”

Zarb’s Magic beat Grindstone, another Lukas horse, in the Arkansas Derby.

“If Unbridled’s Song can’t handle the mile-and-a-quarter,” Baffert said, “maybe he’ll pass the baton to one of my horses at the top of the stretch.”

The breeders and owners of Cavonnier, Bob and Barbara Walter, are from the Santa Rosa, Calif., area and have brought their complete arsenal to the Derby. Included in their entourage is Msgr. Tom Keys, vicar general for the Santa Rosa diocese. The last time the monsignor accompanied the Walters to a race, Baffert saddled Charmonnier, another son of Battonier, for an upset of the heavily favored Best Pal in the California Cup Classic at Santa Anita in 1991.

“We’re happy to have Tom along,” Barbara Walter said. “He’s already got a proven track record.”

Cavonnier is also packing some negative historical baggage. A gelding hasn’t won the Derby since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929, and a California-bred hasn’t won the race since Decidedly in 1962.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Kentucky Derby

TV: Channel 7, 1:30 p.m. (Post: 2:30).

Purse: $1,154,800 if 19 start. (First place: $854,800)

*--*

PP Horse Jockey Odds 1. f-Blow Out Johnson 12-1 2. a-Victory Speech Santos 15-1 3. b-Diligence Desormeaux 15-1 4. c-Cavonnier McCarron 10-1 5. Halo Sunshine Perret 20-1 6. c-Semoran Baze 10-1 7. Zarb’s Magic Ardoin 20-1 8. In Contention T. Black 20-1 9. f-Corker C. Black 12-1 10. Prince Of Thieves Day 15-1 11. b-Louis Quatorze Antley 15-1 12. Alyrob Nakatani 12-1 13. a-Honour And Glory Santos 15-1 14. f-Built For Pleasure Velazquez 12-1 15. d-Grindstone Bailey 6-1 16. Skip Away Sellers 7-1 17. d-Editor’s Note Stevens 6-1 18. f-Matty G Solis 12-1 19. Unbridled’s Song Smith 8-5

*--*

a-Mike Tabor-owned entry; b-Nick Zito-trained entry; c-Bob Baffert-trained entry; d-Overbrook Farm-owned entry; f-mutuel field. Note: Morning-line odds.

‘Unbridled’ Injury

Saturday’s Kentucky Derby favorite, Unbridled’s Song, has a quarter crack (a small hoof crack) on his left front heel. He has been fitted with a special shoe to protect the injury.