The Devil And The Derby

I thoroughly enjoyed Woody's "Guess I'm Lucky" especially as a horse racing tour 1930 to 1985. Regrettably there's little there about training and how Woody developed those 13 pages of stakes winners. Unfortunately Woody also includes just enough hints about the handling of Devil's Bag and Conquistador Cielo to mark himself as another of those conventional trainers that injure horses.

You have to understand a little about Woody and dig pretty deep into the book to see this point. Woody dropped out of high school but probably had a slightly above average IQ judging from the book. With this mental equipment he dealt with a 40 horse stable for almost 30 years, and doubtful there's anything about horses that Woody failed to understand except maybe the death of Swale over which he agonizes all through the book in his circumspect manner.

Yet, as Woody goes through his own world you never ever hear him mention the health of his horses or injury prevention. Noting this as reader I immediately began to question why.

Let's establish, yes there was an injury problem in Woody's stable. Woody's clients were restricted to the deep pocket crowd. For 30 years only the best horses came into that shedrow. Let's count 'em up. 30 years, 40 stalls, presume at least 70 horses a year go through them. That's 2100 talented horses. 13 pages of stakes winners at about 14 per page. That's 182 stakes winners. That's 8.6% stakes winners. I'm unable to see a lot of success in that. BUT more importantly, I'm surmising that most of these great horses never won stakes races because they were injured. While this is but an educated guess, I believe the guess rises to the level of absolute certainty. You can put two and two together in how Woody dealt with Devil's Bag and Conquistador Cielo.

Here is what happened to Devil's Bag:
1. Last two year old race, end of Oct. 1983.
2. "I gave Devil an easy winter, taking it easy because I reckoned that was what he'd thrive on. " Huh?
3. Early February 1984: runs in 7f Flamingo prep race. Another huh? Does nothing for 3 of 4 months then races? Jeez is my reaction.
4. Late Feb. 1984 fastest mile breeze in many a year then a week later the Flamingo. We now have a horse with a three months layoff suddenly jolted into two races and a lightening breeze and other breezes all in one month. If you want to injure an early three year old it might be hard to plan it better than this.
5. They go to NY to prepare for Gotham and weather sets in. All of March and early April they're primarily training indoors.
6. 16 days before the Derby(and less than a month after they left indoor training) Devil wins the Forerunner Purse race at Churchill.
7. 8 days before the Derby Devil wins the Derby trial bearing out down the stretch under a heavy whip.
8. Gary Lavin DVM then X-Rays and finds calcification from damage to bone "two or three months earlier, in other words before the Flamingo" and a "loose chip of bone in his right leg which was why his left shin was sore". Devil is retired to Claiborne and a 36 million dollar syndicate.

In fairness to Woody he was 70 years old and suffering severe health problems when this happened. However, the question, does a trainer conscious of how easily horses get hurt race this horse either in the February Hileah races or in at Churchill before the Derby on almost no prep since the preceding October? Devil must have been a magnificent talent to bear up as long as he did.

Ditto Cielo pictured above. Fastest horse Woody trained, and Woody kept running him with a developing saucer fracture. Woody could feel the bump on the fore of his cannon and treated it with magnetic pulse but kept right on with the horse until he was dead lame and retired. Lucky that time and sparing both horse and rider.

Today's training:
Which is yesterday 5/1: Ran Art riderless in the paddock with his buddy. Just playing again, but reveed it up. Several short Art spurts to the lead. Good enough for a second day back. Did some tack work after dark. Even with the off interval I'm pronouncing the little fellow broke to a rider. Today 5/2 it has rained now for almost 18 hours. The planned Eureka trip next Tuesday is in jeopardy.