There was a little bit of a buzz at
trainer Doug O’Neill’s temporary headquarters in Barn 45 on the Churchill Downs
backstretch on a sunny and warm Wednesday
morning in Louisville, Kentucky.
Well, actually, there was a whole lot of buzz at
the barn, sort of like the Final Four buzz that surrounded the local Louisville
Cardinals this past March.
Not surprisingly, the main man behind both buzzes was on
the scene — basketball coach and horse owner Rick Pitino.
“The Coach,” as he’s referred to in this part of basketball
mad Kentucky, made the scene at about 7:45 a.m. (EDT), in advance of a planned exercise by “his” horse, the bay Kentucky-bred Goldencents
who is set to go in Saturday’s Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby.
And to add a large
basketball touch to the proceedings, he brought along the center from his newly
minted championship team, the 6-foot-11 Senegalese-born Gorgui Dieng, who
possibly could be a first-round pick in this year’s NBA draft.
Approximately 150 media types, fans, friends and onlookers
joined the gathering — some of them actually there to see the horse that Pitino
owns a 5 percent piece of. In light of the circumstances, it just could be true that
“The Coach” could go down as the most major minor partner in the history of the
Derby.
Goldencents and his swarm went trackside for 8:30 at the
start of the special Derby/Oaks training period. The tall bay was handled by
regular exercise rider Jonny Garcia, who proceeded to take the Santa Anita Derby
winner through a bit of backtracking before going through a strong 1 1/4 mile gallop around the track.
Among the interested onlookers were Goldencents’ regular
rider, Kevin Krigger, along with his agent, Tom Knust. Krigger, who will attempt
to be the first black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby since Jimmy Winkfield in
1902, and Knust were being tailed by a film crew doing work on a documentary on
black jockeys.
Despite the circus atmosphere, O’Neill was doing
fine with his racetrack business. He did, however, admit to being more than a
bit nervous about an afternoon golfing date with Pitino, his brother Dennis and
another of Goldencents’ co-owners, Dave Kenny.
The foursome, with an ESPN camera
crew in tow, was headed off to the upscale Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville,
site of Ryder Cups and PGAs. The trainer had even gone so far as to buy a new
set of golf clubs and was planning on “just trying to hit it straight.”
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