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Point Given is the horse to beat
LOUISVILLE -- Welcome to Point Given Week at Churchill Downs, where every other horse may just as well be running for second place. Or so we're told. Ever since the massive chestnut colt demolished a talented field in the Santa Anita Derby on April 7, he has been favored to win not only the 127th Kentucky Derby, but also the Triple Crown. Of course, we've been down this road before. Last spring everyone in Louisville spent Derby week going bonkers over a colt named Fusaichi Pegasus, a high-strung bay who actually lived up to his advance billing by winning the Run for the Roses. Point Given will be hard-pressed, though, to repeat Pegasus' Derby performance. The Point is scheduled to face a nearly full field of 19 horses that may be one of the deepest in recent history. It includes such spoilers as front-running Balto Star, who has won his last three races by a combined 29 1/2 lengths; Florida Derby winner Monarchos, a gray charger from the barn of one of Kentucky's most respected horsemen, John Ward; and the regally bred Millennium Wind, who scorched the field in the Bluegrass Stakes under ageless jockey Laffit Pincay. One factor Point Given won't have to contend with is D. Wayne Lukas, the venerable trainer whose presence in Louisville on the first Saturday in May has become as much of a tradition as mint juleps and blankets of roses. Lukas has trained four Derby winners and had at least one starter in every running since 1980. He lost his best Derby prospect -- a bay son of Storm Cat, named Gold Trader -- in March, when the colt fractured his right hind leg in the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita and had to be euthanized. The final threat to spoil Point Given's coronation comes from his own stablemate, Congaree, a son of juvenile champion Arazi and the runaway winner of the Wood Memorial on April 14 at Aqueduct. Both colts are trained by Bob Baffert, who has won the Derby twice in the last five years, first with Silver Charm in 1997, and then again with Real Quiet in '98. The silver-haired trainer claims that both horses are about even in ability, but he has been preparing Point Given for this moment since last summer, and the colt has been dominant, winning five of eight career starts. He came within a nose of winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November, just failing to get up before the wire as he made a furious dash to catch a fading Macho Uno. Congaree, on the other hand, has only run four times since September, and just once in a graded stake. But he has been awesome so far, winning three times, and he thoroughly trounced the more seasoned Monarchos in the Wood. This week, however, Point Given is the one to beat. Barring injury or accident, he will go into the gate on Saturday as one of the heaviest, and most hyped, favorites in years. Since last year, anyway. Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Mark Beech, who covers the horse racing beat
for the magazine, will check in throughout Derby week with reports from
Churchill
Downs.
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