A Halo on a Rainy Derby

By T.C.

Looking all over for a top horse and maybe finding one up north

It is not the fact but the hope of a great horse that stirs people in the rich and romantic industry of Thoroughbred racing. When Sunny's Halo crossed the wire at Churchill Downs last week and won the Kentucky Derby, that was the finish line of the race, but the opening line of the story, the continuing line of a dream. In the weeks before the 109th Derby, when seemingly no two prep races could settle on one three-year-old standout, Sunny's Halo and the rest of his generation were belittled as mediocre. Now he and Desert Wine, who gamely finished second, and maybe even Marfa, who politely came in fifth, will have something to say about that.

From the start of the week to the start of the race, this was the Marfa Derby. The brightest debate and sharpest humor centered on a reckless rogue from California. Handsome and as gray as half past 7 o'clock with a splash of white blaze on his forehead, he went off as a 2-1 favorite. For racing sideways at times, Marfa inspired the nickname of "the Mugger." Even in the post parade leading up to a race, the pony escort is not safe alongside, and neither is the pony girl holding Marfa's bridle. The brute might reach over and savage them. When all 20 Derby horses were in the gate, every pair of binoculars was fixed on the 18th post position to see Marfa crash out.

Though the shiny day had turned forebodingly thunderous just before the race, Marfa bothered the field no more than the rainstorm did Sunny's Halo, who broke second from the tenth position and was never worse than second or first over the entire mile and a quarter. Preoccupied with the promise and problems of this one robust chestnut colt, Trainer David Cross had lost most of his clients this year. He started with 35 horses, ended with just three and did not really blame the defectors. Sunny's Halo's groom and best friend, John ("Top Cat") Sears Jr., said, "It's been him, Dave and me. I rub him. Dave walks him." They both walked him into the winner's circle to a spontaneous chorus of O Canada--an unfamiliar sound at Churchill Downs. Not since 1964 (Northern Dancer) had a horse bred in Canada won the Kentucky Derby, and he is the first winner to prepare successfully at the Arkansas Derby in Hot Springs. Canada's best two-year-old in 1982, Sunny's Halo won that one easily just three weeks before his victory in Louisville.

Eddie Delahoussaye, only the fourth jockey ever to ride back-to-back Kentucky Derby winners, patted Sunny's Halo's neck just as he had Gato del Sol's last year: two terrific horses. Ten years ago exactly, Secretariat spoiled horses for people. When he romped around the track, the trees swayed. A showy chestnut with three white stockings, he made it necessary to reissue Writer Joe Palmer's perfect description of Man o' War: "As near to a living flame as horses ever get." Actually, Secretariat came to the Kentucky Derby off a defeat. But by the time he had won the Derby, the Preakness and--by the length of a football field--the Belmont Stakes, that was forgotten. Racing had gone 25 years between Triple Crowns, making the feat seem mystical. Then, at a gallop, came Triple Crown Winners Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed (1978), and other demonstrably splendid horses of the '70s: Spectacular Bid, Alydar, Ruffian.

Now the fashion of the '80s is not to wait past May to sniff that none of these goats is Secretariat. It is quite enough to be Sunny's Halo. --T.C. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.