“Maybe…maybe.”
The next day they slept until 7:30 a.m., which seemed like a late morning to them after working at the Lukas barn. They pulled themselves together, cleaned up, and put on their best jeans, brass belt buckles, plaid shirts, boots, and large cowboy hats. Then they feasted on platters of the huevos rancheros breakfast special and drank two pitchers of black coffee at a Denny’s restaurant near the Las Vegas Strip.
“Let’s go make some dinero,” Luis said to his track buddies as they packed up their pick-up truck and headed straight to valet parking at the lobby of the Caesars Palace casino. The sign above advertised “Tom Jones Live” and they asked each other, “Quien es Tom Jones?”
The three men were focused on their gambling mission, avoiding the slot machines, craps, and blackjack tables on their way straight to the sprawling Sports and Race Book at the back of the casino’s floor. The walls of the betting mecca were covered with banks of television monitors the size of king beds, but there was not much activity on a Monday morning before noon. Luis asked the bartender how much for a beer. When he heard it was $2.75, he gave up being thirsty for one. They found the printed sheets for the 1988 Kentucky Derby in a far corner of the race book and located her name and odds toward the end of the sheet: “Winning Colors: 100-1.”
Rafael said, “These gringos are estúpido. Let’s take their money!”
The three found the one open betting window. After working to communicate in English with the bookmaker, Luis handed over the Derby printed odds sheet while pointing to their circled choice. Then he reached down into his cowboy boot for their shared bankroll. “Two-thousand dolares, por favor.”
The ticket writer at the window had to call for a supervisor because although $2,000 wasn’t a huge bet for one of the largest casinos in Nevada, the casino’s exposure was still $200,000 if Winning Colors were to win the Derby; significant to even the Caesars Palace Race and Sports Book. The bookmaker printed the ticket and handed it to the men saying, “Good luck.”
They retrieved their old but clean pick-up truck from the valet parking attendant, tipped the kid one dollar, and headed back to Santa Anita racetrack, five hours away, going right to the barn that evening to see their girl, Luis’s Mamacita, Winning Colors.
Winning Colors’ growing racing fan base didn’t have long to wait to get excited, as Lukas was now ready to ramp up his big plans for her 1988 campaign. All racehorses have the same birthday, turning one year older, every January first. If a horse is born in December, it still turns a year old on January first. Winning Colors, born March 14, 1985, was now a 3-year old and ready to be tested in her first stakes race at Santa Anita. This would be her first longer race, around two turns. Many professional gamblers were still somewhat skeptical that any horse with that much blazing early speed could ration (rate) her energy over a longer distance with two turns, and still hold off the closers in the stretch run. Winning Colors had shown unbelievable sprinting speed but had yet to show she could be controlled by a jockey over a longer race.
Every year there are dozens of horses that get Derby hype because they win short sprint races, in fast times, and by large margins. As these horses mature, the stakes races are run at longer and more demanding distances, and their breeding comes into play. Most cheaply bred horses cannot stretch their speed to win at even a one-mile distance, yet alone the demanding one-and-one-quarter-mile classic distance of the Kentucky Derby.
As Kentucky Derby race contenders attempt to advance toward the world’s most famous race each May, they are challenged to race longer distances, against tougher stakes, and quality competition. Most will fall short, and be dropped down into lower class races, offering smaller purse money, while racing against horses of similar speed, not of Triple Crown stature. It is a process of elimination done every spring, starting with over 40,000 thoroughbred horses foaled. Only the best 20 or less horses qualify to make it into the Kentucky Derby starting gate for just one to emerge victorious.
The racing season is always changing because of the beautiful and constant unveiling of new equine talent. At the start of each year, the newly turned 3-year-olds strive to qualify for the Triple Crown races. Handicappers look to catch lightning in a bottle by ferreting out the possible Derby entrants, at long odds, before the horses become well-known stars, and then they are bet down to low odds in the many Derby prep races.
“Who is your Derby horse?” is a constant question on the backstretch, months before the race is run. After the Triple Crown races, consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont are completed, the summer action shifts to the baby races, consisting of the new 2-year-olds that are just making their initial career starts. As the late spring days lengthen into summer, the big handicap stakes races are run for older horses, for massive purses.
In the fall, the action shifts to the Breeders’ Cup championship races with total purses exceeding $10,000,000. These races determine the Eclipse Awards for the best horses in each division, 2-year-old, sprinters, 3-year-old, turf (grass) racing, and older champions. The races and awards are broken down between the sexes, with females seldom asked to run against the males. Now, the now maturing 3-year-olds must step up and face the older horses to win the stakes money offered. The horses change track circuits for variety. It is a yearly cycle of life that horse players enjoy, and they watch it play out in the magnificent racing venues.
Winning Colors was no longer a racetrack secret, and the fans bet on her so heavily she was the 3-5 odds on favorite in the
