“Dino?”
“What?”
“How big a container do you need to carry $250,000 in cash?”
“How the hell would I know?” said Dino. “Will they pay us in hundreds or twenties? OK. Let’s figure for both. It might be 2,500 bills in hundreds or 12,500 bills in twenties. I figure that’s about three to four of those giant black trash bags, you know the big ones, if they pay us in twenties.”
This image was hilarious to the two gamblers and it took several minutes before they could recover from laughing.
“OK, let me get this right,” said Miami. “You want us to drive across the Mexican border, go into the Agua Caliente racetrack carrying giant plastic lawn trash bags, watch the race on TV…and…when she wins the Derby…we go up to the window, where they will count out 12,500 twenty-dollar bills. We then just pack ‘em up and casually stroll to my indiscreet red sports car…because I’m not driving your slow-as-hell Impala…to pick up $250,000 in cash.”
“We could take a cab, I guess.”
Again, several minutes of laughter.
“All kidding aside, I think we have to take my car,” said Miami. “Remember? I used to race. I swear to God if you get me in my 300Z they won’t catch me until we hit the border! And if we get to the border they aren’t going to kill us in front of the US Border Patrol guards, right?”
“You can outrun a bullet? Does your car even have a trunk?”
“Not really a trunk…so suitcases are probably out. OK, we are back to the trash bag idea. God, just let our sweet filly win!”
Sunday, May 1, 1988, was a sunny, beautiful, 80-degree Los Angeles spring day. With just six days to the Derby, Dino and Miami made the 40-minute drive from West Los Angeles to Santa Anita. This racetrack is far prettier in the winter months when there is virtually no smog, and the mountains with snow-capped peaks are visible, giving a beautiful backdrop to the track. In summer months, smog can be prevalent on hot days and the mountains become barely visible. Dino and Miami were soon seated at their regular table in the turf club, and their excitement level was even higher than normal.
In addition to their worries that the prime execution killing murder suspect was now the owner of the racetrack, Dino had a new problem on his mind. “Miami, I’ve been handicapping the field of Derby horses our girl will face in the race next week. Unfortunately, it is by far the toughest field I’ve seen in years. Just listen to the competition Winning Colors is up against.” He read the information and inserted commentary.
“Risen Star, winner of six races already, including the Louisiana Derby and the Kentucky Derby prep last month, and a son of Secretariat.
“Next, Private Terms. This horse is frickin’ undefeated! Seven starts and seven wins! This horse could go off as the favorite. He just won the Gotham and the Wood Memorial. Raced against the best and has never been beaten! Private Terms’ grandfather is Secretariat. “Now, Seeking the Gold. He almost beat undefeated Private Terms’ last race in the Gotham Stakes.
“Forty Niner. This horse is a beast. Winner of six stakes already, just lost to Risen Star by a head, and trained by Woody Stephens. Ah, Woody Stephens. I hate that guy; he never shuts up. Forty Niner has good speed and can sit just off Winning Colors and try to out finish us. He scares the hell out of me! This horse was the champion 2-year-old in the country last year, winning two Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga by seven total lengths. This horse has been the future book favorite for like over a year now.”
Miami asked Dino to stop.
Dino shook his head and said, “Miami, we really, I mean she really, has gotten unlucky to have to run in the Derby this year against such an awesome field of colts. In any normal year she would be the odds-on favorite to win, but this year she may not even be the favorite.”
“Yeah, but everyone thinks she is just some little filly that will get smoked by the boys. I’ve been reading too, and she is now over 1,200 pounds of legs and muscle. She is by far the biggest and tallest horse in the race. These colts won’t know what hit them when she breaks out of the gate and goes right to the front!”
The 1988 race was the most anticipated Kentucky Derby since Secretariat won in 1973. Everyone had a different opinion of who would win this stellar edition of the world’s most famous horse race. Woody Stephens was mouthing off about his 2-year-old champion Forty Niner. Many knowledgeable horse people were saying that the field had a real problem on their hands with Winning Colors in the race, as she gave the field a perhaps insurmountable problem. If the field let her have her way on the lead uncontested, she could then slow the pace of the race down, and save her energy for the stretch, and they likely could not catch her. But to send a horse to run with the gray Amazon early was considered suicide because she ran at such an insane high cruising speed, the other horse would get fried trying to run with her at the start and would fall apart in the long Churchill Downs track home stretch.
Woody Stephens said of Winning Colors on the lead: “She’s not gonna get loose, don’t worry about it. If I turn her loose, I might as well go on home.”
As was usual for the Kentucky Derby field of 3-year-old horses, no horse had yet been asked to run the one-and-one-quarter-mile distance. Risen Star had just won the Lexington Stakes, the Kentucky Derby prep race two weeks earlier, and had sat back in last place for the early part of that race, before he swept to a neck and neck victory over Forty Niner. Risen Star
