In the moments before this race, the jockeys were more focused than they’d ever been in their lives, knowing the danger of piloting 17 animals, all 1,000-pounds-plus, all running simultaneously at 40 miles an hour. Stevens, now perched on top of Winning Colors, felt the enormity of the moment for himself and for his trainer, but he stayed focused on the proper way to warm up this filly. He wanted her on edge, to break and be alert; he did not want her to be nervous. His vision was to get her in front and out of traffic trouble in the huge field, and then rate her enough to conserve energy for the long stretch run to come down the stretch.
Gene Klein stood with Joyce in Millionaires Row. Oozing confidence, Klein remained fearless, believing he could win a Derby if his heart condition didn’t flare. A representative from Dubai’s ruling family, The Maktoum’s, had offered $7,000,000 for the filly the previous week and he had responded with laughter telling Lukas, “The hell with them.”
D. Wayne Lukas looked reserved and cool in his Armani suit, but he felt butterflies in his stomach. A Kentucky Derby win was the only professional goal he had yet to achieve. As he’d walked to the paddock, a fan called to Lukas: “You’re zero for 13! Zero for 13!” Another race failure would be personally tough to endure, as would the professional criticism.
After saddling his filly, Lukas was too nervous to watch the two-minute race in a crowded area, which was in a private box with his wife, family, and the Kleins. He ducked into an alcove no bigger than a janitor’s closet located near the racing secretary’s office. It had a small, low-quality television screen.
A determined reporter who had been tracking him all day crammed himself in next to Lukas and asked, “How are you going to watch the race on that little screen?”
“She’s gray. And she’ll be in front the whole way,” Lukas replied.
Stevens looked up into the stands. He saw women and girls holding up dozens of signs encouraging Winning Colors—and him!—to “Beat the Boys!” He heard their voices: “Go, Gary! You can do it!” Stevens felt a calm come over him as he led her in the post parade from the paddock onto the track in front of the fans. He looked down on his left sleeve, noticing a ladybug had landed on his yellow and blue silks. Strange…he thought. He then jogged Winning Colors vigorously to keep her focused and ready to break alert and take the lead.
The late afternoon sun was soft as the 17 Derby horses took time to enter the two gates set at the far-left end of the grandstand. Winning Colors loaded calmly into the number eight gate, as Stevens noticed that despite their warm-up run, the ladybug remained attached to his jersey.
Forty Niner was also in yellow silks in the number 17 post position, the second gate farthest out from the rail. Pat Day thought about how Forty Niner must not lose too much ground from this terrible post position closer to the fans than to the inside of the damn racetrack. Only one horse in Derby history had ever won from the outside auxiliary gate.
The final outside gates were loaded, the noise from 150,000 fans elevated to a growing low roar, and the flag was up. The gates popped open at the bell. The start resembled a cavalry charge with 68 hooves pawing at the Churchill Downs dirt, moving to establish positions for the long run into the first turn.
Winning Colors dug in her hindquarters and hurled herself onto the track, clawing and pulling the ground with her front legs, working to get to the front of the thundering wave of charging colts. Stevens hunched over her shoulders, urging her with his arms to accelerate. She was charging on the lead, sprinting away from the colts. She opened up a three-and-a-half-length lead past the grandstands the first time. Gary Stevens smiled as she took a commanding lead.
They were going to let her sneak away to a lonely lead!
Forty Niner broke fast as well and Pat Day steered him toward the filly, guiding his colt closer toward the inside part of the track, but still losing ground. He was forced to move from the number 17 lane to the number two lane. Forty Niner was now running in second position, just outside the huge gray filly, and she was skimming the rail.
Winning Colors was running away from them on the lead.
Pat Day had done the impossible already in getting Forty Niner to break perfectly and gently, without forcing his mount, and positioning just outside Winning Colors. Both horses saved some ground into the first left-hand turn.
Big Bernie, Miami, and Dino were staring at the television monitor surrounded by the surreal party crowd in Tijuana as Miami pumped his fist and yelled, “She’s in front!” What would be the first quarter-mile time fraction? The three men wanted to see a time of 24 and change. When they saw it was 23 seconds flat, they were furious and worried.
Dino yelled at the screen, “What the hell is Stevens doing? Dammit, she can’t run that fast early! It’s suicide!”
Like Dino, Big Bernie and Miami knew this was terrible. This was one of their two worst fears. The first was she would break poorly and get shuffled back into traffic. She broke great, so they could check that off the nightmare list. Their second fear was the pace would be too fast early and she would just labor in the stretch like she had in her lone loss against Goodbye Halo. Winning Colors had now just set an insane opening quarter-mile fraction, so fast that the field was stretched out behind her 35 lengths from first to last, behind her torrid pace!
Day could tell the gray filly was going ridiculously fast and grabbed hold of Forty Niner, letting Winning Colors
