With 5 Runners, Zito Finishes Empty

LOUISVILLE, May 7 -- When the 20 horses running in the Kentucky Derby made the long walk from the backstretch barns to the jam-packed Churchill Downs paddock, favorite Bellamy Road, dark and glistening, bowed his muscular neck and danced as if full of himself. The other four runners in trainer Nick Zito's arsenal, however, looked strangely docile, hardly ready to run the race of their lives.

The best-laid plans, meticulously designed and realized over months, are no guarantee of success in what is widely recognized as the most difficult horse race in the world to win.

Zito had won the Kentucky Derby before, with Strike the Gold in 1991 and Go for Gin three years later, but this year, as he walked the delicate tightrope of diplomacy, balancing the interests of five owners, he appeared to be playing the strongest hand he ever had.

Bellamy Road, owned by New York Yankees boss George Steinbrenner, had the look of an indomitable super horse, having won his two starts before the Derby by a combined 33 1/4 lengths. High Fly had won the Florida Derby and his stablemate, Noble Causeway, was right behind him. Sun King, despite a poor run in the Blue Grass Stakes, had the profile of a horse that wins the Derby year after year. Even long shot Andromeda's Hero was considered by the Daily Racing Form's bloodstock expert as having the best bloodlines in the field to win the race.

So when Giacomo, whose name has the ring of a children's storybook character, and Closing Argument, the longest of the long shots in the field, finished one-two, Zito had no answers. All week long, leading up to the race, he refused to commit to any of his horses being better than the others. All were family, Zito said, but now, when they all came up empty, he had no answers for an entirely different reason.

"I don't really know," Zito said. "I don't know what happened. It's racing, obviously, and I guess you just keep trying. You just have to salute the winners. It just shows you what a great game this is, a tough game. That's what makes the game so amazing, you know?"

Zito's horses weren't the only contenders that fell away in the long mile-and-a-quarter. Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who said this would be the year a lightly raced horse would win the Derby, finished last with High Limit. Todd Pletcher, who had three runners and along with Zito made up 40 percent of the field, watched his best chance, Bandini, come in 19th.

"It seems Bandini was fighting the dirt the whole time," Pletcher said. "We'll regroup and come back next year."

Two of the great names in the sport, Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas, finished together, 17th and 18th.

"We had a good trip; we just didn't have it when the running started," Lukas said.

Winning trainer John Shirreffs is well known in California, but is unknown nationally. This, after all, was his first time in the great race.

Trainer Jeff Mullins, whose Buzzards Bay beat Giacomo in the Santa Anita Derby and ran a decent fifth, didn't sound surprised, even though the winner paid a whopping $102.60 for a two-dollar win ticket.

"I'm glad for John Shirreffs. . . . I guess the Santa Anita Derby was more productive than everyone thought," he said.