By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, May 16, 2005; D04
When Giacomo weaved his way through the field from 18th place to score a stunning victory in the Kentucky Derby at 50-1 odds, few could deny the excitement of the moment. In the annals of America's most famous horse race, however, it wasn't one of the better days for the competitors. After Spanish Chestnut and the other leaders blazed an opening six furlongs in 1 minute 9.59 seconds, the final recorded half-mile time in the 1 1/4 -mile race, 53.16 seconds, was the slowest over a fast track in the past 15 runnings of the Derby. Giacomo made up 15 lengths in the stretch almost wholly because of the collapse of nearly every horse in front of him. As the Derby winner prepares to run Saturday at Pimlico in the $1 million Preakness Stakes, the second leg of racing's Triple Crown, pedigree experts in the sport are wondering whether Giacomo's victory wasn't a telltale hoof print about the declining quality of the classic American thoroughbred. "Somebody had to win the race, but that doesn't mean they're bred to get the distance," said sire analyst Mike Helm, who wrote the influential book, "Exploring Pedigree." "It was one of the slowest Derbys. There's no reason to denigrate Giacomo; that's obviously not his best distance. But it was a unique situation that allowed him to win it. The breeders like to breed for speed, and it's really hard for the jockeys to rate these horses. It was like a stampede out there." Indeed, the past three Derby winners -- Giacomo, Smarty Jones and Funny Cide -- were sired by horses who made their mark on the racetrack as merchants of speed, not stamina. Holy Bull, the sire of Giacomo, won an important race at 1 1/4 miles, but most of his offspring have fared best at shorter distances. Smarty Jones's sire, Elusive Quality, set a world record at a mile on the turf. Funny Cide's sire, Distorted Humor, was also was a very fast miler. A paradigm shift began to take place in racing in the 1970s, when Winfields Farm began selling the sons and daughters of the great Northern Dancer at auction for enormous sums of money. Gradually, purchasing yearlings and 2-year-olds in training became the predominant way to obtain a thoroughbred. In fact, only three horses that ran in this year's Derby were homebred. As new buyers came into the market, many lacked the patience to allow their purchases to mature the way the old-line, aristocratic racing families did when the great farms, such as Calumet, ruled the game. Between boarding, feed, veterinary and training bills, it can cost $50,000 to get a horse to the races. "Racing, historically, was a rich man's sport," Helm said. "The pressure to get a financial return wasn't in the game. It was to breed good horses and have recognition for doing that. Today, with multimillion-dollar auctions, everyone wants a return on their money. "The trouble is we live in a commercial culture that wants instant gratification and instant returns. You get a precocious adolescent, and he's often burned out before he can mature. They sour on the game. The classic horses bred in the past, they had female families built up over years for generations. That kind of patience is gone." While sires with strong stamina influences were represented in the Derby field, many runners were by stallions known for passing on speed as well as significant distance limitations. The best of them, Closing Argument and Afleet Alex, ran well, but found the Derby distance too much. Compounding the problems for the American thoroughbred that auctions have created, many of the best stallion and broodmare prospects are purchased by European, Arab and Japanese interests and taken out of the country. Sunday Silence, the 1989 Derby and Preakness winner, became the greatest sire Japan has ever known before dying in 2002. Despite his credentials for success, Sunday Silence descended from bloodlines commercial American breeders didn't want. Today, superb American racehorses cut out to be great sires -- Blushing John, Dehere, Silver Charm, Forty Niner, Charismatic, Afleet, Wild Rush, Boston Harbor and French Deputy -- all are in Japan. Dubai World Cup winner Roses In May, a top American, older horse still racing, was sold Derby week to Japanese breeders. "If they go directly from the racetrack [to Japan], they are not sufficiently commercial," said bloodstock consultant Alan Porter. "The offer from Japan is in excess of what they could earn in America." If the bloodlines of a horse do not fit a preconceived notion of what will sell in the market, a horse is likely to be sold overseas. Also, there is great pressure for a young sire to produce big stakes winners in his initial crops. "If a stallion doesn't make it in the first two years he has runners, the depreciation is huge," Porter said. The stallions that remain in the United States largely are speed-oriented, asked to produce runners that fit the bread-and-butter programs of American racetracks -- dirt races run from a half-mile to 1 1/16 miles. Country Life Farm, one of the most successful breeders in Maryland, uses mostly sprint-oriented stallions. As a commercial operation, it must serve the demands of the market. "It's fashion driven," said Country Life business manager Michael Pons. "Whatever looks good, let's go for it. That's not always the best way to go. It's like lemmings flying in the same direction. You see that at the 2-year-old sales; there's five horses that everyone wants." Several years ago, Country Life attempted to market a stallion named Press Card, an impeccably bred horse from the families of the great Mr. Prospector, War Admiral and Dr. Fager. "His babies were late maturing and wanted to go two turns," Pons said, "and the market didn't want that." Press Card now sires horses in Australia. With stamina influences still latent in the bloodlines of the sprint sires, great horses such as Smarty Jones can still emerge, but succeeding generations may find it difficult to develop genuine Triple Crown horses as those influences are bred out. "The old classic thoroughbred is long gone, but that's not necessarily a bad thing," said Anne Peters, breeding analyst for Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, where Smarty Jones stands stud. "The Triple Crown itself will always be there . . . [and] keeps the bar high for producing sires."