DELIGHTFUL KISS A DELIGHTFUL STORY FOR ANDERSON

By Bill Mooney

Pete Anderson has been involved with some pretty fair racehorses. As a jockey, he was the first rider aboard Forego, who thrice was honored as North America's Horse of the Year. Anderson rode the champion Pucker Up to victory in the 1956 Jersey Belle Stakes. And he rode Cavan to victory in the 1958 Belmont Stakes.

About three decades ago, Anderson quit the saddle and became a trainer. He's now 75 years old and has one horse in his stable, Delightful Kiss, who will be one of the favorites in the Grade 3, $750,000 West Virginia Derby next Saturday at The Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort.

Already, Delightful Kiss is very accomplished. On June 2, at the generous odds of 24-1, he was a 3 ½-length winner of the Grade 2 Ohio Derby at Thistledown. And on June 29, Delightful Kiss, at 5-1 odds, scored by 1 ¼ lengths in the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.

"This horse gets better with every race," said Anderson. "And there's no telling how good he'll get. He runs best during the latter part of his races, which always gives him a chance to beat the big guys."

Delightful Kiss is a homebred - he races for Hobeau Farm, a 2,200-acre spread owned by 93-year-old Jack Dreyfus near Ocala, Florida. Dreyfus is said to have more money than Fort Knox - he founded the Dreyfus Mutual Fund - but has long professed an inner desire to be a hobo.

Dreyfus has raced 65 stakes winners. Fourteen of them were sired by the first sire he stood, Beau Gar. Take the "ho" from hobo, combine it with the "Beau" from Beau Gar, and that's where Hobeau comes from.

The pedigree of Delightful Kiss suggests route distances will suit him best. His sire, Kissin Kris, won $1.6 million during his own racing days, and is a grandson of the very prominent stallion, Roberto. Deputy Delight, the dam of Delightful Kiss, is a granddaughter of another prominent stallion, Deputy Minister.

Anderson describes Delightful Kiss as "perfectly put together - a big strong horse." A touch more precise, he's a gelding, which is a male horse who's been neutered. The same thing was done with Forego, and it made him a much better competitor.

A winner at age two, Delightful Kiss spent most of his early career competing on the grass. Five of his last six starts, however, have come on dirt surfaces, which he seems to prefer. On March 17, he finished third in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby, which was won by the subsequent Kentucky Derby winner, Street Sense. With his Ohio Derby and Iowa Derby victories, Delightful Kiss now has a career record that includes 13 starts, four wins, four placings and earnings of $476,937.

Originally from Southampton, New York, Anderson began riding in the late 1940's. In 1948, he was the leading apprentice rider in his home state. He was short, even for a jockey, and it's a stretch to say he grew to five feet in height. But Anderson had powerful shoulders and arms and was a competent handler of the mounts he received. Trainers didn't hesitate to put him on talented runners.

In 1951, Anderson won the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds in New Orleans with Whirling Bat. In 1954, he won the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland with Brother Tex - a horse trained by the Hall of Famer, Woody Stephens. In 1957, Anderson won Keeneland's Ashland Stakes with Jota Jota, who was also a Stephens trainee. Anderson won the 1966 Washington Park Handicap with Bold Bidder, and the 1970 Coaching Club American Oaks with Missile Belle.

His victory aboard Cavan in the '58 Belmont was arguably Anderson's greatest career achievement, although there's a footnote attached. The prohibitive 1-20 favorite in the race was Tim Tam, who had won eight consecutive starts, including the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. But, during the Belmont stretch run, Tim Tam suffered a leg injury and Cavan drew off to beat him by six lengths. Cavan was the 9-2 second choice in the field of eight, and Anderson rode him masterfully.

Forego was something of a late developer. He didn't start racing until age three, and broke his maiden, with Anderson aboard, in his second career start at Hialeah on January 29, 1973. Twelve days later, Anderson won in allowance company with him. They subsequently finished second in both Hutcheson Stakes and Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.

Forego, who weighed 1,225 pounds, was a touch clumsy in his youth. He finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby, 11 lengths behind the victorious Secretariat. "I hit the fence at the three-eighths pole," Anderson recently told Jennie Rees of the Louisville Courier-Journal. "(Forego) changed leads and . . . he banged into the fence. That demobilized him. I wound up finishing fourth, but without any question should have been third. (Forego) proved later on how good a horse he was."

Anderson rode Forego a total of ten times, winning three races with him and placing in four others. But by mid-summer of '73, Anderson had developed weight problems, and trainer Sherrill Ward changed jockeys. Heliodoro Gustines and subsequently Bill Shoemaker guided Forego through his greatest achievements.

As a trainer, Anderson has gained less notice than he did as a jockey. There's a somewhat unusual circumstance attached to his Ohio Derby victory with Delightful Kiss - Anderson also won the 1964 running of that race aboard a horse named National.

Jeffrey Sanchez, a 21-year-old jockey based at Calder Race Course in Florida, rode Delightful Kiss at Thistledown and Prairie Meadows. With 102 wins, Sanchez was the second leading rider at Calder last year. He's a talented young man, riding a maturing 3-year-old for a septuagenarian trainer, who concedes that at this point in the game, "the lights are getting a dim."

It's a pretty neat feat, though, for a horseman to close out a long career with a multiple two-time Derby winner. And at Mountaineer next Saturday, the number could climb to three.