07/26/09

SEEKING A SECOND WEST VIRGINIA DERBY WIN

By Bill Mooney

Four years ago, Bob and Cathy Zollars stood proudly in the winner’s circle at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, next to their colt Real Dandy, who had just achieved a 1¼-length victory in the West Virginia Derby.

This Saturday, August 1, the Zollars will try for a second triumph in the Grade 2, $750,000 event, with Sunday Sunrise, a colt that they co-own with Mark Wagner. If successful, the Zollars will join Mrs. Horatio Luro as the only owners with multiple victories in the state’s richest and most historic race.

Mrs. Luro, wife of the Hall of Fame trainer, achieved the feat over four decades ago. In 1963, her homebred filly Etimota recorded a 12-length victory, which remains the record margin for the race. In 1966, another of Mrs. Luro’s homebred fillies, Kerensa, won by 2 ¼ lengths.

The West Virginia Derby purses for those years totaled $5,470 and $8,230, respectively. Mountaineer was known as Waterford Park, and the graded system for classifying stakes had yet to come into existence.

Things have changed a bit since then – the winner of this year’s West Virginia Derby will gain a check worth $450,000. Accordingly, the competition has become considerably more formidable than in the Kerensa/Etimota days.
Mine That Bird comes to this year’s West Virginia Derby with a Kentucky Derby triumph and over $2 million in purse earnings on his resume. Big Drama will go postward with a Grade 3 triumph and over $1 million in earnings. Awesome Rhythm is already a multiple stakes winner. Monty’s Best is graded stakes-placed.

Sunday Sunrise has made ten career starts, from which he has managed a maiden win and an allowance victory. Figuratively, he will be David taking on Goliath (and a bunch of Philistines, to boot).

Then, again, it wasn’t that long ago when Mine That Bird bore the semblance of David, taking on a group of Goliaths with names such as Friesan Fire, Dunkirk and Pioneer of the Nile (who were the three Kentucky Derby post-time favorites).

But, during the stretch run at Churchill Downs, Mine That Bird suddenly morphed into the biggest Goliath of all, drawing off to prevail by a widening 6 ¾ lengths. His return of $103.20 for a two-dollar win mutuel was the second highest in Kentucky Derby history.

Might Sunday Sunrise do the same at Mountaineer? Well, he comes from an impressive family. His sire, Lemon Drop Kid, was a Grade 1 winner at age two, and at age three won both the Belmont and Travers Stakes. And Sunday Silence’s maternal grandsire, Sunday Silence, won the 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic, and was North America’s Horse of the Year.

Steve Asmussen, who received the Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding trainer in 2008, conditions Sunday Sunrise. Asmussen also trained Real Dandy and the 2007 West Virginia Derby winner, Zanjero, and will be shooting for his third win in the race.

Real Dandy was sent off at odds of 7-1 in his West Virginia Derby. He was in an 11-horse field and was last through the opening half-mile, before making a huge move on the outside to gain the victory.

Jim Dandy, at odds of 100-1, wasn’t supposed to be the Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox in the 1930 Travers at Saratoga, but he did. Bee Bee Bee wasn’t supposed to beat the likes of Riva Ridge and Key to the Mint in the 1972 Preakness, but, on a track ankle-deep in slop, he did.

And, hey, right here, Park’s Policy wasn’t supposed beat odds-on favorite Vodika Collins in the 1981 West Virginia Derby, but he did. The $57.60 that Park’s Policy returned for a two-dollar win mutuel remains the West Virginia Derby record.

West Virginia Derby Notes: Fox Sports Net, which will provide live coverage of the West Virginia Derby from 5-6 p.m. EDT Saturday, will also air the $125,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes, which highlights the undercard. Chris Lincoln will host the telecast. He will be joined by racing analyst Kurt Hoover and reporter Caton Bredar. Mountaineer’s Peter Berry will do the race calls.