Page 19 - The Game June 2006

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, June 2006 19
PATRICK & MARK - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 “I don’t know why it triggered back to
me,” he says, “I was thinking. ‘My father has reached his goal. My father is always sitting on my shoulders and now he’s going to the Kentucky Derby.’ Then I stopped the tears and became more focussed. I was thinking about winning the race for my dad.”
Husbands’ ride on Seaside Retreat should be bottled and used as a model for an amusement park ride. This one had enough thrills and chills to last a lifetime.
Breaking from the 15 stall, Husbands showed why choosing this post had been such good strategy. He angled his colt to the inside, using the break between the starting gates for clear running room. However, the first time past the Twin Spires, any wiggle room on either side had disappeared. Deputy Glitters form the inside and Cause to Believe from the outside, sandwiched Seaside Retreat. In spite of that serious bodywork, Husbands found he had a lot of horse.
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t get too far out of it and the horse was pretty sharp,” says Casse, “Going into the first turn we weren’t more than five lengths out of the lead. Patrick had his hands full.”
After the clubhouse turn, Seaside Retreat was in a good striking position, about two horses off the rail, and in close contact with the eventual winner Barbaro, ridden by Edgar Prado.
“I was sitting two lengths behind Prado down the backstretch with so much horse,” says Husbands, “and I left some room along the inside in case any guy was com- ing. Well this horse came from nowhere and hit me on the left back end and from there my horse was not the same.”
Casse had the view from the grand- stand.
“What happened was Lawyer Ron came up beside him and gave him a knock,” says Casse, “The horse still went on and ran from there. Unfortunately he got fanned seven or eight wide.”
“I went absolutely wide,” recalls Husbands, “ And down the lane, he tried, but he got squeezed out near the 8th pole.”
In the charts, it shows that Seaside Retreat finished tenth, about 16 lengths behind Barbaro. Barbaro’s time was an excellent 2:01.36. Seaside Retreat finished the ten furlongs in about 2:04.5, which would have won last year’s Queen’s Plate by several lengths. Not being Canadian born, Seaside Retreat is not eligible for this year’s Plate.
Even as the horses crossed the wire, Husbands still had a lot of horse on his hands. Almost too much.
“After the race, he ran off on me and I couldn’t get him stopped. The outriders had to pull him up. He was at full throttle. I was standing up in the air and I’m screaming at him to stop!”
Tenth is tenth. Most of the time, no one even remembers who finishes second. But at odds of 52.50 to one, Seaside Retreat was the second longest shot in the race. In the language of the handicappers, he out- ran his odds and finished ahead of ten horses that the bettors had considered stronger. In fact, by beating Lawyer Ron, Blue Grass winner Sinister Minister, and Bob and John, Seaside Retreat outfinished three horses who had each attracted over $1million in win bets.
reason to be proud of his horse.
“As I said to Bill Farish, the owner,
‘How you can feel good about being tenth?‚ but I did,” says Casse, “We end up getting beat about 8 lengths for second and we lost about 4 lengths because of trouble. I took some flack because some of the experts said he didn’t deserve to be there. I was proud to show that he can run with those horses.”
Next up for Seaside Retreat is a shot at a million dollar purse running on the grass in the Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs in Virginia on June 24.
“He’s bred for the grass,” says Casse, “His father, King Cugat, was a great grass horse. He should actually excel on the grass and we want to give him the opportunity.”
As for Husbands, his appetite for a first place Derby finish was seriously whetted.
“I only have probably three more years riding horses,” he says, “I’m too big as a rider. I’ve reached so far as a jockey that I have to win a Derby or a Breeders’ Cup.”
And Mark Casse’s resolve to win this race is more engraved than ever.
“That would be my primary focus from here on,” he states without equivocation, “Nothing compares to it.”
This tale of a weekend at Churchill Downs has one more amusing, or should we say , insightful anecdote, because what happened in the hours afterwards speaks about the character of Patrick Husbands. In the early hours of the evening of Saturday, May 6, possibly sapped of energy and immersed in the anti-climactic dusk, Husbands remembered that he had promised trainer Mike Keogh to ride his
filly Half Sister in the $150,000 Fury Stakes Sunday at Woodbine. Who would have questioned him if he’d made a phone call and said, “You know I just ran in the Kentucky Derby, could you possibly find another rider?”
Turns out that’s not how Patrick Husbands runs his business.
“I made this man a promise,” says Husbands, “I had to go back. I had to do a job.”
Husbands left Louisville at midnight and by quarter after ten Sunday morning was sweating in the Woodbine sauna, peeling off a few pounds. There was a knock on the sauna door and in came fellow jockey Richard Dos Ramos with an unfortunate message.
Half Sister had been scratched.
Despite the finish, Casse had great