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Giacomo, with jockey Mike Smith aboard, crossing the finish line to win the 131st Kentucky Derby.

May 8, 2005
Giacomo, the Unknown, Storms to Victory
By JOE DRAPE
LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 7 - George Steinbrenner had Bellamy Road, the Kentucky Derby favorite. Nick Zito had fives horses, good ones, who accounted for a full quarter of the 20-horse field. But for 130 years, this has been a puzzling race, one where Big Horses have shrunk and multiple horses guarantee trainers nothing but headaches when it comes to multitasking owners.

When the 131st running of America's most famous race was over, no one could blame Steinbrenner, the Yankees' principal owner, or Zito, the loquacious Brooklyn trainer, if they uttered a question on the minds of the vast majority of those watching: "Who is Giacomo?"

From here to eternity, Giacomo, a son of the great Holy Bull, will forever be known as the 2005 Derby winner, a colt who streaked from the back of the pack to deliver a seemingly impossible upset for his few backers. How impossible?

At 50-1, Giacomo became the second-longest shot to win the roses since Donerail stole off with the 1913 Derby at 91-1. Giacomo paid $102.60 for a $2 bet to win. Ninety minutes before the race, Steinbrenner, while wandering the posh Directors Room at Churchill Downs, acknowledged that despite Bellamy Road's 5-2 odds his colt was up against it.

"What we're trying to do is hard," said Steinbrenner, who has bred and owned horses for more than 30 years. "I just hope he runs well."

It was more than hard, and Bellamy Road did not run well, finishing seventh, well behind Giacomo and a host of horses that had been ignored in the run up to the Derby except one, the post-time second choice, Afleet Alex, who finished third. Zito perhaps was the only other horseman who was perhaps more crestfallen.

Bellamy Road, who won the Wood Memorial in dazzling fashion, was his best finisher; Andromeda's Hero was eighth; High Fly, winner of the Florida Derby, 10th; Noble Causeway, the Florida Derby runner-up, 14th and Sun King, the Tampa Bay Derby victory, 15th.

"There's no locks in this game," Zito said. "The horses everyone talked about didn't show up."

Instead, Giacomo did, stunning not only his trainer, John Shirreffs, but also staggering his jockey, Mike Smith. Giacomo had been victorious only once before in seven lifetime starts. As Giacomo slungshot around the final turn and aimed down the stretch, neither could believe what was happening.

"Well, he's moving," Shirreffs told himself as his colt eased outside and began rolling in the lane, "He started gobbling up ground. And I thought that he might hit the board."

But then it got better.

"No, we might win it," Shirreffs decided.

As Smith crossed the finish line ahead of Closing Argument, Afleet Alex and Don't Get Mad, his body went limp. His colt had been in 18th place as they hit the final turn, 11th at the mile mark and sixth when they hit the stretch. But Giacomo, was, indeed, gobbling ground: Closing Argument, Afleet Alex, Buzzards Bay, Bellamy Road and High Fly all felt his wind.

"When I stood up at the wire, all the strength left my body," he said.

Zito, too, felt his legs buckle as he gazed into the stretch and saw Giacomo, the 70-1 shot Closing Argument and Afleet Alex barreling home, but none of his horses. As anticipated, the pace had been blistering the designated rabbit Spanish Chestnut had led them to a half mile in 45.38 seconds before faltering.

Jerry Bailey and High Fly took over and led his 19 competitors to a mile in 1:35.88 with Javier Castellano and Bellamy Road just off his flank. For a moment, Zito felt good.

"I knew it would be hot pace, and they were in the clear," he said. "I was waiting for my closers to come. I thought I was in good shape, Jerry and Javey were going good. I was looking for my other horses."

"I knew it would be hot pace, and they were in the clear," he said. "I was waiting for my closers to come. I thought I was in good shape, Jerry and Javey were going good. I was looking for my other horses."

Zito and Steinbrenner were not the only horsemen dismayed. Jeremy Rose, the jockey for the Arkansas Derby winner Afleet Alex, had Closing Argument in his sights in the stretch and believed he was one horse away from a Derby victory.

"I was screaming and hollering for him," Rose said.

But when Smith and Giacomo rumbled by, he recognized an unfamiliar feeling aboard a colt that had won six of his nine lifetime races.

"You can feel when a horse is giving everything he had," Rose said. "He just had nothing left. I think that is the first time that I have seen a horse outside me that I could not get by."

Even the 156,435 on hand at Churchill Downs, the second-largest Derby crowd ever, did not know what to make of the stretch run. The roar here gave way to a dull silence as first High Fly, then Bellamy Road and finally Afleet Alex faded.

It wasn't an exceptionally fast final time for Giacomo 2:02.75. But it was good enough for Jerry Moss, the co-founder of A&M records, to pick up the richest first-place check in Derby history, $1,639,600.

But the few believers Giacomo had were amply rewarded as well - the colt paid $102.60 for a $2 bet to win. In fact, anyone wise enough to ignore Steinbrenner and all five of Zito horses hit horse racing's lottery.

There were a few of them, all very happy today. The trifecta of Giacomo, Closing Argument and Afleet Alex paid $133,134.80 for a $2 bet; and those who added Buzzards Bay as the fourth place horse picked up more than $1.7 million for a $2 bet.

Zito, a lifelong racetracker, tried to put his tough afternoon into perspective, after all the odds were with him. Until they turned against him. When he pointed to the results board, sadness gave way to surprise.

"'I'm human being like everyone else;, it's a little bit of a setback," he said. "Look at that board."

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