Derby Dawns for Two Sons Seeking Win Fathers Missed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - To anyone who follows horse racing, Allen Jerkens is known as the Giant Killer. He is the Hall of Fame trainer whose horses beat the Triple Crown champion Secretariat twice and the great Kelso three times. He is a legend who is rightfully on the short list in the discussion of history's greatest horsemen.

Jimmy Jerkens simply calls him Dad. He, too, is a horse trainer. Three weeks ago, still buoyant from a victory in the Wood Memorial with the colt Wicked Strong, the Giant Killer approached his son with a grim look on his face.

'I guess you're going to take him to the Derby now?' Allen, 85, asked.

'Yes,' Jimmy Jerkens, 55, replied.

His father's frown grew deeper.

'Ahh, why don't you do this right, and run him back in the Peter Pan,' Allen said in a pained voice, referring to a race next Saturday in New York, 'and then go out and win the Belmont Stakes.'

The younger Jerkens told the story with a smile in his voice. Of course, he didn't listen - though he confessed he wish he had after Wicked Strong pulled the No. 20 post position and what is certain to be a challenging trip in Saturday's 140th running of the Kentucky Derby. No, Jerkens is here all right - with an owner who followed his own father into the horse business, Don Little Jr.

In fact, the late Don Little and the Giant Killer were friends.

In 1982, the elder Little decided to get in the thoroughbred business by founding Centennial Farms with Wall Street friends. He not only knew of Allen Jerkens's reputation, but he knew him from the polo field. Both were accomplished players.

The Derby, however, eluded both of them. Centennial Farms has campaigned some accomplished horses, among them Colonial Affair, the 1993 Belmont Stakes winner. The elder Jerkens came south only three times to give the Derby a shot, without any success.

'We're both breaking our maidens,' said Little, 54, employing the racetrack parlance for doing something for the first time.

Five years ago, however, Jerkens came tortuously close with Quality Road. The colt announced himself as a world beater by winning three of his first four races, including eye-catching scores in the Fountain of Youth and the Florida Derby.

'He was hands-down the most talented horse I ever put my hands on,' Jerkens said. 'He was just incredible what he could do. He was an out-and-out freak.'

Quality Road was supposed to be the horse to beat on the first Saturday in May. But he had tender feet and, in the last days of April, Jerkens decided Quality Road's right front hoof was too sore for him to compete.

'It was devastating,' he said.

Worse, not long after, the colt's owner, Ned Evans, fired Jerkens and moved Quality Road to Todd Pletcher's barn. The son of Elusive Quality raced another year and retired with a sterling record of eight victories and three seconds, with earnings of more than $2.2 million.

It is too early to project that Wicked Strong will have that type of career. Little fell in love with the son of Hard Spun as soon as he walked out of the stall at the Keeneland yearling sale two years ago.

'He had a presence and intelligence that was immediate,' Little said. 'He looked around and didn't miss a thing.'

But the colt was headstrong, ornery even, and has demanded patience and a steady hand. Wicked Strong showed enough promise as a 2-year-old for Jerkens and Little to entertain thoughts of the Derby. But this winter in Florida, those plans seemed to fall apart. Wicked Strong was a well-beaten ninth place in the Holy Bull Stakes and managed only fourth in his next start, a modest allowance race.

So Jerkens decided to bring Wicked Strong home to his base in New York and take a shot at the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. He also asked the jockey Rajiv Maragh to ride the colt.

'He's a tough and anxious horse who wants his way,' Jerkens said, 'and Rajiv has a rapport with him. He knows how to keep him calm.'

Turning for home in the Wood, Wicked Strong looked like a different horse. He bounded over the ground with a late kick that winners of the Kentucky Derby have often displayed. Both Jerkens and Little agreed that Wicked Strong deserved to be the 6-1 second choice in the morning line.

On Thursday, Jerkens took a page out of his father's playbook. He gave Wicked Strong a three-eighths of a mile blowout in the lane, a tactic common in his father's era but rare today. The colt looked good doing it.

'Let him open up his lungs and stretch his legs,' Jerkens said.

Now, Jerkens and Little believe they have a shot to do what their fathers could not.

'Sure, we can win it,' Jerkens said. 'We got the horse, now we need some luck.'