{"id":16250,"date":"2019-05-03T14:46:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T14:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16250"},"modified":"2019-05-03T22:27:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T22:27:31","slug":"the-secret-latin-american-history-of-the-kentucky-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-secret-latin-american-history-of-the-kentucky-derby\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret Latin American history of the Kentucky Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

E. Gabrielle Kuenzli<\/a>, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This Triple Crown season<\/a>, which opens on May 4 with the Kentucky Derby<\/a>, horses with Latin American bloodlines are among the top favorites. <\/p>\n

Two 2019 derby contenders \u2013 Vekoma and Game Winner<\/a> \u2013 are half brothers and the offspring of Candy Ride<\/a>, one of Argentina\u2019s most famous thoroughbreds. Now retired, Candy Ride shares his winning genes freely \u2013 well, for a stud fee of US$80,000<\/a> \u2013 at Lane\u2019s End Farm in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

That two top Derby contenders have their roots in Latin America is no surprise for those who study, as I do<\/a>, the history of the sport. Many past Kentucky Derby champions hailed from the region \u2013 as have their trainers, owners and jockeys. <\/p>\n

Ca\u00f1onero II and the 1971 Kentucky Derby<\/h2>\n

The 1971 Kentucky Derby<\/a> belonged to Venezuela\u2019s Ca\u00f1onero II, although few predicted it. <\/p>\n

Announcers regularly referred to Ca\u00f1onero \u2013 a 3-year-old colt with a crooked right foreleg \u2013 as the \u201cmystery horse.\u201d In early May 1971, the odds of him winning were long: 500-1. Few in Louisville, the mecca of American horse racing, took the Venezuelan team seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say we are clowns,\u201d said Ca\u00f1onero\u2019s Caracas-based trainer, Juan Arias, as Derby Day approached<\/a>. \u201cThey say we are Indians because my horse gallops slowly, sometimes without a saddle.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Ca\u00f1onero II, left, with jockey Gustavo Avila, winning the Kentucky Derby on May 1, 1971.<\/span>
\n AP Photo<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The trip from Caracas to Kentucky<\/a> was a harrowing one. Ca\u00f1onero flew to Miami a week before the Derby, where he waited for 12 hours on the plane in the Florida heat while his paperwork cleared. Then he was quarantined for four days before traveling by trailer to Louisville. <\/p>\n

The 1,000-pound Ca\u00f1onero II dropped 70 pounds in the process, but Arias wasn\u2019t worried. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust relax, go eat, and we\u2019ll wait for tomorrow,\u201d Arias would say if Ca\u00f1onero was not eager to train. Within a week, the horse had gained back his confidence \u2013 and 50 of his 70 lost pounds.<\/p>\n

On Derby Day, a lanky Ca\u00f1onero II<\/a> and jockey Gustavo Avila overtook 19 horses to win by three-and-three-quarters lengths, just ahead of his American competitor Jim French<\/a> \u2013 a 3-year-old so rigorously trained, many thought him indefatigable.<\/p>\n

Nobody could believe it \u2013 except the Venezuelan team who had nurtured Ca\u00f1onero from a scrawny, worm-infected colt to a global phenomenon. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost American trainers train for speed<\/a>,\u201d explained Arias, in Spanish, prior to the 1971 Derby. \u201cI train Ca\u00f1onero to be a star.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arias, Ca\u00f1onero\u2019s owner Pedro Baptista and groom Juan Quintero then set their sights on the Preakness, the second race of the Triple Crown. Ca\u00f1onero won there<\/a>, too, breaking a speed record set in 1955.<\/p>\n

Ca\u00f1onero and his team, now immensely popular, turned to the Belmont Stakes<\/a>, in Elmont, New York \u2013 the final race of the Triple Crown. But fatigue and a bacterial infection in his hoof had weakened Ca\u00f1onero. He finished fifth. <\/p>\n

Though he didn\u2019t win the Triple Crown, Ca\u00f1onero\u2019s dramatic victories and underdog story brought about a resurgence of interest in the sport of horse racing, according to equine journalist Steve Haskin<\/a>. Attendance<\/a> for the 1971 Belmont Stakes surged to 82,694, far surpassing the previous year\u2019s record turnout of 67,961. <\/p>\n

Among Ca\u00f1onero\u2019s fans were many Latinos<\/a>, drawn to Elmont by the prospect of seeing a Venezuelan team win this quintessentially American race. <\/p>\n

Some 2,000 Venezuelans attended the final race of the 1971 Triple Crown series, Haskin reported, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with \u201cViva Ca\u00f1onero!\u201d New York\u2019s Puerto Rican community also turned out to support Ca\u00f1onero in droves. <\/p>\n

Latin American horse racing<\/h2>\n

Ca\u00f1onero\u2019s wins were a symbol of pride for Latinos and the Latin American horse racing community.<\/p>\n

Though, historically, the vast majority of professional jockeys have come from Latin America<\/a> \u2013 trained in the jockey schools which opened in the 1950s and 1960s in Panama, Puerto Rico<\/a> and Mexico City \u2013 relatively few horses who compete in the U.S. were trained abroad.<\/p>\n

Ca\u00f1onero II earned his place at the Derby training against stiff competition at La Rinconada racetrack in Venezuela. His trainer, Arias, grew up poor in Caracas and fell in love with horses. There, he forged his own style of raising and communicating with horses<\/a> that was different from the more regimented style of the United States. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can learn from American trainers,\u201d Arias told Vault magazine<\/a> after Ca\u00f1onero won the Preakness. \u201cBut I can also teach them some things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latin America has a long tradition of professional equestrianism. <\/p>\n

The day after the Kentucky Derby, Puerto Rico holds the Puerto Rican Derby, run at the Camarero racetrack in Can\u00f3vanas. Each December, nine Latin American countries aim to compete in the Caribbean Derby<\/a>, a premier race founded in 1966. <\/p>\n

Just four jockeys have won both the Kentucky Derby and the Caribbean Derby. One of them is Gustavo Avila, Ca\u00f1onero\u2019s jockey.<\/p>\n

Bold Forbes and the 1976 Kentucky Derby<\/h2>\n

In 1976 another Latin American star \u2013 the Cuban-trained and Puerto Rican-owned Bold Forbes won the Kentucky Derby<\/a> and another Triple Crown race, the Belmont Stakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Ca\u00f1onero II, Bold Forbes was an unlikely champion. During a dinner for trainers prior to the derby, The New York Times reported in 1976<\/a>, an \u201cundiplomatic questioner\u201d insulted the black horse for his small stature \u2013 just 15.2 hands high \u2013 saying he looked like a filly. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you put a saddle on him, he kinda grows,\u201d said Larry Barrera, the son of Bold Forbes\u2019 Cuban trainer, Laz Barrera.<\/p>\n

Barrera\u2019s confidence was rightly placed. Bold Forbes ran the first half of the Kentucky Derby faster than any past Derby winner<\/a>. His photo finish victory against favorite Honest Pleasure had the crowd of 115,000 roaring.<\/p>\n

Throughout the week leading up to the Derby, Latinos went to visit Bold Forbes at the barn in Churchill Downs. <\/p>\n

\u201cLatins feel deeply for this horse,\u201d Barrera told Vault magazine<\/a>. \u201cHe is little \u2026 but when Cordero is on him he looks like the biggest horse in the world to Latin people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puerto Rican jockey Angel Cordero, then 33 years old, called the horse \u201cmy Puerto Rican Rolls-Royce<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Bold Forbes, with Angel Cordero standing in the stirrups, outstripped far better-known horses to win the 1976 Kentucky Derby.<\/span>
\n AP Photo<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bold Forbes was the first horse to win big for Barrera, but not his last. The Cuban trainer went on to win countless races, including, in 1978, all three legs of the Triple Crown. He is the only trainer nominated to the Racing Hall of Fame<\/a> in Cuba, Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n

Barrera saw the victories of Bold Forbes as a triumph for Latinos. <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the big crowd and heard the Puerto Rican people screaming when Bold Forbes won the Belmont,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cBold Forbes has a heart as big as all heaven. <\/p>\n

“And God, I have found out, is Latin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derby 2019<\/h2>\n

Latin America could see another Derby win this year.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Vekoma, left, is half-brother to Derby frontrunner Game Winner.<\/span>
\n Gonzalo Anteliz Jr.<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the favorite, owner Rick Porter\u2019s Omaha Beach, suddenly out of the race due to illness, experts and fans are now backing Game Winner<\/a>, the offspring of that venerable Argentinean runner Candy Ride<\/a>, with 4-1 odds.<\/p>\n

Candy Ride\u2019s other offspring in the race, Vekoma, has worse odds: 15-1. <\/p>\n

But Derby history shows that talented horses can defy expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis horse is so special that even if he didn\u2019t love the distance, he could still win,\u201d Vekoma\u2019s trainer, George Weaver, told Blood Horse Magazine on April 13<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cGood horses \u2026 do what they\u2019re not supposed to do. And this is a really smart horse who will give everything he\u2019s got.\u201d\"The<\/p>\n

E. Gabrielle Kuenzli<\/a>, Associate Professor, History Department, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E. Gabrielle Kuenzli, University of South Carolina This Triple Crown season, which opens on May 4 with the Kentucky Derby, horses with Latin American bloodlines are among the top favorites. Two 2019 derby contenders \u2013 Vekoma and Game Winner \u2013 are half brothers and the offspring of Candy Ride, one of Argentina\u2019s most famous thoroughbreds. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[669,2308,671,203],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16251,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16250\/revisions\/16251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}