He's Back Where He Belongs

The meat packers, the electrician and the painter also failed to nominate the horse for the same $100 fee to the Kentucky Derby , and although Pole Position can be supplemented to the Preakness and Belmont , he cannot run in Louisville ; no supplemental entries are permitted for the Kentucky Derby . "We didn't nominate him," says Goodwin, "because, what the hell, a $13,500 horse in the Derby? We never thought we'd get this lucky.

"I've been in the racing business since 1934. I was originally a groom. Used to get $35 a month and sleep under the horses I groomed. To be dead honest about things, I can make more out of this horse in a few months than I can make out of anything else I've ever done. I love Pole Position. I groom him and train him. I can rub him and scrub him and keep my old bones out of the cold weather in Canada at this time of the year. Down here, I stay at the Cockatoo Inn. Unless you've worked hard, you don't know what it means for a guy like me to look up at the sun in the afternoon and know you have a bed at the Cockatoo when the night comes."

Last Sunday, Goodwin and reality had a head-on collision. But he should be consoled by the fact that he wasn't the only one to hit that particular wall. Lukas will have to reconsider his plans, too. Terlingua, carrying 115 pounds, wound up fifth, beaten seven lengths, while Pole Position was never seriously in the hunt.

Flying Paster's time of 1:48 at Santa Anita was eloquent, if not spellbinding. But, if you recall, there was another horse who won the Santa Anita Derby in 1:48. A colt named Affirmed.