Sportsmanship, persistence are rewarded in Super Derby

BOSSIER CITY, La. — Put this one alongside the lesson about the impossibility of hitting a home run with the bat on your shoulder: You can’t win a race by staying in the barn. My Pal Charlie was expected to remain in the barn Saturday, specifically a barn in Louisville, Ky.

In other words, he wasn’t expected to run in the $500,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs — at least, not until the last moment. And even then he wasn’t expected to win. His owner, Californian B. Wayne Hughes, said he didn’t have any confidence his horse would be successful. Hughes was just doing the sporting thing and hoping for the best. But sportsmanship has its rewards.

And they were manifest in the second turn, where My Pal Charlie shot through an opening along the rail to grab control of the 29th Super Derby and quickly make it his own. And then he drew clear, opening up daylight on his rivals in a blink, and doing so as if it were a habit. He finished 4  1/4 lengths ahead Macho Again, the 6-5 favorite, with Forest Command a neck back in third.

My Pal Charlie completed the 1  1/8 miles in 1:48.36, a record for the Super Derby, which before 2002 had been run at 1  1/4 miles. Still, My Pal Charlie will never be confused with some of the standouts that have won this race in the past, horses such as Sunday Silence and Alysheba. But, as My Pal Charlie’s jockey, Curt Bourque, said, it would have taken an exceptional horse to beat the handsome colt Saturday.

And so enter this lesson, too, in the old notebook: Like sportsmanship, persistence has its rewards. Bourque had ridden in four Super Derbies prior to Saturday’s and never had finished better than sixth. The Super Derby was only the third victory in My Pal Charlie’s 11-race career and his first in a stakes. But he had run close in several major events — second to Pyro in the Louisiana Derby, second again in the Northern Dancer Stakes, fifth in the Lone Star Derby, fifth again in the West Virginia Derby.

Everything came together beautifully just to get the horse here, his trainer, Al Stall Jr., said. Some others that had been expected veered in a different direction; My Pal Charlie trained more and more aggressively and got in a good workout just before the bad weather arrived.

And then My Pal Charlie, who was 6-1, and Bourque landed in the perfect spot, on the rail just behind the early leader, Stungbythestorm. The surface appeared to favor inside speed Saturday. The inside path produced winners throughout the day and was "favorable," said Bourque, who could have reached over and touched the inside rail as he rode My Pal Charlie.

Macho Again hugged the rail, too, but had to be checked in the second turn. Forest Command raced four-wide. But when the early leader tired and drifted out, the rail opened up for My Pal Charlie, and sportsmanship and persistence had their reward.

Other Stakes

Tortuga Flats, who was an allowance winner at Lone Star, upset Brownie Points to win the $100,000 River Cities at Louisiana Downs. The River Cities was one of six stakes races on Super Derby day.

In winning for the 10th time in 13 turf races, Tortuga Flats saved ground and advanced through traffic to finish a length ahead of Pleasantly Blessed. Brownie Points, who won the Ouija Board Stakes at Lone Star and is closing in on $1 million in earnings, rallied for third.

With Tony McNeil riding for trainer Cheryl Asmussen, City Style, who had won his debut at Lone Star, won the Sunday Silence Stakes. Abbott Hall was one of the day’s most impressive winners, taking the Happy Ticket Stakes by six lengths.

Leading virtually from the start and staying on the rail, Jonesboro won the Tiznow Handicap by nearly two lengths over Autobeacat, with Smokeyjonessutton third. Coming here from New York, Steve’s Double won the Unbridled Handicap over Tricky Causeway and Ernesto.