That first Saturday in May saw Peter Fuller's Dancer's Image finish first. No one objected, and the track paid out on Dancer's Image. All was right with the official order of finish until a few days later when the lab results came back on Dancer's Image and "Bute" was found in the horse's system, then a banned drug.
Down goes Dancer's Image from being considered the official winner. Up goes Calumet Farm's Forward Pass. There is no change in the mutuel payout. People still collected on Dancer's Image. There were no refunds for anyone who bet on Forward Pass. There are no do-overs in racing.
The Twin Spires betting platform announced after Saturday's disqualification of Maximum Security that they would refund, up to $10 in win tickets on the horse. That is unprecedented, and made possible by Advance Deposit computer wagering, something that did not exist in 1968.
The year 1968 was my first year of attending the races. And I've never stopped. The introduction came when myself and two friends, brothers, and their father's barber, James Kelly, went to the Belmont Stakes. By then, there was actually a chance for a Triple Crown.
James Kelly is the only Irish barber I ever knew. He was a regular racetrack-goer, and it was through him we met the other members of his posse, Dino, the Greek manager of The Baron, a high-end steak house of the era, much like The Cattleman. And of course Les Barrett—Mr. Pace—who mentored us in handicapping skills.
Poring over the Morning Telegraph, a significantly sized broadsheet, then priced at 75¢, I came up with two horses for my single Daily Double bet (the only exotic bet of the era) and for $2 cold, hit the double, paying $22. Okay, so they were favorites, but I just turned $2 into $22 and was inoculated for life.
Forward Pass had been awarded first place in the Kentucky Derby, won the Preakness, and with a victory in the Belmont Stakes would actually be considered to have won the Triple Crown. Talk about needing an asterisk.
Forward Pass does not win the 1968 Belmont, despite a front-running effort by Ismael "Milo" Valenzuela, finishing second. Stage Door Johnny with Heliodoro Gustines reels Forward Pass in inside the sixteenth pole. So the drought of Triple Crown winners going back to Citation in 1948 continued.
Peter Fuller, the owner of the disqualified Dander's Image spent a long time trying to be declared the winner because of faulty drug testing. Added to the primitive drug testing of the era—no split samples taken—were other conspiracy theories that Fuller was denied the win because he wasn't liked. Bill Finley wrote extensively about the 1968 disqualification on the 50th anniversary, in 2018.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has already dismissed Gary West's appeal of the disqualification, saying it is not subject to appeal. Absolutely no surprise there.
The stewards' review of the race after the jockeys' objection took 22 minutes, a lengthy deliberation for a jockey objection. They were running the race backwards and forwards from the five-sixteenths pole. Maximum Security did change lanes, but did he do enough to keep the other horse, War of Will, from winning?
That is the opinion part of the review. A different racing jurisdiction of stewards might have seen it completely different and dismissed the objection. Stewards are boxing judges. They don't all see the same thing.
Gary West has expressed a desire to file a lawsuit. Where, will remain to be seen, but without even being a lawyer, the chances for success has to be slim, to none.
Peter Fuller at one point did manage to convince a court that he should be awarded the win and the purse. That was overturned, and the name of the winner on the Derby souvenir glasses for 1968 remains Forward Pass. And the purse money went to Calumet.
Gary West took to the news programs after the race to complain. This is America way these days. He contends, and perhaps not without some basis, that War of Will got in his horse's way. A horse can bother another horse from behind, as well as from in front. In fact, a horse can bother another horse from just about anywhere, even, in rare instances, "savaging" the opponent, which is to say being alongside the other horse, turning their head and taking a bite out of them. J.K. Simmons in the State Farm insurance commercial would say, "Seen it. Covered it."
And Mr. West, certainly still boiling over, has called Churchill Down "greedy" for allowing as many 20 horses to start the race, when other premier races, like the Breeders' Cup, only allow up to 14.
Say what you will about field size, the up to 20 has been around for a while now at Churchill. The "greedy" part would stem from an entry fee and a starting fee of $25,000 each. A little heavy.
Racing didn't always have 20 starters in a race. In the old days, the pari-mutuel machines couldn't punch out a number beyond 12. So, when there were more than 12 entrants, the overflow were assigned to the pool created with No. 12 used to designate "the Field."
A field bet was like an entry bet: choose the number, get all the horses assigned to the number. When Cananero II won the 1971 Derby he was part of the field. But here in New York, with the inauguration of Off-Track betting in March 1971, each horse was assigned a letter, so you could punch past 12 betting interests. The more betting interests, the more handle, simple as that. The "greedy" part of the equation since the track gets a percentage of the handle.
Cananero paid a wholly different amount when he won at the track vs. what he paid at OTB. Being a founding inductee to telephone wagering in 1971, I took the bets in the office for a few people. One women I worked with, whose husband was Spanish, picked Cananero for $4 to win.
My memory is telling me I had to wait to make a withdrawal from the account and give her the $118 for the win bet, twice, thus $236. I was nervous that the money would actually show up in my account. It did. She got me a gift.
The introduction of the point system to be able to enter the Derby has of course not lessened the number of starters below 20, but it has guaranteed that those in the race have at least done something on he "Road to the Derby" to warrant their inclusion in the starting gate.
This at least has kept the truly peripheral entrants from getting a spot. Handicapping the field on Friday and Saturday I came away with the conclusion that sure, a favorite, second choice might prevail, but with 20 entrants and skewed betting creating long shots amongst decent horses, it wouldn't surprise me that a bomb would win. And even if Maximum Security were not moved down in the results, Country House would still be a whopping amount for second.
Racing is in another teeth gnashing phase. I've lived long enough to pass through at least three "future of racing" phases. Attendance dwindles, but handle can be up. Racing has always been fueled by dollars gambled, whether through discretionary recreational wagering, or deep-pocket wagers made by true gamblers.
The blue bloods that used to run NYRA could never see themselves as a sport that exists because people came to the track and plopped money down. They treated the patrons like an assumption and the great unwashed. They now know they are in a business that has to compete for the gambling dollar.
And like a weak entity that they are, they are looking to make consolidations with sports wagering. But the gambling dollar is stretched thinner than Twiggy was. Video machines were supposed to prop up racing in New York, until they didn't. Horses were actually named after video lottery machines (VLTs), like those that are now part of the Aqueduct campus.
Racing's future will not be perpetuated by bans on riding crops, or even drugs, or even the hope that televised exposure will create new fans. (It won't.) Without gambling action, there will be no racing. Dollars, owners, trainers and jockeys make the horses go around the track.
The Wests had two horses in the race, top-flight runners in Game Winner and Maximum Security. Country House just crawled into the race with enough points, despite having only won a maiden race. Points were attained by the second, fourth, and third placings in The Risen Star, the Louisiana Derby, and the Arkansas Derby, all graded races. A nice way to amass $260,175 going into the race. But any horse trained trained by a Hall-of-Famer like Bill Mott, has to be seriously considered.
Will the Wests ever bring another horse to Churchill Downs? After all, the Derby is not the only race there.
People are mad, and tempers have flared. Peter Fuller never had the racing stable the Wests have, but along the way, before passing away in 2012, was asked, would be bring another horse to Churchill? (He never did.)
"Yes," he said, "if I had one named Dancer's Revenge." The Wests still have time.
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