A horse from California was supposed to win the 112th Kentucky Derby, but hardly anybody expected it to be Ferdinand, a 17‚1 shot ridden by a 54-year-old jockey and saddled by a 73-year-old trainer. But at the finish of a slow and roughly run Derby, it was Ferdinand, ridden by Bill Shoemaker and trained by Charlie Whittingham, drawing away to a 21/4- length victory over Bold Arrangement and Broad Brush, with the favored Californians, Snow Chief and Badger Land, off the board.
Shoemaker steered Ferdinand, a son of the English triple crown winner Nijinsky II, through heavy traffic from last place to first while covering the mile and a quarter in a dull 2:024/5. Bold Arrangement, an English colt, won a three-way duel for second place, finishing three-quarters of a length in front of Broad Brush. Snow Chief, the 2‚1 favorite, tired badly to finish 11th after taking a brief lead round the far turn. Ferdinand paid $37.40 for $2 to win, the highest Derby payoff since Gato del Sol, also a Californian, also rallied to win from last place and returned $41.40 in 1982.
The race was a sentimental triumph for Shoemaker, who became by far the oldest rider ever to win the race while scoring his fourth Derby triumph, and for Whittingham, a Hall of Fame trainer who had never won a Derby. Artistically, though, it was a less successful Derby run before a crowd of 123,891. The winner's time over a fast track was the slowest in 12 years, and more horses had rough trips than honest ones today.
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