Backtrack: Grindstone Wins 1996 Louisiana Derby

Grindstone, a colt that was sitting on trainer D. Wayne Lukas' deep Triple Crown bench, might have moved into the starting lineup by winning the Louisiana Derby (G3) on March 17. Lukas had called the Louisiana Derby a great spot to test Grindstone's mettle as a Kentucky Derby (G1) possibility. He had compared the Louisiana Derby to a regional game in the NCAA basketball tournament.

"The first two that come out of here probably advance in the tournament," Lukas said several days before the race. "The others will go home."

Grindstone passed the test by passing Zarb's Magic with a burst of speed in the stretch, then drawing away to a 3 1/2-length victory in the $370,000 race at Fair Grounds.

Ridden by Jerry Bailey, Grindstone ran a mile and a sixteenth in 1:42.79, three-fifths off the track record. The time was the fastest in nine runnings of the Louisiana Derby at that distance. Grindstone paid $6.80 to win.

"He's improving very rapidly, and a horse like that is dangerous," Bailey said of Grindstone's Kentucky Derby chances.

Louisiana-bred Zarb's Magic, the favorite, finished second, four lengths in front of longshot Commanders Palace in a field of eight 3-year-olds.

Jeff Lukas, Wayne's son, said Grindstone is good enough to run in the Kentucky Derby.

"We've been leading him up to that," Jeff Lukas said. "He's improving, and a win in a major race like that, it'll move him up really well."

The field included four local horses—Zarb's Magic, Commanders Palace, Garcon Rouge, and Imminent First—and four invaders—Grindstone and E C's Dream from California, and City by Night and Ok by Me from Florida. The only graded stakes winner was Ok by Me, but his graded victory came on turf, in the Tropical Park Derby.

Zarb's Magic set the pace, as he did in winning the Risen Star Stakes, the final Fair Grounds prep for the Louisiana Derby. But this time, Zarb's Magic was pressured most of the way. City by Night raced close behind Zarb's Magic as he set a fast pace—:23.36 for the first quarter-mile, :46.52 for the half, and 1:11.40 for six furlongs.

Grindstone moved alongside Zarb's Magic inside the quarter pole and City by Night retreated. As the horses reached the sixteenth pole, the outcome became clear.

 "I saw that horse (Grindstone) coming," said E.J. Perrodin, who rode Zarb's Magic. "I called on him (Zarb's Magic), and he responded. Then in the later footage, he just had enough. The horse gave me what he had. I'm very impressed with him. He did all he had to do, and he just came up second today."

Grindstone has won two of four starts. He finished second in a Santa Anita allowance race Feb. 16 in his only other race this year. Last year, he won in his debut in June at Belmont Park, then finished fourth in the Bashford Manor Stakes in July at Churchill Downs before being sidelined because of a bone chip in an ankle.

Bailey, who rode Grindstone for the first time in the Louisiana Derby, compared young horses to children. "They improve or get worse from race to race, and this one's getting better," he said.

Grindstone has links to the Triple Crown. He's a son of 1990 Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled.

Grindstone is a homebred who races for William T. Young's Overbrook Farm. Young was co-owner of Timber Country, who won the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) last year for Wayne Lukas, and Tabasco Cat, who started Lukas' streak of five consecutive victories in Triple Crown races by winning the Preakness and Belmont Stakes (gr. I) in 1994. Lukas won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes last year with Thunder Gulch.

Young said Carl Pollard, a Kentucky friend, donated a breeding season in 1992 to Unbridled to the Kentucky Derby Museum, and Young bought the season. He bred the Drone mare Buzz My Bell to Unbridled, and Grindstone was the resulting foal in 1993.

"The homebreds always give you a bigger thrill than the bought horses," Young said.

Perhaps bigger thrills with Grindstone lie ahead.