By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — Surprised a future bet on the Kentucky Derby is still offered at a sports book, I scribbled down the odds next to the name of the eight runners in the Oaklawn Park race that Las Vegas deemed worthy of consideration.
Before Junebugred slipped through along the rail and won the $100,000 Smarty Jones on Monday, the colt was 300-to-1. Few of the more than 300 other 3-year-olds at the Wynn sports book had higher odds.
Generally, a future bet on the Derby is a sucker play. First, picking the Derby winner at a time of year when 3-year-olds develop fast and 2-year-old phenoms regress is dicey at best. Second, there are no refunds and a long list of contenders who depart the Derby trail is always part of the run-up to the first Saturday in May.
For more than a decade, most handicappers with a hankering have settled for Churchill Downs’ future bet where the odds on the 24 available betting interests fluctuate, depending on money wagered into a pari-mutuel pool.
With the future bet at predetermined odds, a sports book risks exposure.
Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg was quoted as saying he would have cleared $380,000 if Arkansas Derby runner-up Wheatly Hall had won the 1986 Kentucky Derby. D. Wayne Lukas, the leading trainer at Oaklawn Park last year, has said his stable bet about $1,500 at 100-to-1 on 1988 Derby winner Winning Colors.
Trainer David Cross cashed a big ticket on 1983 Derby winner Sunny’s Halo, who took a then-unconventional route through Arkansas to Louisville. Cross was so consumed with the horse that his 35-horse stable dwindled to three because owners were upset with his singular approach.
Sunny’s Halo beat up on inferior opposition in three stakes in Canada at the age of 2 before the horse lost badly twice in the U.S. Cross later admitted greed got the best of him and he ignored small stress fractures on the colt’s left shin.
Convinced Sunny’s Halo was special, Cross shipped him to California in early 1983 for galloping and swimming at Hollywood Park. Two months later, he initiated his grand plan and shipped to Oaklawn Park.
Sunny’s Halo won the Rebel by three lengths and, three weeks later, the Arkansas Derby by four lengths. No Arkansas Derby winner had ever won the Kentucky Derby and it had been more than three decades since a Derby winner had only two prep races at the age of 3, but Sunny’s Halo was so impressive that he was only 5-2 when he won in Louisville.
Cross was quoted as saying he got better than 50-to-1 in Vegas and cleared more than $100,000; two days before the Rebel, his wife bet $200 to win in Vegas at 100-to-1 and netted $20,000.
Despite the tempting odds on Junebugred and 250-to-1 on fast-closing runner-up Reckless Jerry, there is a need to see more.
Track announcer Frank Mirahmadi picked up on Junebugred being “very eager to run” on the backstretch and the colt got a break when Laurie’s Rocket left the rail open turning into the stretch. On the upside, it was the colt’s first time around two turns and only the third race of his career.
The next step is the Southwest on Feb. 20, a $250,000 race certain to draw newcomers plus several from the Smarty Jones.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
