My Old Kentucky Jones

Trainer Ben Jones is as thorough as he is wily, especially when preparing one of his Calumet Farm horses for a big race like the Kentucky Derby. He always insists on his jockey being around for days in advance to get the feel of the horse, and to study the strategy that is planned.

For last week's 75th running of the Derby, plain Ben went to no such lengths. Steve Brooks, the Calumet jockey, rode at Pimlico the day before and finally got to jampacked Churchill Downs about noon on Derby day. Meanwhile Trainer Ben ("B.A.") Jones had told everybody who would listen how little he thought of his horse's chances. "I wouldn't bet a dollar on Ponder if he was 100 to 1," said he. "If he gets third money ($5,000), old B.A. will be the happiest man in the world." Ben Jones--and most everybody else--thought that Olympia, the 4 to 5 favorite, would win "from here to China."

One Good Run. In the paddock before the race, Jockey Brooks, who had never ridden Ponder, got a fill-in on his mount. Said Jones: "I don't think he'll win, but he'll beat more horses than beat him. He's slow to settle down to running and easy to knock off stride. He'll give you one good run when you ask for it." Ponder was the calmest of the 14 horses that paraded out to the tune of My Old Kentucky Home.

When the starting gate opened, nobody among the 100,000 Derby spectators was surprised to see speedy Olympia, with Jockey Eddie Arcaro up, flash to the front. Arcaro, gunning for his fifth Derby (he had already won four, one more than any other jock), knew that his colt could set a blazing pace, and any rival who tried to stay with him might kill himself off. Arcaro also knew that if one of the others succeeded in forcing the pace far enough Olympia might be the one killed off. Jockey Ted Atkinson on Capot elected to try.

Capot pressed Olympia around the first turn. The first five furlongs were run in a sizzling 59 3/5 seconds. Halfway down the backstretch, Old Rockport began to sneak up on the rail. Ponder, after lagging along absolutely last, began to show signs of life when Jockey Brooks shook the stick at him "just to see what he'd do."

Father Like Son. At the head of the stretch, with Capot at his throat, Olympia gave up. Capot opened a three-length lead and seemed to have the race in hand. Palestinian, now his nearest rival, wasn't gaining. Olympia had faded out of contention.

Suddenly a dark bay colt came charging down the center of the track. The devil's-red silks on his jockey were Calumet's. Ben Jones's long shot, at 16 to 1, caught tired Capot inside the Sixteenth Pole, and won by three lengths. With a pace-forcing assist from Capot, Ponder had won the Kentucky Derby in much the same way his sire, Pensive, had won it five years before--and in identical time: 2:04 1/5.

After the race, the great crowd seemed stunned by the impact of a Jones-trained horse winning at such odds. Ben himself, more excited than after Citation's victory last year, forgot his limp as he hotfooted it down the track to meet Ponder jogging back to the presentation stand. The 66-year-old training wizard from Parnell, Mo., a genius at getting a horse ready for one big race, had the look of a man who had fooled even himself. Said little Conn McCreary, who finished fifth aboard Halt: "When the day comes around, he makes you look like a sucker."

It was Kentucky Derby winner No. 5 for Ben Jones, one more than any other trainer had ever saddled.

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