A Scent of Roses

Even by tack-room standards, stony-faced Willie Shoemaker, 32, seems a little smaller than life. Standing on tiptoe, he is barely 5 ft. tall and weighs only 98 Ibs. But Willie casts a considerable shadow. In 15 years of booting thoroughbreds around the nation's racetracks, he has won more than 4,850 races, and his mounts have earned almost $31 million.

Millionaires beg like mendicants for Shoemaker's services. Trainers claim that a race horse improves by two or three lengths simply by having Willie on its back. Bettors lucky enough to back him on one of his hot days (eight times in his career he has won six races on a single card) have been known to buy Rolls-Royces and retire in splendor to places like Palm Beach and Acapulco. And whenever a big race rolls around, the notation "Jockey: W. Shoemaker" opposite a horse's name is often enough to send it off the favorite. That is just what happened this month when Willie announced that he would ride the California champion, Hill Rise, in next week's Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Oddsmakers shifted the odds from 2-1 to 8-5, and installed Hill Rise as the early-line favorite to win the 90th Run for the Roses.

View from the Back. A strapping (66 in. tall at the withers) three-year-old bay owned by San Francisco Real Estate Tycoon George Pope Jr., whose Decidedly won the 1962 Derby, Hill Rise has won six races in a row, including February's $132,400 Santa Anita Derby. Jockey Shoemaker was in that race--aboard Rex Ellsworth's highly touted The Scoundrel, a powerful, stretch-running colt that tied the Santa Anita track record for a mile in an afternoon workout. The Scoundrel finished fifth, seven lengths behind Hill Rise. And it was that view from the back that persuaded Shoemaker to pick Hill Rise as his Kentucky Derby mount. "He just ran off--whoosh--and left me," said Willie. "Anybody who saw him run that day couldn't help being impressed."

But until Shoemaker switched horses Hill Rise was only a co-favorite to win the Derby, with Northern Dancer, owned by Canadian Beer Baron E. P. Taylor, and ridden by--guess who?--Willie Shoemaker. The richest Canadian-bred race horse in history, with $261,365 already in the till, Northern Dancer won this month's 1 1/2-mile Florida Derby handily enough to wow the chart callers. But if Shoemaker never said it in so many words, he hinted that the 1 1/2-mile Kentucky Derby might be more than Northern Dancer could handle. "I like Northern Dancer's gameness, and I think he had a little bit left at the end in Florida," said Willie. "But my instincts tell me that Hill Rise is a better horse."

Offered a choice of Derby mounts (Shoemaker also had an option on The Scoundrel), more than one top jockey has made the mistake of picking a loser. In 1942, Eddie Arcaro chose Devil Diver over Shut Out; Shut Out won at Churchill Downs and Devil Diver finished way up the track. Like every other jockey, Shoemaker has heard that story at least a dozen times, and to test his own judgment, he flew into Lexington last week to ride Hill Rise for the first time in the Forerunner Purse, a Derby tune-up. It was not much of a race: awed by Hill Rise's credentials, so many rival owners scratched their horses that the thoughtful Keeneland Downs management canceled all betting. Otherwise the odds on Hill Rise might have been something like 1-100. At post time, only two colts contested Hill Rise's claim to the $6,500 purse, and Shoemaker rode him, reported one onlooker, "as if he were the only horse in the race." Hill Rise spotted the runnerup 15 Ibs., still romped to a 3/4-length victory, and came within 1 1/8 sec. of tying the track record.

Not by a Long Shot. Looking for the third Derby victory of his career, Shoemaker insists: "Hill Rise is the best Derby horse in the country." Northern Dancer's backers like the lengthened odds on their horse. He might be smaller than Hill Rise, and there might be some doubt about his ability to go the 1 1/4-mile Derby distance--but he has still won ten out of 13 races, and his new rider, Bill Hartack, is an old hand at winning the Kentucky Derby (three times in the last seven years). Panamanian Jockey Manuel Ycaza, who won the mount on The Scoundrel when Shoe maker begged off, was not about to concede either. And before the week was out, Eastern horsemen were singing the praises of Paul Mellon's Quadrangle, who ran off with the $75,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Besides, as any horseman knows, the best horse does not necessarily win the Kentucky Derby--not by a long shot. The start is a cavalry charge, the tight turns at Churchill Downs are treacherous, and the big field always includes a handful of no-account horses, whose owners can forever brag, "My horse ran in the Derby." They never win, but they clutter up the course. Then, the Derby being the Derby, there are bound to be ways of losing that nobody has thought up yet. Jockey Shoemaker should know. Seven years ago he hit on a dandy himself. Aboard Gallant Man, he had the race all but won in the stretch when he misjudged the finish line, stood up too soon in the stirrups and lost by a nose to Iron Liege.

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