The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 22

page 10 backside Seattle Slew draws a crowd even at 6:30 a.m. mi i i in I III I am mi mi in Ill I I ii.ii.iii.iiiriiiiTiioiiwnTrii)TiT limnrtllkagrtVMIiiiiili Staff Photo by Dan Dry Steam rises off Seattle Slew as groom John Polston after a 6:30 a.m. workout. Ejeven hours later, Seat-washes the colt down at Churchill Downs' backside tie Slew would win the 103rd Kentucky Derby. won, and the Kentucky Derby was "more than a few thousand miles of real estate." "That bring hurt to the colt's exercise boy," said Azpura.

"Everybody in the world knows the Hollywood Derby is not the Kentucky Derby. But these are nice horses and they are doing their best to compete. They (the horses' handlers) know Seattle Slew is- a good horse, but what kind of race would it be if nobody try to compete with him? "It is no funny. There is a way to write humorous without being insulting. Nobody should criticize a trainer because I have seen them do crazy things and win the race anyway.

We all start for the same goal but our way to do it is different." George Getz, the trainer of Flag Officer, wondered aloud if it would be feasi- ble to drive from his hotel to the track at about 2:30 p. m. "I want to take a nap," he said. Getz also said he was worried about "human nature, base, as it is." He said he feared a repeat of incidents of the last few years such as the throwing of beer cans at horses by infield spectators, or the throwing of a smoke bomb onto the track. At the stall of For The Moment were two cameramen, an apparent overflow from Seattle Slew's crowd just up the way.

Visitors to trainer LeRoy Jol-ley's area talked in hushed tones and occasionally glanced in the direction of the favored Slew. Trainer Del Carroll reported his Nostalgia was "fresh and bouncy" on his gallop. "The track's fine," added Carroll. "We'll have no excuses." By 8 a. Smiley Adams, the trainer of Run Dusty Run and Bob's Dusty, had done his early work and was gone from the barn.

Back at Seattle Slew's quarters, columnist Red Smith of the New girl Cindy Hostetler, smoking a slim cigar, arrived to take Seattle Slew to the track. Had she ever taken a Derby winner out before? "No," she replied. "This will be the first time." About 45 people gathered to watch the seven Derby horses stabled in the immediate vicinity emerge for their walk to the paddock. First came Steve's Friend, then Giboulee, then Papelote, then Affiliate, then Sanhedrin and finally Seattle Slew, gleaming in the sun. As the horses made their way around the track to the paddock, Seattle Slew seemed to naturally' gravitate to the middle of the track while the others filed around the rail.

"Look at him," yelled a female spectator, "he stopped to get his picture taken." "Aw, hell," said another, "Sanhedrin's a better looking horse than he is." Into the paddock they went without incident, and the 103rd Kentucky Derby was about ready to begin. At 2:30, Mickey Taylor took off his coat and vest and watched in shirtsleeves as his wife, Karen, who is listed as the owner of Seattle Slew, and the rest of the Taylor ladies went to the track. Then Mickey and Turner went for a chat with Lou Rondinello, trainer of Sanhedrin. In the stable area, most people gathered around television sets to watch what was going on across the track. Trainer John Fulton walked past Seattle Slew's quarters on his way to the track with Sweet Little Lady, a 2-year-old filly.

Soon he was back telling reporters how he felt about the filly's smashing victory in the Debutante Stakes. "I have to go back one more time (for the Derby)," he said. "I hope it's as easy as that one." By 4:35 p. Billy Turner was still cornered by the press. On and on he answered questions, cooperative to a fault.

Mickey Taylor was pacing, obviously growing a little edgy. At 4:45, Turner retreated for another chat with Rondinello. And finally, at 4:50, pony getting out of gate, snarls were waiting By GEORGE RORRER Courier-Journal Times Stiff Wrlttr Kentucky Derby Day No. 103 pitter-pattered into Churchill Downs yesterday on squishy feet. A light rain was falling.

To the East, a red sky gave warning. Above, the moon punched a hazy white fingerprint into a sky of black. Shortly after first light, trainer Billy Turner sent the favorite, Seattle Slew, onto the track for a short gallop. By the time Turner and his entourage returned to the barn the rain had stopped and he began to talk. "It's a strange racetrack," he observed.

"With that much water in it, it is still fast. But right now it's great. I hope it stays that way. "I've heard natives of this area say you can have all kinds of weather here at the same time. I don't believe that, but the weather here certainly changes a lot." As Turner talked, 10 photographers formed a semicircle around Seattle Slew while handlers washed down the powerful 3-year-old, recording the scene as steam rose into the early morning chill.

Steve's Friend, trained by John Fulton, walked by on his way back from the track and heads turned. "A good-looking horse," observed Turner. If 10 photographers and a knot of reporters surrounded Seattle Slew at 6:30 a. m. on race day, then how hectic had it been all week? How had the colt stood up to the unusual activity? "Better than I expected," said Turner, who reported Seattle Slew was "eager" during the early gallop.

At the barn of Sir Sir, trainer Leo Azpura complained about a jibe directed at Steve's Friend in Friday's Louisville Times by columnist Mike Barry. Barry said the difference between the Hollywood Derby, which Steve's Friend She wasn't happy about having her part of the scene around Churchill parking spaces for fans. ''-1 "'NCV AWp-f i i -Jl 11 York Times had begun a lengthy interview with the colt's groom, John Polston. Nearby, Laz Barerra, the trainer of Affiliate, reflected on how things had been last year when he trained Derby winner Bold Forbes. "I put my whole life into that weekend," he said.

"If you have a horse like that and you lose because of something you left undone, you would always feel bad about it. Not until after the race was over and I read the papers did I go back to being Laz Barerra again." After the early surge of activity, the backside at Churchill Downs turned into a sleepy encampment of people leisurely preparing for the big race. From the backside, one could see the grandstands and the infield slowly filling. In one barn, a trainer who had no horses entered in any of yesterday's races put on a beer-and-fried chicken party for his helpers. By 1:30 p.

the cock and hen who keep Affiliate company were set free from their cage to wander about. Fans slow but traffic By CAROLYN COL WELL Courier-Journal Stair Writer The Derby crowd stayed late. Although people in the infield were moving toward the east gate just three minutes after Seattle Slew crossed the finish line, most of the 124,038 fans who saw the Run for the Roses tarried long enough to push the peak traffic hour back to 8 p.m. Immediately after the Derby, the biggest crush of exiting spectators was in the chute leading to the pack of buses making the trip down Third Street. Those people driving north toward the expressways could get quick instructions for a fast getaway from their radios.

"Helicopter 97," for example, was guarding strangers through the tricky left turn off Eastern Parkway to go south on 1-65. "I think of it as a giant puzzle. You look for holes in it," said Maj. Dick Tong, commenting on the traffic for WAVE radio. Tong was trying to help motorists find a way out of the maze of jammed streets around Churchill Downs yesterday.

As master strategist for stranded drivers, Tong recommended moving toward the main North and South arteries. He said he hoped out-of-towners wouldn't get trapped in side streets where they could find themselves boxed in by routes that lead to deadends in industrial properties. From his vantage point 3,000 feet above the traffic Tong found it easy to have some cool-headed perspective about the jam of cars, buses, cabs and people below. Tong, a city policeman, broadcast his instructions directly over the airwaves through a handmike. Almost simultaneously, he listened to the chatter on the police radio and received instructions from the radio newsroom through his head set.

With hand signals, Tong directed the helicopter pilot to turn toward downtown or circle over the track. Riding in the helicopter's three-passenger cab was as noisy as having a vacuum cleaner directly over your head. The traffic tangle that occurs every Derby Day outside the Downs is the natural result of more than 100.000 people who came to the track during a five-hour period trying to leave at the same time. Earlier, when Tong lifted off from of l- Li i I aS' i imiiitiymanmr mu i mm iimmtmiiii'nmiiiiiiiMiiriaiiiii) Staff Photo by Richard Bruck i I i Parking was at a premium around Churchill Downs yesterday and front yards were transformed into parking lots as this woman found out. She would not give her name.

A phalanx of private planes was parked along the taxiways at Standiford Field where air traffic was expected to be so heavy that the helicopter would have to make tight turns over the backside of the track. By 11 a.m., the east fairground parking lot was almost three-quarters full and the line of cars waiting to enter the Downs parking area stretched along Longfield Avenue. Yesterday was Tong's ninth Derby Day in the air. "Maybe when I retire in a couple years, I'll actually get to go down there," he said, But he won't drive to the track. He said he'd take the bus.

Bowman Field yesterday at 9 a.m., inbound cars were moving along the Wat-terson as smoothly as if they were evenly spaced slotcar racers. Third Street was a tree-lined asphalt ribbon decorated with an occasional orange cab, blue and white bus, and pastel passenger car. Every block or so a small platoon of people appeared to be moving toward the track gates. By the Ohio River, where the Julia Belle Swain and Delta Queen looked like bathtub toys, only an occasional car crossed one of the bridges. Through the helicopter's bubble windshield, the panorama of Churchill Downs included a finely groomed track and an infield that was already half full people.

4. Photo by Randy West picture taken, but this woman was Downs yesterday as she offered 4 1 1 4.