THE KENTUCKY DERBY : Very Private Trainer Brings Private Terms to the Race Unbeaten

When Charlie Hadry talks, his lips move about as much as Edgar Bergen’s used to.

You have to pay close attention to him because Hadry gives listeners neither volume nor quantity. But the Baltimore trainer may be giving the world the winner of the 114th Kentucky Derby when he runs Private Terms, undefeated in his 7 races, against 16 other 3-year-olds here Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Private Terms, stamping himself as more than just a regional flash, went to Aqueduct last month and won the Gotham and the Wood Memorial, carrying Derby weight of 126 pounds each time. The Wood had the strongest field of any Derby prep this year, and Private Terms just missed the track record, running 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 1/5.

It’s a good thing that Private Terms’ record is outstanding, because Hadry, 57, has been frustrating the overflow Derby press corps with his terse answers.

Here are some typical exchanges between newsmen and Hadry this week:

Reporter: What do you think of Private Terms?

Hadry: He’s a damn good horse.

Reporter: Are you nervous about being the favorite in the Derby?

Hadry: Only you guys make me nervous.

Reporter: How will you celebrate if you win the Derby?

Hadry: I’ll go to bed.

Reporter: Do you answer a lot of questions with only one word?

Hadry: That’s right.

Actually, Hadry opens up slightly when he is with a reporter one on one. But finding a trainer alone this week--even Hadry--is as tough as picking the winner of this hard-to-figure Derby.

Private Terms may be the favorite but Winning Colors--because she won the Santa Anita Derby so impressively and because she’s a filly trying to beat colts--will also receive considerable support at the windows, and there are several entrants that have the late-running style typical of many Derby winners.

Private Terms will try to become only the fifth horse to keep an undefeated record intact in the Derby. Regret, Morvich, Majestic Prince and Seattle Slew all were unbeaten winners. Undefeated horses that missed were Thunderer, Bimelech, Coaltown, Native Dancer, Candy Spots, No Robbery, Sensitive Prince and Air Forbes Won.

Hadry had two promising 3-year-olds this year, Private Terms and Finder’s Choice, both owned by Stuart Janney Jr., who raced the brilliant, but ill-fated Ruffian. But Finder’s Choice couldn’t keep up with his stablemate and has been sidelined recently by a throat infection.

Private Terms and Finder’s Choice are such look-alikes that there was confusion over their identity when they arrived at Hadry’s barn in Laurel, Md.

Horses are identified by lip tattoos--a letter of the alphabet designating the year, followed by four or five numerals--but Private Terms’ tattoo matched Finder’s Choice’s foal papers, and vice versa.

The only difference in the two horses apparently was a cluster of white hairs just above one of Private Terms’ front hoofs. When Hadry started working the 2-year-olds, their running times were transposed.

Finally, blood tests were taken to ascertain the horses’ identities. Hadry said that he lost five weeks of training with Private Terms while waiting for the tests to come back.

“I don’t know where the mix-up started,” Hadry said. “It might have been at Claiborne Farm (in Kentucky, where they were foaled) before they got to Frank Whiteley (who broke both colts in Camden, S.C.).”

Private Terms has made up for that loss of training time, and then some. Hadry is doing very little in the way of training here with the Janney-bred colt, who is by Private Account and out of the Bold Ruler mare, Laughter. That is class breeding on both sides.

After galloping all week, Private Terms will get a 3-furlong blowout here Friday. Hadry will not even school Private Terms in the paddock, a new, roomier saddling area since Churchill Downs’ extensive renovation began two years ago. Even so, the crush of a crowd of more than 100,000 can devastate horses.

“I don’t school many of my horses,” Hadry said. “I don’t find that it does much good.”

Janney, 83, Hadry and their 22-year-old jockey, Chris Antley, are all experiencing their first Derby.

Private Terms was ridden mostly by Kent Desormeaux, an 18-year-old jockey who was the country’s leading apprentice last year, in his early races. But Desormeaux suffered a back injury, then wound up with a stewards’ suspension and Jose Santos, the leading jockey in the money standings in 1986-87, wound up on Private Terms for a 4 1/2-length win in the Tesio Stakes at Pimlico March 12.

When Hadry’s plan dictated a move from Maryland to New York, Santos couldn’t keep the mount because he was committed to several 3-year-olds trained by Wayne Lukas. But now, all of Lukas’ 3-year-olds are missing the Derby except Winning Colors, who is being ridden by Gary Stevens, and Santos doesn’t have a mount in the race. Antley rode Private Terms in both the Gotham and the Wood.

“It seems like most of the riders have been jumping back and forth this year,” Hadry said. “Santos likes this horse, and wanted back on him, but we’re sticking with Antley, and his lack of Derby experience doesn’t bother me.”

A lot of people like Private Terms, including Hadry, even though he doesn’t shout it from his barn’s rooftop.