THOROUGHBRED RACING : At Churchill Downs, Memories of Laz Barrera Come Naturally

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  “Where’s (trainer) Neil Drysdale?” a newly arrived visitor to the Churchill Downs backstretch asked Thursday morning.

“Over there,” said Gary Yunt, a press aide at the track, pointing to Santa Anita Derby winner A.P. Indy’s barn. “Same place as Sunday Silence (winner of the 1989 Derby). Same place where Laz (Barrera) and Mister Frisky were.”

Yunt, who has been working the Derby since 1973, paused and said: “A class guy, Laz.”

Two years ago, Barrera brought Mister Frisky here, trying to add to the Derby victories he registered with Bold Forbes in 1976 and with Affirmed, the last Triple Crown champion, in 1978.

Mister Frisky, the Santa Anita Derby winner in 1990, finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby as the 19-10 favorite. The colt from Puerto Rico may have been slightly sick then, and after running third in the Preakness two weeks later, he almost died from a throat abscess.

Mister Frisky is still alive, on a breeding farm in Florida, but his trainer didn’t see another Derby. Laz Barrera, two weeks short of his 67th birthday, caught pneumonia and died a year ago Saturday.

Around the Derby, or just around racing, horsemen have been remembering Barrera lately.

Mike Battaglia, Churchill Downs’ veteran announcer and the track’s handicapper, can recall Barrera complaining when his colt, Paris Prince, was dumped into the parimutuel field in 1983. A field horse is a runner that the track handicapper believes has the worst chance of winning, and Barrera took umbrage that anyone would suggest he would bring a horse to the Derby that didn’t have a legitimate chance. Paris Prince, the California Derby winner, finished 10th.

On Long Island, N.Y., last week, Angel Cordero, who rode Bold Forbes, remembered a dream he had the night before the 1976 Derby.

“I kept seeing Laz, crying tears of joy in the winner’s circle,” Cordero said.

The next day, Cordero’s dream came true.

Barrera’s sons, Larry and Albert, no longer are training, and their father would be puzzled by that, unable to fathom how someone in his family could be content doing anything else. Frank Wright, the trainer-broadcaster, once said: “If somebody ever counted it up, they’d find that one out of every three horses in the world is trained by a Barrera.”

The Derby record book is filled with the family: Laz saddled five starters; his brother, Luis, had a horse in the race; and his sons also are represented, Albert having finished sixth with Pass the Tab in 1981, the same year his brother, Larry, ran eighth with Flying Nashua.

Now Larry Barrera is back in racing, having bought a 2-year-old colt at auction for $11,000 and named him Laz’s Dream.

“I’ve named him in honor of my father, for all he did for me,” Barrera said. “Anything good that’s happened to me in life is the result of him.”

Laz’s Dream, who was bred by Marje Everett, the former chief executive officer of Hollywood Park, is a son of Badger Land, who ran fifth after getting knocked around leaving the gate in the 1986 Derby.

Laz Barrera, elected to Racing Halls of Fame in his native Cuba as well as Mexico and the United States, is buried in Monrovia, and after Larry bought the Badger Land colt, he left the sales catalogue on his father’s headstone. “I go there a lot to talk to my father,” he said.

Laz’s Dream also is owned by Blanca Euriza, Laz Barrera’s daughter, and by Tony Cuccio, who was a high-school classmate of Larry Barrera’s. The horse has three white legs--like 1973 Triple Crown champion Secretariat and like Arazi, this year’s Derby favorite--and under trainer Leeanne Aiello he probably will make his debut during the upcoming season at Hollywood Park.

Not long ago, at the Monrovia cemetery, Larry Barrera noticed the grave next to his father’s. The name on the marker was sort of familiar.

“Every time, I’d go there,” Barrera said, “I’d ask myself, ‘Who is this kid?’ ”

One day, Barrera ran into Michelle Barsotti, a jockey agent. A couple of years ago, Barsotti had spent about 45 minutes with Laz Barrera, who gave her a crash course in how to survive and succeed in racing.

Larry Barrera mentioned the adjoining grave site to Barsotti. “That’s Lute Proctor,” Barsotti said. “I used to have his (riding) book.”

Proctor, a quarter-horse jockey, was killed in a racing accident.

“Can you beat this for a coincidence?” Larry Barrera said. “I couldn’t have made up a story like this if I tried.”

At the same sale that brought Laz’s Dream, Barrera bought a Native Prospector filly for $2,500.

He has named this horse Lucky Lute. If Lucky Lute and Laz’s Dream both pan out, Larry and Laz Barrera will be having a long conversation one of these days.

Horse Racing Notes

The Churchill Downs season opens Saturday with the $75,000 Kentucky Derby Trial, a mile stake that might produce another candidate for the Derby a week from Saturday. Included in Saturday’s nine-horse field is Catire Bello, a Venezuelan-bred who flopped in two starts in Florida this year after winning six of his first seven races. Catire Bello, a late nomination for the Triple Crown series at a cost of $4,500, is trained by Angel Medina, whose My Luck Runs North won his way into the Derby on Tuesday with a victory in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland.

Others running in the Trial are Wolf Brigade, Alydeed, Dignitas, Straight to Bed, Binalong, Clipper Won, Blacksburg and Brilliant Blue. Alydeed, the probable favorite, isn’t expected to run in the Derby no matter what he does. . . . While Jerry Bailey was debating about riding either Technology or Pine Bluff in the Derby, Tom Bohannan, Pine Bluff’s trainer, hired Craig Perret. “Jerry’s agent (Bob Frieze) made a commitment to us that if this horse ran good in the Arkansas Derby (which Pine Bluff won), they’d ride him in the Kentucky Derby,” Bohannan said. “Right after the Arkansas Derby, he didn’t remember that commitment that he made to both me and my owner. So we decided not to wait and we went out and got a top rider.”

Kent Desormeaux, who has been riding Snappy Landing and Al Sabin, may wind up on Treekster, the California Derby winner, in the Kentucky Derby. Al Sabin is doubtful for the race because of the Churchill Downs rule that determines the 20 starters by money won in graded races. . . . Despite beating only one horse in the Lexington Stakes, Hill Pass remains a Derby possibility. . . . Treekster worked six furlongs in 1:18 4/5 Thursday at Santa Anita. . . . Trainer Neil Drysdale isn’t concerned about A.P. Indy’s slow workout of 1:30 for seven furlongs. “He’s not that good of a work horse,” Drysdale said. . . . Casual Lies, suffering from an allergic reaction to ingesting shavings from his stall, is expected to return to the track today.