Canonero II, 1971 Kentucky Derby
Venezuelan Unknown Beats Derby Odds
In the United States, 1971 Flamingo Stakes winner Executioner was to skip the Kentucky Derby, while injuries eliminated Hoist the Flag and His Majesty. There were other capable runners with capable jockeys remaining for the Run for the Roses: Santa Anita Derby champ Jim French (Angel Cordero, Jr.); Unconscious (Laffit Pincay, Jr.), the San Felipe Handicap and the California Derby winner; and three Calumet Farm entries, Impetuosity, the Blue Grass Stakes victor; Bold and Able (Jorge Velasquez); and Eastern Fleet (Eddie Maple), the Florida Derby champion.
Into this mix would come the American-bred, Venezuelan owned colt Canonero. He acquired the "II" because another thoroughbred called Canonero was already racing in the United States. Canonero II was sired by the stallion Pretendre, an English Derby winner at Epsom Downs. His dam was Dixieland II. The pair's bay, or dark brown, yearling colt was purchased at Keeneland by Venezuelan bloodstock agent Luis Nava, who in turn sold him in a familiar package deal with another colt and a filly to Venezuelan businessman Pedro Baptista. The package price was $60,000. Navas' purchase price for Canonero alone was $1,200.
Baptista contacted Juan Arias, a young black trainer raised in Caracas's slums. Trainer Arias quickly tired of Canonero's physical weaknesses; a crooked right foreleg that caused a crab-like stride, a split hoof, and stomach ailments.
The colt managed to win his debut, so Baptista had Arias enter him in the American Del Mar Futurity in the fall of 1970, hoping to sell him off and be done with his problems. Made up of non-English speaking representatives, Canonero's connections were unable to bargain a price to sell the colt. Canonero II returned to his homeland.
Back in Venezuela, Canonero raced longer distances under a new rider, Gustavo Avila, beat older horses, and began to draw attention from locals. Baptista reversed himself to announce he wanted to run Canonero II in the American Kentucky Derby. With no paperwork, nor blood work in place, getting the colt nominated and entered at Churchill Downs proved a nightmare of logistics and language.
With only one week to go before Derby day, Canonero II was granted a post in the Derby. The idea that Canonero II was capable of competing in the Kentucky Derby was mocked by all. The Daily Racing Form listed only "missing data unavailable" under the colt's previous three races. He went off 500-1.
Nonetheless, Trainer Arias declared, through his Louisville Puerto Rican interpreter, that the colt would win. Arias coddled and petted Canonero II back into racing fitness after his travel ordeal. Avila arrived from Venezuela for the Derby ride.
The Derby field numbering twenty got away cleanly. Canonero II sat back in sixteenth position. Bold and Able, Knight Counter, Jr's Arrowhead, and Barbizon Streak contested for the lead, covering the first quarter in swift measure at :23 flat.
Slipped to eighteenth, Canonero II moved to the outside where Avila decided to engage his running opportunity. Bold and Able battled Eastern Fleet for the front, while Unconscious and Jim French readied their gears.
They were all too late.
Under Avila's hand ride, Canonero II burst down the outside from the far turn. On his left lead, he blurred to the finish wire, bringing Venezuelan tears of joy and giving everyone else conscious thought to consult their programs to find his name.
The Caracas crab leg, the mystery colt whose trainer had to be educated on what the Kentucky Derby was, whose owner's friend night-dreamed that his departed mother said Canonero II could win the American Derby, had made good better than anyone could have day-dreamed.
