Kentucky Derby Winners and Stories of The 1980s
Run For the Roses Tales of Swale, Spend A Buck, Winning Colors
Apr 10, 2009
While fillies Winning Colors and Genuine Risk certainly added flare to the Kentucky Derby stories of the 1980s, every Derby has its own storyline. Many times, historians have noted, the three-year-old Thoroughbred with the most urgent, or engaging story crosses the finish line first at Churchill Downs.
Swale and Spend A Buck Derbies
Swale was his trainer's second and eleventh-hour choice to run in the 1984 Kentucky Derby. Several weeks later, this son of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew died from supposed heart failure.
Spend a Buck got his name on the sixth try. His owner, Dennis Diaz, had offered five other names that were systematically and officially rejected one by one because they already had been used. Spend a Buck wasted no time once he got his name. He raced to the third fastest Derby time ever in 1985, clocking ahead of all rivals in 2:00-1/5.
Fillies Win Kentucky Derby
After a sixty-five year drought for filly victories in the Derby, a filly, Genuine Risk, won the Kentucky Derby in 1980. For the next seven years of the decade the Derby was recaptured by the boys.
Then, in 1988, another filly repeated the honors. Winning Colors beat a strong class of three-year-old colts that included Risen Star, son of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, Forty-Niner, and Seeking the Gold, all of whom continued on individual trails to stardom.
Kentucky Derby Winners of the 1980s
- 1980 --- Genuine Risk ----- trainer, LeRoy Jolley --- jockey, Jacinto Vasquez
- 1981 --- Pleasant Colony ----- John Camp -- J. Velazquez
- 1982 --- Gato Del Sol ----- Edwin Gregson -- Eddie Delahoussaye
- 1983 --- Sunny's Halo ----- David C. Cross Jr. -- Eddie Delahoussaye
- 1984 --- Swale ----- Woody Stephens -- Lafitte Pincay Jr.
- 1985 --- Spend a Buck ----- Cam Gambolati -- Angel Cordero Jr.
- 1986 --- Ferdinand ----- Charles Whittingham -- Willie Shoemaker
- 1987 --- Alysheba ----- Jack C. Van Berg -- Chris McCarron
- 1988 --- Winning Colors ----- D. Wayne Lukas -- Gary Stevens
- 1989 --- Sunday Silence ----- Charles Whittingham -- Pat Valenzuela
More Kentucky Derby Tales 1980s
Alysheba won the KD in 1987 after having surgery to correct breathing problems. In the Derby stretch, he clipped heels with Bet Twice at the three-sixteenths pole and stumbled, yet he managed to straightened up and dig first to the wire.
Pleasant Colony got a new trainer, John Campo, who trashed the Derby competition, then proceeded to condition P.C. to win the roses and more.
Sunday Silence was one of three colts in the 1980s to win the Derby, then the Preakness, the second jewel of the Triple Crown, but miss victory in the Belmont. He went to Japan and became an international star of track and breeding shed. Speedy Hat Trick is his only son standing at stud in the United States.
Gato Del Sol, Cat of the Sun by Spanish translation, got his name when his trainer glimpsed a gray cat snoozing in the sunlight. Only three grays had won the Derby before Gato Del Sol's 1981 triumph.
Fifth Derby Win for Shoemaker
Jockey Eddie Delahoussaye leaned low and spoke to Sunny's Halo during the 1983 Derby. The first foal out of Mostly Sunny to live heard, and he finished first.
Gallant champion Ferdinand gave his fifty-four-year-old jockey Willie Shoemaker a fourth career Derby victory in 1986. Shoemaker rode in 23 KDs.
