Bloodstone runs for the Derby crown that eluded Marylou's late husband.
By BRANT JAMES
Published April 29, 2004
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Marylou Whitney doesn't think the Kentucky Derby owes her anything. She's just glad to be back at Churchill Downs with a horse good enough to wear her stable's colors.
She knows how much money and anguish her late husband, C.V. "Sonny" Whitney, put into winning racing's greatest prize only to miss with 15 different horses. She might concede the Derby owes him one.
So after spending a large amount of the fortune she inherited reclaiming the bloodstock Sonny sold off, Whitney enters her first Kentucky Derby since 1968 with Birdstone on Saturday, her first with a stable bearing just her name, trying to make good on unfulfilled wishes. Sonny Whitney won more than 175 stakes, but his Derby horses finished everywhere from second to 20th between 1935-68, with Phalanx his closest call in 1947.
"Sonny and I had a lot of anticipation, and we've had a lot of times when we were a little unhappy," she once told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
If she is to claim the first Kentucky Derby win for the famed Whitneys since her late father-in-law won in 1927 with Whiskery, she'll do it with a product of the bloodlines the family established early last century. Maybe Birdstone is the one.
"This is a dream come true for her," said John Hendrickson, Whitney's second husband. "But we don't have any false expectations. If anyone should have multiple winners, it should have been Sonny. It was tough even back then."
Since marrying Marylou Whitney almost five years ago, Hendrickson, a former aid to an Alaska governor, has taken over the daily duties of running their 88-acre farm outside of Lexington - and has hitched his hopes to the same dream of winning the Derby.
"Marylou's late husband was missing a 10th (place) and missing a one," he said. "His father won twice. It was his lifelong goal and, for Marylou, this would be fulfilling a dream."
Whitney's quest for roses is more personal than most because she breeds virtually everything she races. Her 20 mares are boarded on Gainesway Farm, the larger chunk of the massive Whitney property Sonny sold with his bloodstock when he fell ill in 1984.
Whitney, who married Sonny in 1958, was ready to heed his dying wishes and get out of the horses business. He had not had a Derby horse in decades, and he did not think horse racing was a proper business for a woman.
"He was actually being very kind," Hendrickson said. "She was taking care of him in those years and wanted her to live well, jet set, have fun, but not be burdened with this."
But Marylou missed it too much after Sonny died in 1992.
"When he died, he left Marylou his entire estate and she spent half that estate trying to get those old bloodlines back," Hendrickson said. "She scoured the country, went to every sale."
Dear Birdie, whom she had given to Sonny's nephew, Leverett Miller, then bought back, has rewarded Whitney's persistence the past two years. The Storm Cat filly produced Bird Town, who won the 2003 Kentucky Oaks for Whitney. Dear Birdie's rendezvous with 1996 Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone produced Birdstone, an enigma with untapped potential, which will be the first to run for a Whitney since Gleaming Sword finished 13th in 1968. Marylou Whitney Stables' colors strongly resemble those her late husband campaigned.
Marylou always has been persistent. Hendrickson learned that 10 years ago, when he was working for Gov. Walter J. Hickel and a certain socialite started spending almost two weeks a month in Alaska.
"When she first came up, she did it because she wanted to go mushing dogs," he said. "I guess she found her lead dog."
If she's found her Derby horse, she will break longstanding trends. No horse has won the Derby without running a prep race in April since Needles in 1956. Birdstone was scratched from the Blue Grass Stakes after detection of an elevated white cell count.
He has raced just twice in 2004, winning an allowance race at Gulfstream Park and finishing fifth in the Grade II Lane End Stakes on March4. In addition, Birdstone still is a young colt. Though all horses officially age a year on Jan.1, most are born in February or late March. Birdstone's birthday is May16.
Whitney cited one of her favorite expressions in approving trainer Nick Zito's scratch of Birdstone from the Blue Grass: "I like my horses more than my trophies."
"A lot of owners would have run that horse," Zito said.
Though a wealthy owner of a large breeding operation can afford to be careful, Whitney has turned that saying into more than a catch phrase. An dedicated animal rights advocate, she has poured thousands into the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, which finds homes and second careers for former race horses. She recently funded the construction of a barn at the Secretariat Center in Lexington, Ky., where horses for adoption can be shown to prospective new owners.
Maybe the Kentucky Derby doesn't owe her anything. But a little sign of appreciation might be appropriate.
