Foolish Pleasure Finally Completes Sentimental Journey

DAYTON, Wyo. - A couple of miles past the Dew Drop Inn, through Dayton (pop. 565), down the winding road, past the gates of the Horseshoe Ranch, the horses wander idly through their routines, as much a part of the Wyoming landscape as the crystalline sky, the graceful Bighorn Mountains and pickup trucks.

It has stayed this way for centuries, unspoiled and serene, with horses everywhere, their presence as common as a cold day in February. It would be this way at the Horseshoe Ranch, too, if not for one, the old dark bay nestled among some anonymous mares in a pasture.

He won the Kentucky Derby. He was second in the Preakness and Belmont stakes.

He winds up in Wyoming

Even heroes get old and expendable, and then what? Foolish Pleasure wound up in Wyoming.

Like a river that don't know where it's flowing, he took a wrong turn and he just kept going. Foolish Pleasure is old at 22 - never was a great sire anyway - and he has had some fertility problems, so it doesn't matter that much that he's a Kentucky Derby winner, not to the breeding industry. He has been passed back and forth, from Greentree Stud to Mint Lane Farm to Spendthrift Farm to Kerr Stock Farm in Moreno Valley, Calif., to the place of last resort, Wyoming.

"He was by no means a failure at stud," said Dr. Steve Roman, one of the nation's foremost breeding experts. "He's somewhere in the middle, but expectations for a Kentucky Derby winner are always so high. He can't be worth much from a commercial point of view and, with the type of mares he's likely to get now, it's unlikely you'll see him produce any good runners.

"Really, his only value at this point is sentimental value."

Now owned by Ron Vanderhoef, a novice breeder, Foolish Pleasure's unlikely odyssey began in Florida, where he was born March 23, 1972, one of 25,726 registered thoroughbreds foaled that year in North America. It soon was apparent he was one of the special ones; trained by Leroy Jolley, he was 7-for-7 in 1974, when he won the Champagne, Hopeful, Sapling, Cowdin and Tremont on the way to an Eclipse Award as the nation's best 2-year-old.

"He's never done anything wrong in his life," Jolley said after the 2-year-old season ended. "Last winter, he was training here in Miami, and he did everything right. There's a kid on every block who is a natural athlete who seems to learn everything fast. He's like that kid."

At 3, he was sent after the ultimate prize, the Derby. He warmed up with victories in the Flamingo and Wood Memorial and came to Churchill Downs as the one to beat. With 113,324 packed into the stands, Foolish Pleasure bulled his way into racing history by winning the 101st running of America's greatest horse race by 1 3/4 lengths.

Only there was a more beloved horse out there, a near-black filly named Ruffian, and it was said that no one was faster. Not even the best colt around, the Derby winner? They decided to answer the question, pitting Foolish Pleasure against Ruffian in one of the most widely anticipated events in racing history, a match race at Belmont Park on July 6, 1975.

No one really won, only some lost more than others. A beautiful sport was never more ugly nor tragic; Foolish Pleasure was merely the other horse on the day when the great Ruffian broke down and lost her life.

After eight starts at 4, he was retired, his career ending with 16 wins from 26 starts and $1.2 million in earnings. He was syndicated for $4.5 million and sent off to Greentree, asked to pass on his heart, his class, his speed.

It never quite worked out that way. Foolish Pleasure, the oldest living Kentucky Derby winner, has had his moments as a sire. He produced some capable horses, such as Santa Anita Derby winner Marfa, Filago, a stakes winner on the grass, and Baiser Vole, a champion in France.

Many of the horses he turned out, though, had a problem - they were slow.

"Someone like us," said Vanderhoef, "we were in awe of him. I couldn't believe he was available to people like us. We were dumbfounded."

Greatness still shows

Vanderhoef, 51, a lawyer, is also a fourth-generation rancher, nurtured in horse country and raised to appreciate the power and beauty of the animal. He comes not from within the inner circle, but from a position where you still can recognize the greatness of a tough old horse, as foolish a pleasure as that may be. And if all he gets out of this is a chance to stare at the old horse out his window and admire him every morning, that would be just fine, too.

Vanderhoef, who has just started in thoroughbreds after years of raising pleasure horses, came across Foolish Pleasure last spring when he went to Kerr Stock Farm to see Slewpy, a son of Seattle Slew and a quality sire. His attention was diverted to the Kentucky Derby winner, a prize he had to have and one he brought home in September.

"For me, the fascination with him is that he's a Kentucky Derby winner," Vanderhoef said. "Not being racing people, that's the race we know. If not for the Derby, he'd be just another horse."

Has the racing world been unkind or disrespectful to Foolish Pleasure, or is it more so that the true meaning of kindness and respect has been blurred beyond recognition? What is truly best for the horse as an animal, not as one cog in the machine that aims to spit out million-dollar foals for its own financial edification?

They say they let the horse just be a horse here, with as little interference from mankind as possible. This is their natural environment, where they're meant to be, where they roamed the lands well before anyone ever put little men with whips on their backs. It's a place where a breeder like Vanderhoef will let many of his horses (but not a stud) loose in the fall on his 6,000-acre ranch and allow them to run free until they are needed in the spring. There is no need for a barn or for stalls, those stuffy rectangular boxes only a little more hospitable than a prison cell.