Mike Smith Hoping He's Got a Perfect Derby Fit

It was not long after Mike Smith had won his fourth Runhappy Santa Anita Derby (G1) in the last five years, this time with Zedan Racing's Taiba, that an invasive thought bubbled to the surface, knitting his otherwise carefree brow. It went something like this: "Will he be OK with that starting gate?" The gate in question is the 20-stall contraption now being used by Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), which will be rolled out for the third time May 7. "OK," in Smith's context, was a concern over the dimensions of his Derby colt in relation to the interior of the starting stalls of the new gate, apart from its other streamlined attributes. "The position of the gate certainly makes it better for the inside posts, say one to three, and then from the far outside as well," Smith said. "It gives everyone a fair shot. It's also a European-style gate, so the stalls feel narrower. So if you're on a big horse, they have a little trouble getting away from there, where if you've got a narrow horse, they'll get away a whole lot easier." When Smith entered the new starting gate for the 2020 Derby—run that year in September—he was aboard Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A.P. in the 14th stall. A good-sized colt with stalking speed, Honor A.P. appeared to balk for a split second when the doors opened. Paco Lopez, breaking to Smith's left, allowed his mount, Ny Traffic, to veer badly to the right, taking any path that Honor A.P. could have salvaged. Honor A.P., at one time trailing in last, rallied to finish fourth. In the 2021 Derby, Smith teamed for the first and only time with Midnight Bourbon, a grand figure of a Thoroughbred whose recent sudden death from a reported gastrointestinal incident shook the racing world. They also got away a half step slow as the Derby commenced, which took the colt out of his pace-pressing style. "He was a gorgeous horse," Smith said. "I knew he was a pretty quick horse, too, and he wanted to be that day. But I'd never been in the gate with him before that, so when we got in there I thought, 'Whoa!' I could hardly fit there was so much padding." "When the gates open, their hips will drop below the stall pads then come up," Smith noted. "Him being really big, it felt like the pads kind of grabbed his hips and held him back for about a jump. There were three or four other jocks who rode big horses who had the same kind of trouble." With the old gates in use, Smith has had no problem with recent mounts rolling out with their natural speed, among them Bodemeister, Palace Malice, Danzing Candy, and that red horse named Justify. Smith laughed at the thought in the new gate. "Justify would have barely fit in there," Smith said. "And Zenyatta, she never would have fit at all." As for Midnight Bourbon's race, the colt found himself back in the pack and forced very wide on the final turn, ending up sixth of the 19 runners. In 16 starts, his only other finishes out of the money came when he fell in the TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1) and when he was fifth in his final start, the 2022 Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline ( G1). Even with Smith's concerns, there will be skeptics who contend the start is not that important in a race of a mile and one quarter, with plenty of time to make up for an early misstep. Smith was quick to correct that notion. "No, man, getting away clean is so important with 20 horses," he said. "You get shuffled back, your horse taken out of his game, and it's hard to make up for that with so many in there." For years, the practice of connecting the tried and true 14-horse United Puett gate to the six-stall training gate was a gerryrigged solution that exposed a sometimes troublesome kink in the works. Horses in stalls 14 and 15—separated by a DMZ of huge tires and metal superstructure—left the gate as if there was nothing, respectively, to their right or left. The pressure from jockeys on the far outside to angle inward was exaggerated by the gap. Horses ended up like flies in an accordion. Assistant starters in stall 20 were so close to the customers they were offered mint juleps and phone numbers. To their credit, the management of Churchill Downs listened. Their search for a 20-stall gate led them to Sterline, a well-established Australian company with an array of international clients. The gate was shipped to Louisville in parts and assembled on site by Churchill personnel. Aesthetically, the 20-stall gate is a vast improvement over the old system, which required two tractors on duty to pull each gate safely off the racetrack before the Derby field made its turn for home. No longer are the inside horses faced with a rightward angle to join the initial straightaway, and neither are stalls 18-20 out there in the cheap seats. Smith, who would be riding in his record 28th Derby aboard Taiba, is just happy to be a part of the show. At 57, he has yet another chance to become the oldest jockey to win America's most famous race, a mark held since 1986 by Bill Shoemaker, 54 at the time. Taiba, a son of Gun Runner, would be making only his third start in the Derby. Smith rode Taiba to a maiden race win for Bob Baffert before the colt was transferred to Tim Yakteen before his start in the Santa Anita Derby, with the hopes of earning points toward a Derby berth unavailable to anything trained by Baffert. "I didn't think I had anything for the Derby," Smith said. "Now, not only do I have one, I wouldn't trade places with anybody. He's a very talented, intelligent horse. And he listens to you. He's quick early, but you can turn him off, then when you want him back on you just ask him. I love the way he finishes. When he gets over on his right lead and heads for home, he drops to the ground and finishes like his dad." All that is fine, jock. But the question remains: How will he fit in the Derby starting stall? "I thought of that right after he won the Santa Anita Derby," Smith said. "I honestly did. He's certainly not as tall or wide as Midnight Bourbon. He's good-sized but not overly big, more along the lines of his sire. So he should be OK."