ShareThisBy CLIFF GUILLIAMS
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Seventeen years.
That's how much time has passed since trainer Carl Nafzger saddled Unbridled to win Kentucky Derby No. 116 and the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Those magnificent victories capped a storybook, maybe once-in-a-lifetime Eclipse Award-winning year for an ex-cowboy who once made a living riding bulls. It led to a book he wrote titled "Traits of a Winner: The Formula for Developing Thoroughbred Racehorses."
Since then, Nafzger's star-swept profile has glittered at times, but never reached that height on a worldly stage. Perhaps it's because he's his own man, playing the game his way, which is removed from the hustle and bustle, high-dollar New York and California circuits, where a majority of big timers hang their stable webbings.
"Some might even say I've been underground. Or out of the limelight since Unbridled," said Nafzger. "But since then, I've run a horse in the Derby (Vicar 1999) and had a great filly, Banshee Breeze. That daughter of Unbridled was 1998's Eclipse Award-winning 3-year-old filly. Haven't had a real great colt. But we've held our own and won stakes here and there. Might have another world class horse now, though."
Nafzger was referring to Jim Tafel's Street Sense, the colt he'll saddle Saturday in Churchill Downs' 133rd Kentucky Derby. If the probable co-favorite wins, he'd be the first ever to capture the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Derby. He's facing what some call "a jinx" that's existed since 1985.
"There's no jinx. No black magic or Voodoo to it," said Nafzger. "It's simply an issue of the right horse winning the Juvenile, then handling the preparation that follows combined with mathematics. Figure it this way.
You ask a 2-year-old to beat the best of his generation going 1 1/16 miles in the Breeders'. Then, for the next six months, they have to stay sound, mature and move forward through all the difficulties required in merely getting to the Kentucky Derby.
"Second look at the numbers. The B.C. Juvenile winner is one of approximately 24,000 colts foaled. It boils down to odds. The odds are stacked against you. I think Street Sense has a tremendous chance to buck those odds. He's done everything we've asked him to do."
The road hasn't always been smooth. But whether he's at Arlington, Churchill, Gulfstream Park or Keeneland, you'll find the same, vibrant, upbeat gentleman who gained eternal Derby fame by narrating Unbridled's scintillating stretch run on national television to late owner Frances Genter.
Besides Nafzger's wife, Wanda, the one thing that has been unbendable is Street Sense's owner. Tafel, an 82-year-old retired publisher who now lives in Palm Beach, Fla., has been one of Nafzger's primary clients the past 22 years. When hiring Nafzger in 1985, he mapped out a plan that included breeding, racing and sales.
"He's also the breeder of Street Sense (by Street Cry) and has been extremely successful at each end of the business," said the trainer. "Mr. Tafel has built a strong broodmare band. This colt is proof of it."
So now, Nafzger, 66, finds himself on the threshold of an unprecedented training feat.
Last winter he went out on a limb and told people that Street Sense may be the best he's ever trained.
If he's correct, Nafzger's name will be back in lights, his smiling face on the sports page of every daily paper and on, don't forget, national television.
(Contact Cliff Guilliams of The Evansville Courier in Indiana at www.evansville.net.)
