LOUISVILLE, Ky. -Â On Derby Day at Churchill Downs, the man with the No. 1 horse wore a blue pinstripe suit and a cap with bright green lettering that said "Lookin At Lucky."
Paul Weitman did not make any concession to the rain and the mud. This would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for the old basketball coach from Lyons, Ga., so he wore his good shoes.
He walked in the mud for about 400 yards, from Barn 33 to the paddock. The horse went first, then trainer Bob Baffert, then Weitman and his sons, Neal and Craig. A crowd of 155,804 made a thunderous noise as the Tucson businessman and his sons took the most famous walk in horse racing.
Can you imagine how it is to be in that moment?
More than 5,000 jammed the backside paddock area, most of them straining to get a look at Baffert and his shock of white hair. Weitman stood next to Baffert, who had already changed and pulled on clean shoes. But not Weitman. The mud was visible up to his knees. One can imagine that he'll never clean those his shoes, his Derby shoes, which are now a lifetime keepsake. What price do you put on that mud?
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It was a very good day.
"No matter what happens," Neal Weitman said, "this chance, to be here with the No. 1 horse is special. That's what counts."
Baffert has won the Kentucky Derby three times. He is only 57, in his prime, and he will probably win it again, or at least come back with a horse as good as Lookin At Lucky, a horse that won't draw the dreaded No. 1 post position.
This wasn't a day about Baffert, whose No. 1 horse was bumped off the railing almost before he got started. "The one-hole killed us," he said. "But that's horse racing."
And this wasn't really a day about UA grad Todd Pletcher, either. Pletcher ended his agonizing 0-for-24 streak in the Derby because his horse, Super Saver, didn't get bumped, didn't mind the mud and didn't have to deal with Lookin At Lucky in the middle of the track on a dry and sunny day.
Pletcher will again make the walk from his barn to the paddock, with 155,000 fans making it impossible for him to hear. Pletcher trains 205 horses in five states. He has 150 employees. He is widely regarded as the No. 1 trainer in the business.
He will be back, challenged by Baffert's next super horse, maybe in 2011, maybe not, but soon.
Baffert vs. Pletcher, the two Arizona Wildcats from the school's Racetrack Industry Program, have become the Duke and North Carolina of horse racing. Baffert is animated and engaging. He is a storyteller. Pletcher is the opposite. He is Wall Street. He is all business.
We always seem to make it about them.
Afterward, someone asked Pletcher how it felt to finally win the Big One. He didn't change expressions. "I'm no better trainer now than I was yesterday," he said. "Sometimes it's not just about you; it's about everybody else."
Exactly. This Kentucky Derby was about everybody else. It was about Paul Weitman, who began selling automobiles in Tucson in 1977. It was about Karl Watson, who moved to Tucson in 1984 and began selling Chevrolets.
Two self-made men, businessmen, who started as beginners in the car business, made a mark, made millions, and on Saturday found themselves at the center of the world's greatest horse race.
Unless they are unusually fortunate, this was their one Kentucky Derby, the one chance to get mud on their shoes. It's what separates the Derby from all the other sports. A car dealer from Tucson can do a lot of things - "before the economy went sour, our business had been great for 12 or 15 years," Weitman said the other day - but he can't buy his way into an NBA championship game or onto the PGA Tour.
Only in horse racing can he make the walk that the other greats in the sport make.
In the owners box, Baffert said he ceased watching Lookin At Lucky 10 seconds into the race. "I wish (jockey) Garrett Gomez would have pulled him up right then," Baffert said. He turned his attention to his other horse in the field, Conveyance, who led most of the first mile of a 1 1/4 mile race.
"It was fun watching Conveyance," Baffert said. He did not notice when Lookin At Lucky finished sixth.
Weitman and Watson and their families did not stop watching Lookin at Lucky. They knew he finished sixth. This was his day and theirs. If the Kentucky Derby comes your way once in a lifetime, you have had a very good life.
If you are lucky, you will get some mud on your shoes.
