Finally! Super Saver gives WinStar Farm 1st Kentucky Derby victory

WinStar Farm breaks through with Super Saver

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kenny Troutt’s 9-year-old daughter Savannah had a message for her father on the morning of the Kentucky Derby.

She leaned in and told the co-founder of WinStar Farm that WinStar’s Derby drought was finally over.

“She said, ‘Dad, I think this is our year, I really believe we’re going to win the Derby,” Troutt said.

Good call.

Super Saver’s decisive win in the Run for the Roses did more than stamp jockey Calvin Borel as a superstar and end trainer Todd Pletcher’s 0 for 24 mark in the Derby. It served as a breakthrough for the thriving central Kentucky farm.

WinStar’s previous nine entries failed to reach the winner’s circle, their closest finish a distant second with Bluegrass Cat in 2006.

Borel left no doubt, expertly guiding the bay colt through the 1 1/4-mile test to deliver on a dream Troutt and co-founder Bill Casner had when the first met in the late 1970s.

The two operated a small claiming horse operation before opting to give it up. They talked about giving it another shot one day on one condition: they couldn’t be small-time.

“We learned that if you’re going to do this business that you’re going to have to do it at the very highest echelon,” Casner said. “We left the racetrack when we were 31 years old and at that time we really vowed that we wouldn’t come back unless we couldn’t do it at a high level.”

The two spent most of the next two decades building their respective fortunes. Troutt founded a long-distance telephone company while Casner ran a heavy equipment business.

It allowed them to bankroll WinStar, which focuses on all parts of the business, from breeding to training. The farm bred 2003 Derby winner Funny Cide, but there’s little doubt where Saturday’s romp in the slop ranks.

“This is like putting the cherry on top of that ice cream, and we feel like we eat ice cream every day in this business,” Casner said.

The victory gives WinStar president Doug Cauthen a Derby win to stand alongside his brother, Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen, won in 1978 aboard Affirmed. Steve Cauthen eventually led Affirmed to the Triple Crown.

Doug Cauthen hopes Super Saver can do the same. Saturday was his older brother’s birthday. The two spoke before the race and Steve wished him luck. Late in the afternoon, just after the sun began to peek out of the clouds following a daylong deluge, Doug finally had the garland of roses he thought he’d capture a long time ago.

“When Steve won it, I was 15 and it was a bad lesson,” Doug Cauthen said. “I thought, ‘Oh by the time I’m 18, 19, I’ll train a Derby winner. I learned it was going to take a lot longer.”

Doug Cauthen moved from the barn to the front office, where he’s worked with farm manager Elliott Walden to build an operation that aspires to the kind of dominance enjoyed by Ireland-based Coolmore and Dubai-based Godolphin.

Those two have become the Yankees and the Red Sox of the racing world. With one big win, WinStar moved closer to crashing the party.