Insightful Look at Derby After a Barnstorming Tour

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A colleague and I were talking quietly outside Halory Hunter's barn two hours before the Kentucky Derby on Saturday when one of his security guards asked us to leave.

"The horse is getting nervous," he said.

If Halory Hunter is nervous about two people having a conversation outside his barn, my colleague said to me, how's he going to react at the track when confronted with the Louisville Cardinal marching band, Charlsie Cantey and her pony and more than 143,000 spectators?

That doesn't mean the crowd is ill-behaved, just loud. In fact, police reported a mere 53 arrests Saturday, most for public intoxication.

One teenager was so drunk he couldn't negotiate his way out of a portable toilet. As an emergency crew labored diligently on the door with a crowbar and an ax, a crowd gathered and began to chant, "Let my people go."

I feared the worst for Halory Hunter.

But when I looked back over my shoulder, the horse was so relaxed that I thought he might be dozing. I realized it was the security guards who were nervous.

We arrived a couple of minutes later at trainer Bob Baffert's barn, where nothing was real quiet except for the name of the horse that was about to win the race.

As post time approached, Real Quiet's more highly regarded stablemate, Indian Charlie, was led out of the barn, followed by an entourage almost as large and colorful as the one that used to attend Louisville's most famous native, Muhammad Ali.

Indian Charlie's entourage included Indian Charlie, a.k.a Ed Musselman, the author of an acerbic tipsheet that circulates on Churchill Downs' backside and the man for whom Baffert named the horse.

Next out of the barn came Real Quiet, who, according to Baffert, is a "beautiful horse from the side" but has a narrow face with bulging eyes that makes him look like a fish from the front.

Hence, his nickname, The Fish.

Real Quiet is accustomed to derision. In a now famous exchange, when Baffert called owner Mike Pegram to say he had bought the horse at a yearling sale for only $17,000, Pegram said, "What's wrong with him? Does he have cancer?"

For bettors, Real Quiet wasn't the way to go, someone explained to me, because of his poor breeding.

But the more I heard, the more I realized there were reasons not to bet any of the horses.

Indian Charlie was the favorite, which virtually eliminated him because no favorite has won since Spectacular Bid in 1979.