The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [76]
EVIDENCE TO SPPORT A CONSPIRACY
Some say Charlie Thompson had a bet in on Behave Yourself, with everyone else betting down the favorite filly, Prudery, or the owner’s favorite, Black Servant. Others say the jockey might not have been cut in for any (or enough) of the winning payoff if stablemate Black Servant had won. Still others think that maybe someone else got to him.
It could have been that Thompson simply forgot the instructions. (Unlikely, as the big bet was probably laid out for him, as well as what might happen to him if he didn’t follow orders.) In Pamela K. Brodowsky and Tom Philbin’s Two Minutes to Glory: The Official History of the Kentucky Derby, there is yet another explanation.
Then it happened; a spectator skimmed his hat near Black Servant’s head (in the final seconds of the race), and for just a heartbeat the colt pricked up his ears and lost stride. Thompson grabbed the moment and drove by Black Servant.... Black Servant’s jockey, Lucien Lyke, knew that Thompson wanted to win the race, but he wasn’t supposed to. He screamed above the thundering hoofbeats, “Take back, you son of a bitch!”
In the end, by a head, Behave Yourself won the race over Black Servant in 2:04 1/5. The horse couldn’t behave, I guess, any better than Thompson (who, for all we know, had a bet down on his own horse). Even though Bradley had the Derby winner, he could hardly be consoled. The $250,000 bet to win the race was lost, and he had virtually nothing down on the winning horse. The winning jockey was promptly fired, and was bluntly informed that, for disobeying orders, Colonel Bradley would see to it that no other horse owner in Kentucky would ever hire him again. Of the twelve jockeys entered in the 1921 Derby, only two never mounted another horse in any subsequent Derbys. One was George King, who finished tenth. The other was Charles Thompson, who won his only Kentucky Derby start.
When Charlie Thompson returned to his dressing room after his triumph, the grooms and stable hands that had wagered and lost their money beat him up mercilessly. Bradowsky and Phillips wrote that Bradley (who reputedly carried a derringer in his coat) looked for Thompson, but fortunately didn’t find him.
1957: SIT DOWN, YOU’RE ROCKING THE DERBY!
Another controversial Kentucky Derby took place in 1957. Legendary jockey Bill Shoemaker was riding Gallant Man, and just after the last turn, Shoemaker moved his horse up from third place and passed 8-1 long shot Iron Liege to take the lead in the stretch. At the sixteenth pole, Shoemaker apparently thought he was at the finish and suddenly stood up in the stirrups. Realizing his error, he immediately sat down again, but the mistake slowed Gallant Man down enough to lose the race, along with the nearly $108,000 purse.
Jockey Bill Hartack won his first of five Kentucky Derbies aboard Iron Liege, and Shoemaker would end his career with only four. It was, without a doubt, the most controversial of Shoemaker’s twenty-six Derby starts.
Just before the 1957 Derby, the owner of Gallant Man, Ralph Lowe, had a nightmare. He dreamed that his colt had the race won in the stretch when suddenly his jockey misjudged the finish line, rose up out of his saddle prematurely, and lost the race. Did Lowe suggest to his superstar jockey that his dream should become a reality?
Stewards at Churchill Downs suspended Shoemaker for fifteen days for misjudging the finish line. The suspension also prevented Shoemaker from riding the horse in the Preakness. When he learned of the suspension, Shoemaker said “They think they’re doing the right thing, so I guess there’s little I can say about it. I just made a stupid mistake in judgment—and that’s it.” He went on to say that he realized his mistake as soon as he stood up, and silently cursed himself. “Then I laid the whip to Gallant Man again, but it was too late.... The change in my position caused him to hesitate momentarily