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Sahadi shoves aside racing stereotypes
By Ed McNamara
Special to ESPN.com
|  | | Jenine Sahadi hopes The Deputy can help her make history on Derby Day. |
Her big gray horse turned into the stretch of the 1995 Breeders' Cup Mile with the lead, and the 32-year-old trainer stood screaming on that wet October afternoon at Belmont Park. A hundred yards from the finish, the
filly Ridgewood Pearl left Fastness behind, and NBC showed Jenine Sahadi
venting her frustration before an international audience. The sound was off,
but you didn't have to be a lip reader to know she had blurted out a synonym
for manure.
Hello, world.
Only 2½ years into her training career, Sahadi almost became
the first woman to saddle a Breeders' Cup winner. A year later in Toronto,
she pulled it off when Lit de Justice came flying from last to take the
Sprint, and she celebrated with a dance that came to be known as "The Sahadi
Spin."
She may have grown up in California, but she's not laid-back and mellow. Fittingly, her degree from USC was in communications, because you always know how this feisty redhead feels. On Saturday, she'll try to become
the first woman trainer to win the Kentucky Derby when she sends out The
Deputy.
In an era obsessed with political correctness, racing remains a fortress of male chauvinism. Although Sahadi is no crusader, the gender factor inevitably has become an issue, and she's not pulling any punches.
"As I have always said, women are just not given the same chances as men at the racetrack," said Sahadi, who spent eight years doing marketing and publicity at Hollywood Park before taking up training in 1993. "Winning the Derby would be a big, big thrill, and I'd like to think that sometime in my career I could do something to make people in the game look at women differently. But I don't think things have changed much for women in racing. I'm not being sour. I'm just being realistic.
"I do get a lot of support from female fans. Some of them say, 'Kick some butt.' A lot of young girls tell me, 'I want to be just like
you,' and that's nice to hear. But I'm not trying to make any sort of political statement. I'm doing this because I love animals."
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Winning the Derby would be a big, big
thrill, and I'd like to think that sometime in my
career I could do something to make people in the
game look at women differently. But I don't think
things have changed much for women in racing.
I'm not being sour. I'm just being
realistic. ” |
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— Jenine Sahadi,
trainer of The Deputy |
The party line among her critics is that Sahadi has received more than her fair share of assistance. Her father, Fred Sahadi, founded Cardiff Stud Farms and owned numerous stakes-winners, including Desert Wine, the 1983 Derby runner-up. When she started to assemble a stable, her boyfriend was trainer Julio Canani. She's married to a trainer, Ben Cecil, a transplanted Englishman.
She's won two Breeders' Cup Sprints and holds the earnings record for a woman trainer ($2.2 million in 1995). Still, even when she succeeds, Sahadi can't win. If her horses do well, credit the men behind the scenes.
If she fails, blame her.
"The moment I pop up with a good horse, I hear it," she said. "No one else would have to put up with it, and I'm tired of it. I don't have to justify myself to anybody. There's nothing I can do about it, though. I get a little defensive, but I wasn't put on this Earth to change anybody's mind."
At the post-position draw for the Santa Anita Derby, Sahadi crossed swords with trainer Bob Baffert after the white-haired wise guy asked Chris McCarron, The Deputy's rider, "By the way, who's training The Deputy, you or Jenine?"
Sahadi, seated at the opposite end of the table from Baffert, was furious, and moments later she let him have it. While answering a question about The Deputy, she said, "Thank God my horse has a lot of class, because there are a lot of people here who don't have any." With that she put down the microphone and left the podium.
"I'm not thinking about Bob Baffert," she said recently. "I don't care what anybody thinks. I don't have an agenda." Other than standing in the winner's circle after the eighth race at Churchill Downs on May 6.
If The Deputy takes Sahadi there in her Derby debut, it will cap a most unlikely tale. The compact Irish-bred colt by the
obscure sire Petardia began his career last summer on the turf in England, where he was purchased in the fall by Barry Irwin of Team Valor. He won his American debut Jan. 2 at Santa Anita on the grass, where he appeared to have
a bright future. A subsequent workout on the main track made Sahadi think he might do well there, too.
"After he worked 6 furlongs in 1:11, I called Barry and told him I'd never seen a European horse run so well on dirt," Sahadi said. "He was a beautiful mover on the dirt. I said I guess this is the time to find out if he can run on the main track. This whole dirt scenario has been kind of a surprise."
|  | | The Deputy started his career on the turf, but has since become a threat on the main track. |
The Deputy also excelled the first time he tried the sand in the afternoon, upsetting High Yield and Captain Steve Jan. 30 in the Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita. Next time out he spotted Fusaichi Pegasus, now the top-ranked 3-year-old, six pounds and lost by only three-quarters of a length in the San Felipe. Then came an impressive victory over the highly
regarded War Chant in the Santa Anita Derby, and it was on to Louisville.
The Deputy, who has never been worse than third in nine starts, worked sharply (5 furlongs in :59) at Churchill on April 19. He looked strong again last Wednesday, when he breezed 7 furlongs in 1:27 3/5 for McCarron.
Sahadi plans a work of 4 or 5 furlongs for Tuesday leading into the Derby, and then it will be
nervous time as she awaits the big day.
The Deputy probably will take it in stride.
"He's a very cool and calm horse," she said. "He has an incredible temperament. Nothing bothers him. He's been that way right from the get-go."
Having an easygoing colt is a major advantage on Derby Day amid the deafening noise and claustrophobic crush in the paddock.
"The day of the race, you need the racing gods to watch over you," Sahadi said. "Anything can happen in the race."
Or before it.
When a trainer with a short fuse is trapped in Stress Central and a huge crowd is going berserk, it's comforting to saddle a low-key animal.
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