Performing Magic gets up in last strides to best Country Only on Sportsman's Park's closing day

AN instant after Performing Magic crossed the Sportsman's Park finish line, his jockey, Shane Sellers, leaned to the left and congratulated Country Only' s rider, Heberto Castillo Jr.

Illinois Derby (G2)
Sportsman's Park, May 13, $500,000, 11/8 miles, fast, 1:50.86
1—PERFORMING MAGIC, c. 3, Gone West—Performing Arts (Ire), by The Minstrel.
2—Country Only, c. 3, Carson City—Only Maisie, by Stalwart.
3—Country Coast, c. 3, Country Pine—Do Ye Well, by Coastal.

"Herb looked at me kind of funny," Sellers said afterward. When Sellers checked out the tote board he saw why: Performing Magic had caught Country Only in the final strides to win the $500,000 Illinois Derby (G2) by a head.

Castillo put Country Only on the lead at the start of the 11/8-mile race and was able to keep him there until Performing Magic did the racing equivalent of hitting a basket at the buzzer.

"My horse ran his heart out," Castillo said. "But the winner went one jump faster." Country Coast came from last to finish third in the field of nine that contested the Chicago circuit's richest and most prestigious race for three-year-olds on dirt. He trailed the top two by 21/2 lengths.

Front- running is the forte of Country Only, and the colt was sent off as the 13-to-10 favorite mainly because of the company he kept in his previous race, the April 15 Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct. In that 11/8-mile race, Country Only yielded the lead with considerable reluctance to finish fourth. The winner and third-place finisher in the Wood Memorial were Fusaichi Pegasus and Aptitude, who went on to run one-two in the Kentucky Derby (G1). Performing Magic was the 2.10-to-1 second choice for the Illinois Derby, held on closing day. He prepped for the race by recording his first victory in the United States in the April 29 Derby Trial Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs.

"The Derby Trial was so easy on him," said Alex Hassinger Jr., Performing Magic's trainer. "He came here really sharp."

The Kentucky-bred son of Gone West out of Performing Arts (Ire), by The Minstrel, spent last year running in England for The Thoroughbred Corp. of Saudi Arabian Ahmed bin Salman. After winning two of his eight races in England, Performing Magic made his American debut on February 27 by running second in the 61/2-furlong Baldwin Stakes at Santa Anita Park. He then went to Aqueduct where he came in third behind Red Bullet and Aptitude in the one-mile Gotham Stakes (G3). Performing Magic now has four wins in 12 starts and career earnings of $439,085. Hassinger also trains Anees, last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner and Eclipse Award-winning two-year-old male.

"I worked this colt with Anees a couple of times at Santa Anita and when he worked evenly with Anees, I thought we might have something," Hassinger said. "He has improved every start. It was Prince Ahmed's idea to take him to Chicago for this race, and it worked out very well. This race answered a lot of questions. He'd never gone around two turns before and he'd never gone a mile and an eighth before. We were unsure of his distance qualifications.

"In the paddock, I turned everything over to Shane. I just told him that this was a stalking horse."

Inside trip

Sellers was riding Performing Magic for the first time, and they began their journey from the inside post position. Sellers was confident Performing Magic had the ability to pressure Country Only on the front end but was cautious because the colt had never raced beyond a mile.

"Going under the wire the first time, I had to make a decision either to take him back or go into the first turn head and head with the speed horse on the lead," Sellers said. Sellers decided to drop back and immediately second-guessed himself.

"I got in his mouth a little more than I wanted to and he dropped the bit on me up the backstretch," Sellers explained. "I was concerned. I thought maybe I took his race away from him by fighting him so much.

"So, I left him alone and two other horses (Bet on Red and Big Numbers) went up to the leader. I called on him on the middle of the turn for home and he fought hard all the way down the stretch. He wanted to win this race. You'll hear a lot more from this colt."

The drive down the long Sportsman's stretch was into a 30 mph head wind. Performing Magic completed the nine furlongs in 1:50.86 on a fast track. Country Only set moderate fractions of :24.40, :48.70, 1:12.16, and 1:37.56 for the initial mile.

Tom Amoss, trainer of third-placed Country Coast, was pleased with his colt's effort. "I got a chance to watch a true performance by this colt," Amoss said. "Ralph Wilson bought him after he ran third in the El Camino Real Derby (G3), and I had one week to prepare him for the Arkansas Derby (G2). He was a huge disappointment at Oaklawn (finishing eighth). "In this race, the one-two finishers were legitimate horses. We were doing well going down the lane. Nobody was closing on those two but our horse."

When Performing Magic hit the wire, The Thoroughbred Corp.'s racing manager, Richard Mulhall, was relaying a customized race call to Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where it was 2 a.m. Unlike Sellers, Mulhall thought Performing Magic was the winner.

"I'm getting good at it," Mulhall said. "The prince has 300 horses. About 25 or 30 are in England, 25 or 30 are in Riyadh, and the rest are in the U.S. I do this a lot." The narrow victory was an emotional one for Sellers, who rode on the Chicago circuit before moving his tack to Kentucky.

"The reason I am here is because of Chicago racing putting me on the map," Sellers said in the winner's circle. "The people around here saw me at my worst as a rider. Mentally and physically, I was a very frustrated young rider, just a young kid trying to get somewhere in the game.

"The people here never knocked me. They always kept their arms opened for me and gave me a pat on the back when I needed it. I'm very grateful to everyone around here who put me on winners."

Finish lines—Sportsman's 54-day meeting was the first since the track was converted to a dual-purpose auto racing/Thoroughbred facility last year when the meeting was moved next door to Hawthorne Race Course under a lease arrangement. Trainers and jockeys praised the new racing surface that is laid down over the auto racing asphalt and the reconfigured oval. However, horseplayers were not as enthusiastic in adapting to the $65-million make-over project. On-track handle was down 18% compared with last year's Sportsman's meeting at Hawthorne and 22% from the last meeting at the old Sportsman's in 1998, according to the track's director of mutuels, Terry Hart. "It's a brand new facility, and everything is so different," Hart said. "That had to affect some people. "It might take some time to get that old feeling back." The overall handle—combining on-track, intertrack wagering, and off-track betting—showed only a slight decline of 2.4%, according to preliminary Illinois Racing Board figures. … Sportsman's President Charles Bidwill III and Chief Operating Officer Ed Duffy are planning improvement projects for 2001. Changes include removal of the fencing on the outer auto racing wall, an expanded tote board that will include mutuel pools and race times (the absence of which were a major complaint by customers this year), and a revised apron that will make the track more accessible for railbirds. … Some things never seem to change—Mark Guidry won his seventh consecutive riding championship and his ninth in ten years at Sportsman's, bringing in 61 winners. Frank Kirby saddled 25 winners to take his first training title.