Wednesday, March 24, 1999
Turfway horse has good shot in Gallery Stakes
BY GEORGE RORRER
Enquirer contributor
FLORENCE — When the announcer yelled “They're off!” in K One King's maiden race last October at Keeneland, he was only partly right.
They were off except K One King. He stayed in the gate.
“We always train our horses to stand still in the gate,” said Akiko Gothard, who trains the lanky 3-year-old chestnut.“He learned it so well.”
Remarkably, K One King recovered and won the seven-furlong sprint by 21/2 lengths. He has been making up for lost time since, and now he seems to have a legitimate chance to give Turfway Park its first home barn winner of its premier spring race, Saturday's $750,000 Gallery Furniture.com Stakes.
No horse stabled at Turfway throughout a winter/spring meet has won the race, which began in 1972 as the Spiral Stakes and was known from 1982-98 as the Jim Beam Stakes.
Even in a strong field, K One King has intriguing credentials. He has won four of his six starts and finished second in the other two. In his most recent outings, he lit up Turfway with a six-length victory in the Presidents Stakes and a nine-length triumph in the John Battaglia Memorial Handicap.
He has Kentucky Derby dreams dancing in the head of Gothard, who believes she is the only Japanese-born woman
horse trainer in the world. Gothard has never had a Derby horse — only eight women trainers have — but she suspects K One King has what it takes.
“Everyone says Straight Man (trained by Bob Baffert) and Lethal Instrument (trained by John Shirreffs) are the favorites,” she said. “But my horse has more experience. I have lots of confidence.”
K One King is a late bloomer with a laid-back attitude, Gothard said. “From April to October last year, he grew,” she said. “I've never seen a horse grow so fast. He was all gangly, so I sent him back to Gainesway Farm (at Lexington). He wasn't big as a yearling, but now he's 16 hands, 21/2 inches tall (661/2 inches).
“He's very calm, very in telligent. He can go from behind or he can be up front. There's plenty of speed in this race. He's going to be hard to beat on this track.”
If K One King performs well Saturday, Gothard said, she and the horse's new owner, Madeleine Paulson, will consider heading straight for Churchill Downs to prepare for the Derby.
Paulson, the wife of prominent horse owner Allen Paulson, bought K One King last week from Tokyo resident Yoshiko Sato for between $1 million and $2 million. The sale changed nothing from her standpoint, Gothard said.
“He will stay with me,” she said. “I wouldn't have sold him otherwise. Of course, the reality is if it's better to take him somewhere else, we will.”
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