USA TODAY International Edition
‘ GREAT’ DERBY DRAW
Delgado dreams of Majesto matching Canonero’s ’ 71 miracle
Starting in gate 13, Nyquist is the favorite in an even Kentucky Derby field
Gustavo Delgado LOUISVILLE wants to tell you a story about 1971.
“Do you remember Canonero?” the trainer says softly, leaning in and putting his arm around a reporter who wasn’t born yet when the Venezuelan mystery horse pulled off the most shocking upset in the history of the Kentucky Derby.
In somewhat broken English, which has improved considerably since he moved to the USA two years ago, Delgado recalled a phone conversation with Canonero II’s trainer, Juan Arias, who had once worked for him.
After a quarantine nightmare in Miami that caused the horse to lose 70 pounds 12 days before the race — “He comes to Churchill Downs, walked out of the truck, and he fainted,” Delgado said. “Fainted! There’s ( a) picture! Fainted!” — nobody gave Canonero a chance. The horse looked sick, and his workouts were slow. But as Delgado watched on television as Canonero circled the field to win the Kentucky Derby, he remembered what Arias had told him three days before the race.
“He’s galloping very easy,” Delgado recalled. “He ( said) to me, ‘ Gustavo, only galloping. No more. And Saturday I win.’ Incredible.”
Forty- five years later Venezue- la has another chance to claim the Kentucky Derby, this time with Majesto, whose owner, Alejandro Ceballos, operates a breeding operation in his home country, and jockey Emisael Jaramillo, who moved to the USA last fall.
But nationality is pretty much where the comparisons with Canonero end.
Whereas Canonero was purchased for $ 1,200 with a crooked leg and an inauspicious pedigree, Majesto is all racehorse, a towering physical specimen who was purchased for $ 300,000 as a yearling largely on the recommendation of the owner’s son, Jesus Ceballos, an 18- year- old college student and member of pop duo Jesus y Yorky, whose song Cuan
do Te Miro was a major hit in Latin America.
“I fell in love with this horse since the first time I saw him,” said Jesus Ceballos, who dreamed of being a jockey when he was young but grew too tall.
“Since he was 6 years old, he would tell the jockeys what to do,” Alejandro Ceballos said through an interpreter. “Jaramillo remembers when he was a little kid he used to give him instructions.”
Though Majesto wouldn’t be anywhere nearly as surprising a winner as Canonero — his second- place finish to favorite Nyquist in the Florida Derby stamped him as a serious contender for this race — it would rank fairly high on the list of all- time human interest stories to win the Kentucky Derby.
Though Ceballos owns and operates Haras Urama farm in Venezuela with 57 broodmares and a stallion in Z Humor who ran 14th in the 2008 Kentucky Derby ( and was owned, coincidentally, by Ahmed Zayat of American Pharoah fame), this is not exactly racing royalty.
Ceballos, who names his horses after family members, said he had been to Churchill Downs six times previously but never had a horse good enough to run in a major race. This weekend, he will send out contenders in the Derby, the Kentucky Oaks with Paola Queen ( named for his second daughter) and the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on the Derby undercard with Grand Tito ( named for one of his grandchildren).
“Majesto, I expected glory with that name,” said Ceballos, who came up with it by combining the names of his sons, Mauro and Jesus. “I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was 6 years old. We expect to do the very best.”
Though Delgado and Jaramillo aren’t well- known to U. S. racing fans, they were a powerful combination in Venezuela, winning that country’s Triple Crown together in 2007 and 2010. Delgado also twice won the Triple Crown for fillies and is considered a legend in his home country.
But amid recent political and economic crises in Venezuela that made it increasingly difficult to make a living in horse racing, Delgado, 59, moved his operation to Florida in 2014. He was an instant success on the Gulfstream Park racing circuit, winning races and drawing the attention of new clients who have filled his barn with high- quality horses.
Last year, Delgado’s horses won 47 races and earned $ 1.7 million, finishing in the money a solid 40.5% of the time. This year, his horses have finished in the top three in 43.4% of their starts.
“It was very difficult in Venezuela,” he said. “I’m very happy to be only two years in the United States and running in the Derby. It’s very important to me in my profession. It’s an amazing story.”
One of the people who helped persuade Delgado to move to the USA was jockey Javier Castellano, who came from Venezuela and had immediate success in big races. Castellano rode Majesto in the Florida Derby but will be aboard Todd Pletcher- trained Destin in the Kentucky Derby.
“Castellano is a good friend for a long time,” Delgado said. “His father worked for me in my town, we were in the same town in Maracaibo. In my soul, I would like to win the Derby with Castellano, but it’s impossible because he rides for Pletcher.”
Delgado thinks Majesto is ready to put forth a big effort. Now all of Venezuela has taken notice, just like it did in 1971.
“Venezuela is a very horse- related country,” Ceballos said. “After the Florida Derby, everybody is talking about that horse. They are very excited.”