Run for the Roses

High on His Horse
Trainer Trombetta and Sweetnorthernsaint Draw Praise

By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, May 5, 2006; E01

LOUISVILLE, May 4 -- The majority of trainers with horses in the Kentucky Derby arrive at the track early, take care of business and disappear after awhile, but Michael Trombetta always appears to be flitting around his end of Barn 42.

The Laurel Park-based trainer may have brought only two horses -- the young sprinter Fleet Valid and his Derby horse Sweetnorthernsaint -- from Maryland to Kentucky, but he can't seem to pull himself away from them.

"I've got nowhere to be," Trombetta said with a shrug. "I like hanging around the barn and the horses. I've grown up underneath these horses. I've learned to take care of two to 50. This is all I've ever known."

In his maiden Derby voyage, Trombetta, 39, has opened eyes with the quality of his horsemanship and, certainly, the quality of his horse. Sweetnorthernsaint heads into the race Saturday as one of the favorites, and the margins of victory in his races -- 9 1/4 lengths, 10 lengths, 7 3/4 lengths and 16 lengths in a disqualification -- seem to indicate this may be a super horse.

Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas, who has started 41 runners in the Derby and won four times, calls Sweetnorthernsaint one of the ones to beat. Kiaran McLaughlin and his brother, Neal, stabled next door on the shed row, are constantly admiring Trombetta and his work.

"He seems to be very hands-on," said Neal McLaughlin, who is helping prepare Jazil and Flashy Bull for the Derby. "He does the work himself. He feels the ankles, puts in the long hours."

Groom Gordon Turner worked for top trainer Scott Lake for several years until six months ago, when Trombetta hired him. Although Lake has won more races, 177, than any trainer in the country this year, Turner is far more impressed with Trombetta's patient preparation.

"He can be one of the great ones," said Turner, 38. "These big trainers like Todd Pletcher, Baffert, Lukas, they're going to be looking up at him.

"I've been knowing Mike since he started, since he was a groom. Mike was ready to rise to this occasion. He knew he could if he got the chance."

Turner, of Baltimore, has added a boisterous, outspoken personality to the Sweetnorthernsaint team. Trombetta, with his youthful looks and mop-top haircut, could be a member of a Beatles cover band. With his quiet nature, he certainly would have to play George.

"He has a very unique personality," said Trombetta's wife, Marie. "He's not super excitable. He enjoys the total aspect of what he does, and this is the cherry on top. And he thinks before he speaks. A lot of people say we're going to win, but he never does that."

Trombetta has exuded a quiet confidence about Sweetnorthernsaint's chances throughout the week. The horse, a dark gelding with a blaze of white the length of his nose, often has been lumped in with the runners expected to contest the pace, but Trombetta says Sweetnorthernsaint has led in most of his races only because he simply is so much faster than the opposition.

"When he was coming up through the ranks he was beating horses that aren't here," Trombetta said. "He's got an excellent kick in the last part. That's what's earned him favoritism here. His times are always very forward in the last part of the race."

That's all sweet an' all, but the Post has yet to back a winner.

I never bet on horses unless I'm in the park to look them over.