Racing: Drama follows Derby-winning trainer

Softly-spoken Michael Matz can now add a Kentucky Derby victory to a life already filled with drama.

The trainer of unbeaten Barbaro is an Olympic silver-medallist equestrian rider who carried the US flag at the close of the 1996 Atlanta Games.

But he also endured the harrowing experience in 1989 of being a passenger on an aeroplane that crashed in an Iowa cornfield, killing 112 of the 285 people on board.

In the aftermath of yesterday's Derby triumph, Matz dismissed questions about the crash - after which he led three children to safety - and focused on his career with horses rather than the other dramas of his life.

"Well, they are all different but they are all very exciting," he said.

"This has to be one of the highlights in my training career.

"Carrying the flag was a highlight in my jumping career. So they are both very good feelings."

Barbaro's 6 1/2-length triumph in today's derby was the fifth-largest margin of victory in the 132-year history of America's most famous horse race.

Matz, 55, from Pennsylvania, added: "It's a dream come true. I never had a horse come to the derby, let alone win it. It's just great."

Matz became a trainer eight years ago when, by his own admission, he became too old for show jumping.

Critics jumped all over him this week after he prepared the Kentucky-bred Barbaro by racing him just once in the five weeks leading up to the Derby.

It had been 50 years since a Derby winner had gone without a race for at least a month before the race.

Matz kept his cool with reporters, though he was clearly seething. "Five weeks. The only people who have made a big deal about that is the press," said Matz, who maintained he wanted a fresh horse coming into the Derby.

The May 20 Preakness Stakes in Baltimore is the next stop for Barbaro, whose dominating victory at Churchill Downs raised hopes of becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.

The versatile dark bay colt has six straight victories and has won on the dirt, turf and on a wet track.

Successful jockey Edgar Prado, who was having his seventh ride in the derby, said: "I've ridden him three times and each time he showed me more. He shows more class and more ability. He can be right with the leaders, he can be behind, inside. I don't think this horse has any particular way to run. And he proved that today."

- REUTERS