ESPN.com: HorseRacing

[Print without images]

The Derby favorite's name has given a lot of people trouble. So you know, it is pronounced "Peg-ah-sus".

Before he was given his current name they just called him "Superman" back at the farm. That would have been easier on track announcers. But for $4 million, Mr. Fusao Sekiguchi, the owner, had some rights.

	Fusaichi Pegasus, ridden by jockey Kent Desormeaux, rides to the win in the Wood Memorial.

Arthur Hancock and his partner Robert McNair bred this specimen. "He was the best looking foal I've ever seen." says Hancock. This coming from a man who's owned and raised two Kentucky Derby winners (Gato Del Sol and Sunday Silence).

And the animal appears rather sound at age three. His move in the Wood Memorial made it look as though the others were dragging farm equipment.

This could be related to how opponents are apt to drag their heads in pre-race. All because of the way Fusaichi holds his.

This theory, that a horse can intimidate another with a glance across the paddock, was thrown out like so much stable manure when offered up to Neil Drysdale, the trainer of Fusaichi Pegasus. Maybe it's their diction, maybe it's their accent, but the English possess a flair for saying "you're an idiot" in more civil tongue. Drysdale, the son of a British Royal Marine, says, "I don't subscribe to what you are saying."

While he doesn't believe the Derby opponents are ripe for being stared down into defeat, it may be he thinks the rest of the field can read. And he isn't about to give them any barn-room motivational material. Drysdale does allow that his runner, "has gone through his paces very well."

The jockey, Kent Desormeaux (who won Derby '98 with Real Quiet), says Fusaichi Pegasus "has a world of talent, travels effortlessly." But as with the trainer, the psych-out theory in question has no legs. "It would be new knowledge on me," says Desormeaux.

But in the same breath, Desormeaux admits Fusaichi Pegasus "will walk onto a track, and look around as though he's thinking, 'I don't know why the rest of you even came.'"

Whether Fusaichi Pegasus or any dominant pony can really game-face the competition into submission may be "too subjective," as Drysdale puts it. But one thing is indisputable to this point: the best time for his opposition to stare back at Fusaichi is anytime prior to the starting gate opening.