The Kentucky Derby victory by Thunder Gulch is one that will ultimately be as forgettable as those by Go for Gin, Sea Hero and Lil E. Tee the past three years. Trainer Wayne Lukas’s colt was largely ignored before the race, and his effort at Churchill Downs Saturday was hardly brilliant. The colt benefited from a well-judged ride by Gary Stevens and his timeconsidering the souped-up condition of the Churchill Downs racing stripwas not particularly impressive.

The 121st Derby was anticlimactic because there were several horses in the field who could have made it memorable. A triumph by the filly Serena’s Song, the English colt Eltish or the Japanese invader Ski Captain would have given the race a historic dimension. Suave Prospect could have made Julie Krone the first woman in history to win the Derby. The Canadian colt, Talkin Man, came into the Derby with credentials to suggest that he might prove a genuine star. But none of them rose to the occasion. Only Thunder Gulch did.

However, there was nothing at all fluky about the victory of the 24-to-1 shot. In many recent runnings of the Derby, the oversized field has caused congestion and traffic problems, making top horses the victims of bad luck. But even with 19 horses in this year’s field, the race was cleanly run. The jockeyswith one notable exceptiondelivered excellent performances.

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Jerry Bailey, who had been voted into the Racing Hall of Fame earlier in the week, delivered a superb ride aboard Tejano Run, saving ground along the rail on the turn and rallying to finish second. Mike Smith, who had been criticized for his performance aboard losing favorites the past two years, got Talkin Man to the rail, sitting just behind the pacesetter, Serena’s Song.

It wasn’t his fault that the colt fell apart in the stretch. And, of course, Stevens was flawless aboard the winner, getting into perfect position throughout the race after breaking from post position 16.

(The exception to these excellent efforts was Krone, whose exhibition on Suave Prospect was a professional disgrace. After finding herself in perfect position near the rail on the backstretch, she needlessly bailed out and steered her mount nine-widewell out of harm’s way. Having suffered several injuries in spills, she has become cautious and tentative in her day-to-day riding, but it was a shock to see her ride so pitifully in a race of this magnitude.)

While most of the horses behind him were having clean trips, Thunder Gulch had been chasing the fast early pace and was the only member of the first flight who didn’t collapse. He had been sitting fifth after the first half mile was run in 45 4/5 seconds; the horses who were 1-2-3-4 at the half-mile mark wound up finishing 16-19-12-18. Yet even when the fresh horses made their moves in the stretch, they couldn’t cut into Thunder Gulch’s commanding lead. In fact, the winner seemed to be pulling away from Tejano Run in the final yards.

Thunder Gulch was so clearly superior that he has a chance to win the Triple Crown if he can duplicate the quality of Saturday’s performance in the Preakness and Belmont stakes. But that’s a big if.

Few horses in the 3-year-old classics of recent years have been good enough to perform with consistent excellence as champions are supposed to. In-and-outers regularly win the Derby, and Thunder Gulch’s form coming into the race was typical.

He had looked good winning two major stakes in Florida, but he ran a dull fourth in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and even Lukas admitted, That kind of shook my confidence in him. Experts who watched him train at Churchill before the Derby saw no persuasive evidence that he had recaptured top form. Lukas was so confident about his other two Derby entrants, Serena’s Song and Timber Country, that he sometimes seemed to forget Thunder Gulch was in the race. Several times during Derby week he made references to my two jockeys.

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Lukas said Sunday that he did notice some positive signs as the race approached. When he took all three of his horses to the track Saturday morning, Thunder Gulch was the sharpest of the group. Lukas loved the colt’s calm, professional comportment in the paddock.

But who could have guessed that he would be the only one of 19 horses who was going to deliver his optimal performance in the Derby? And in light of the post-Derby failures of Go for Gin, Sea Hero and Lil E. Tee, who could be confident that Thunder Gulch is going to run a big race again?

LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST05-08-95 1622EDT