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Friday, April 12, 2002

By Pohla Smith, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Friends in his adopted Pittsburgh don't readily relate to Ken Kuska's passion for thoroughbred racehorses.

	Tomorrow's Lineup Wood Memorial Where: Aqueduct, Jamaica, N.Y. Post: 3:30 p.m. TV: ESPN. Distance: 1 1/8 miles. Purse: $750,000 Field: Eight horses, with Medaglia d'Oro the favorite at 5-2. Blue Grass Stakes Where: Keeneland, Lexington, Ky. Post: 4:30 p.m. TV: WPXI Distance: 1 1/8 miles. Purse: $750,000. Field: Six horses, with Harlan's Holiday the favorite at 6-5. Arkansas Derby Where: Oaklawn Park, Hot Springs, Ark. Post: 5:45 p.m. TV: None Distance: 1 1/8 miles. Purse: $500,000 Field: 11 horses.

"I kid people that it's because New Yorkers have an extra horse gene," said Kuska, 49, a native of Queens who grew up across the street from Belmont Park. "You know there's always a big story about racing in the New York Post and the Daily News. Growing up as a kid, even though I was a Giants fan and Mets fan, too, everybody would go to the track. You could almost walk.

"On Sundays the priest at the noon mass at St. Boniface [near the track] would try to get everybody out on time to go bet the daily double."

But the horse racing culture of New York, especially in Queens, is not the main reason for Kuska's ardor. Dreams are the primary incentive.

"I can never buy the Yankees, I can never buy the Pittsburgh Steelers," he said. "But if you get lucky the first Saturday in May, well, anybody can be standing in the winner's circle for the Kentucky Derby. That's a dream I have."

And this year, he has got two outside shots for making that fantasy come true.

Kuska, a vice president in a financial services firm, is an owner of two potential starters for the Derby, May 4 as a partner in West Point Investments, which functions something like mutual funds to buy top- quality racehorses.

One of his hopes, Bob's Image, races tomorrow in the prestigious Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, a traditional prep for the Derby. Trained by former D. Wayne Lukas protege Dallas Stewart, Bob's Image is an 8-1 shot in the Grade I, $750,000 stakes, and he's showing his Derby qualifications against highly regarded Florida Derby winner Harlan's Holiday and Fountain of Youth winner Booklet. Kuska can't afford to go to all his horses' races, but he will be in Lexington, Ky., for this one.

His other Derby hope is Ethan Man, who will test his Derby potential April 20 in the Lexington Stakes, also at Keeneland. He's trained by Patrick Byrne, best known as the trainer of 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick and 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Awesome Again.

Kuska says they are the best horses he has had. Until this year that honor belonged to Sweet Nanette, a 4-year-old mare Ditto West Point Investments for that matter. She won a minor stakes, the Bourbonette, last year and has earned $230,565. There are two other horses among his holdings.

Ethan Man won a minor Derby prep, the 7-furlong Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park, earlier this year and is 3 for 4 with earnings of $139,955 in his brief career.

Bob's Image ran second to former Kentucky Derby favorite and now injured Repent in the Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, but he came back to finish fifth and 10 1/4 lengths behind Repent in the Louisiana Derby. Still, he had an excuse: Another horse came over on Bob's Image at the start and clipped his leg, opening a cut.

Neither Bob's Image nor Ethan Man are sure things for the Derby gate. Not by any means. They have to earn their way in these two prep races.

Of Ethan Man, trainer Byrne said, "if we win [the Lexington] and win easy, we'll go to the Derby." No other scenarios apply, he said.

Stewart feels the same about Bob's Image. "He would just have to be ultra-impressive."

It could happen.

"With [early favorites] Repent going down and Siphonic, it's the most wide-open Derby field in years," Kuska said.

"Usually by this time there are two or three strong favorites. But not this year. The Derby is such a long shot race anyway, someone is going to come out of the clouds."

And so he dreams that it might be he.