There’s a New Maestro for Unbridled’s Song

One year ago at Gulfstream Park, Unbridled’s Song excited the racing world. He won the Florida Derby in brilliant fashion, by nearly six lengths over top 3-year olds such as Skip Away and Louis Quatorze, who went on to win championships and classics later in the year. He was a colt with limitless potential.

But since those heady days Unbridled’s Song has won one race. He has lost to nonentities. His main distinction is this: He is one of the worst-managed good horses in the sport’s recent history.

This winter he is back at Gulfstream, in the care of a new trainer, Nick Zito. His potential still seems enormous. When he trains in the morning, he continues to impress everybody who watches him. Zito said: “This horse’s pure speed is incredible. He’s from a different dimension.”

Such superlatives -- which were commonplace a year ago -- now inspire skepticism as much as excitement. Unbridled’s Song has proved a disappointment too many times. It is quite possible that his problems in 1996 took such a toll on him that he will never be a top-class racehorse again.

Unbridled’s Song last year demonstrated that even the most-gifted horse cannot succeed if he isn’t handled judiciously. Trainer Jim Ryerson could have done the job if he had been allowed to, but Unbridled’s Song was instead managed by committee. Owner Ernie Paragallo, a relative newcomer to the game, wanted to have a strong role in the decision-making process. Paragallo also had a stable manager, Buzz Chace, who described his role with this analogy: He was the bus driver, and Ryerson was a passenger on the bus. Jockey Mike Smith and his agent, Steve Adika, even got to put in their two cents’ worth of advice about the colt’s schedule.

From the time that Unbridled’s Song cracked a hoof before the Kentucky Derby, his management team never had a clear vision of what they wanted to do. Rest him or run him? After much vacillation, they decided to patch the colt’s hoof and run him at Churchill Downs, where he finished fifth. Ryerson then announced that the colt would be rested to clear the problem; yet a few days later Unbridled’s Song was returned to training and entered in a prep for the Belmont Stakes. He lost again.

After the horse got another brief rest, the team decided he was ready for more action. A nice, easy spot to restore his confidence? Naw. Unbridled’s Song was shipped to Chicago so that he could take on the world’s best horse, Cigar -- and was trounced. The long-suffering Ryerson had lost control of the horse -- he was just a passenger on Paragallo’s bus -- but after this debacle he suffered the consequences. Paragallo fired him and hired Zito.

Many trainers would be reluctant to walk into this hornet’s nest, but any man who trains horses for George Steinbrenner knows how to deal with demanding owners. Zito likes Paragallo -- and understands him. “Ernie is a hands-on guy,” the trainer said. “He wants to participate. He’s new in the game -- he’s like a rookie quarterback who’s going to make mistakes -- but he’s learning every day.”

As a two-time Kentucky Derby winner, Zito has the credentials and the authority to insist that he makes the decisions -- something Ryerson evidently couldn’t do. Zito said, “When they were talking about sending this horse to run against Cigar, I think I would have said, “Ernie, trust me. You can’t do that!’ ”

When Zito took over Unbridled’s Song in July, the colt was still suffering from his chronic foot problems, as well as a broken splint bone. Zito gave him several months’ rest and then -- in contrast to the past tendency to ask too much of the horse -- picked an easy allowance race at Aqueduct for his comeback. The trainer wanted the colt to get back his confidence.

In a spot where he seemingly couldn’t lose, Unbridled’s Song lost. Paragallo was so disheartened that he announced he might retire the colt. But Zito -- an optimist by nature -- brought Unbridled’s Song to Florida and continued to train him. The horse, he said, is now in good health, and his problems may be more mental than physical. He may have been adversely affected by running in so many tough races when he was nagged by physical problems.

Zito has been encouraged by the way his charge has been training here, and within a few weeks he will know whether the old Unbridled’s Song is back. He plans to enter the 4-year-old in a sprint stakes this month, followed by the Grade I Donn Handicap. At least this time there is a plan, and a person in charge. “You can hold me accountable,” Zito said. “Either I get hailed or I get stoned.”

That’s a healthy change in the management of this gifted horse. But the change may have come much too late.