Sport: Roses for a Fast Female

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Genuine Risk was brilliantly ridden by her jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, who laid on the outside, far from traffic and the soft footing on the rail as the 13-horse field battled into the back stretch. With one-half mile to go, Vasquez made his move, gave the filly her head, and she swooped into the lead just as she reached the start of the home stretch. Running freely, fluidly, the big, lovely chestnut required just three taps of the whip to hold off Rumbo's late charge.

Genuine Risk's victory vindicated the controversial decision to enter her against colts, which are usually bigger and stronger than fillies; thus the 5-lb. weight allowance to even up the disparity. Colts mature more quickly too, coming into their full strength as runners months ahead of the female of the species. But exceptional fillies have proved the match of the males, at least on paper. The great Ruffian, who broke down in a 1975 match race against the colt Foolish Pleasure, clocked times significantly faster than any of the colts of her class over the same distances on the same tracks. But Ruffian was never entered in a race against the boys until the fateful one in which she fractured her foreleg and had to be destroyed. A haunting irony: Vasquez, Genuine Risk's jockey, was riding Ruffian in that tragic race. He vaulted from her back and tried to cradle her head in his arms as she staggered on her shattered leg.

Calumet Farm's Twilight Tear was Horse of the Year in 1944, but she too was held out of the Triple Crown races as a three-year-old. She went on to beat colts in handicap races later that year. Now, for the first time in 65 years, a filly has beaten the colts in one of the spring classics of the Triple Crown.

Diana Firestone and her husband Bert, owner of 1975 Derby winner Foolish Pleasure, bought Genuine Risk at auction for $32,000. Her bloodlines were impressive: her sire, Exclusive Native, was also the sire of Affirmed, the 1978 Triple Crown winner, and her grandsire, Gallant Man, won the Belmont Stakes in 1957. The Firestones, who breed and occasionally break their own horses at the family's Virginia farm, register the colts under Mr. Firestone's name and the fillies under Mrs. Firestone's.

After Genuine Risk proved impressive in filly races this spring, Jolley decided to enter her in the Wood Memorial, where she finished a strong third, l½ lengths behind Plugged Nickle. After extended debate, it was decided to put her in the Derby against 1980's weak crop of colts. Vasquez underlined the wisdom of the decision: "Against the colts out there today, she could have run two miles."