By Dan Liebman
Lil E. Tee had won the 1992 GI Kentucky Derby and his connections left the winner's circle. Trainer Lynn Whiting spotted me off to the side in the tunnel. He broke from the group for a brief moment.
“Remember the day I called you,” Whiting said, chuckling and smiling broadly while shaking my hand. “Wouldn't have just gotten my picture taken if it hadn't been for you.”
Of course he was just being nice–and Lynn was truly one of the nice guys in the game–but I did remember and I always felt I had a small, unscripted part in the Lil E. Tee story.
When I heard Whiting died Wednesday at age 77, the memories came flooding back.
It was a typical day at The Racing Times when Whiting phoned me Oct. 6, 1991. I was the Deputy Editor of the paper's Midwest edition; Whiting was at his barn at Churchill Downs.
“Colt named Lil E. Tee just broke his maiden at Calder and Cal (owner Cal Partee) wants me to fly down and look at him,” Whiting said. “I need his Beyer speed figure for the race.”
The race had barely been declared official, and speed figures are not done that quickly. But I knew where I could get solid information on the colt: I phoned Chuck Streva, who worked for The Racing Times in Florida. Chuck did his own speed figures.
“I will do my figs tonight but I can tell you it will be a solid number,” Streva said. “Colt looked good winning; had something left, galloped out nicely.”
I relayed the info to Lynn, who quickly made arrangements to purchase the colt for his client, pending a physical and veterinary inspection.
Less than a month later, I spotted him in the entries at Churchill Downs: owner Cal Partee; trainer Lynn Whiting; jockey Pat Day.
I watched all his races with great interest, and every time I saw Lynn Whiting over the ensuing years, he would always mention my help in his purchase of Lil E. Tee.
The first Saturday in May 1992, I was strolling through the third floor box area at Churchill Downs, about two hours before the Derby, when I spotted some friends.
“I think this is Pat Day's year,” I said to astonished faces. “I have a bit of an attachment to the horse…race looks wide open …Pat deserves to win the Derby.”
I was right. Pat did deserve to win the Derby. So, too, did Lynn Whiting.
The list would be quite lengthy of horsemen who “deserved” to win the Derby yet never did.
Lynn Whiting got his chance and made the most of it. He didn't always have to remind me I was a footnote in his historic moment. But he always did.
Lynn Whiting was that kind of trainer–and that kind of man.
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