Stately Victor -- Black Lodge Saloon

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Date Posted: 06:23:29 04/29/10 Thu
Author: bfny
Subject: Stately Victor

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/sports/29vecsey.html?ref=sports&pagewanted=print

The New York Times
April 29, 2010

Family and Friendship in Stately Victor�s Name

By GEORGE VECSEY

Louisville, Ky.

Victor Perrone lit up a room. That�s what his siblings and his best friend say about him.

Now, almost 18 years after Perrone died in an automobile accident at 23, his namesake, Stately Victor, is going to the Kentucky Derby, possibly even to light it up.

Stately Victor will be escorted onto the track by F. Thomas Conway, a lawyer and owner who has never passed this way on the first Saturday in May. Tom Conway regarded Victor as a surrogate son, who played with Conway�s son, Jack, from the time they were in kindergarten.

�Victor was a prankster,� said Jack Conway, the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, who is running in the Democratic senatorial primary on May 18.

Jack Conway laughed as he recalled Victor�s older brothers trying to suppress him by hanging him by the clothing from a large hook, which tattered his underwear but did not slow him down.

As he grew, Victor became a shining star in a family of achievers � like Frank Sinatra, like John F. Kennedy, said Tom Conway, who is 72 and old enough to have that frame of reference.

Victor went to Tulane and was attending law school � in homage to Tom Conway, people say � at the University of Louisville when he died in June 1992. Now a 3-year-old runs with his name.

Tom Conway has watched every Derby but one since 1964; he has owned a lot of horses but never saddled one in the Derby. Tom and Jack usually watch the post parade before the Derby, owners and trainers in the wake of their horses, and wonder what it is like. On Saturday, they hope to find out.

Tom Conway often names horses after family members � Jack Sprat is named after the attorney general � but he waited a long time to name one after Victor. It had to be right.

A year ago, Conway�s trainer, Mike Maker, spotted a son of Ghostzapper at a sale at Frank Stronach�s Adena Springs Farm in Ocala, Fla. Conway then persuaded his son Jack to pay 49 percent of the $250,000 price. It must have been a memorable conversation, with father and son both being lawyers. (�I gave him real good terms,� the father said.) When Tom Conway saw the new horse, he knew, from the way he carried himself, that this was the one to be named Victor.

Tom Perrone, 45, one of Victor�s older brothers in a family of 10 children, is a financial adviser in Louisville. He ran into Jack Conway at a meeting last year, and Conway told him they had named a horse after Victor.

�Chills,� Tom Perrone said.

Stately Victor won at Saratoga last year but then finished out of the money five straight times, with four different jockeys. He was not necessarily regarded as a Derby contender until, as a 40-1 shot, he won the Blue Grass Stakes on April 10.

�

Jack Conway has state duties and is trying to get on the November ballot to replace the retiring Republican Jim Bunning. On the day of the Blue Grass Stakes, he had one appointment in northern Kentucky and another in Louisville, but he made it to Lexington in time to see Stately Victor rally and win going away, earning $450,000 which more than qualified him for the Derby.

�My mother called me from Charlotte, where she lives now,� said Bud Perrone, who was a year and a half older than Victor. �She was over the moon.�

Many Kentuckians try to get home this week, but Bud Perrone is staying in New York, where he now lives and works. He probably could have landed two tickets to the Derby and stayed with family, but he had a better idea.

�I never talk about my little brother,� Perrone said, �but this time I want to spread the gospel of Victor.� He has invited 50 or 60 friends, stocked up on Derby staples � he mentioned cheese grits � and will instruct everybody to stand and sing when they play �My Old Kentucky Home.�

Many people in Louisville have a connection with the horses. It�s hard to avoid it.

�Thanksgiving and Derby week are my two favorite times of the year,� Tom Perrone said. He and some of his four children are watching tapes of Stately Victor�s races, reading the charts. They have five or six Derby house guests coming, �and maybe a few fly-bys,� he said.

Tom Perrone planned to take his oldest son to Churchill Downs to greet Stately Victory when he was shipped in on Wednesday. His oldest son, 13, is named Victor Perrone.

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Replies:

Thanks for sharing, bfny... -- Waldo, 12:45:35 04/29/10 Thu
- well damn man... -- stately bfny, 20:26:12 04/29/10 Thu
  - Her name was "Charisma..." -- Waldo, 11:42:34 04/30/10 Fri
    - D'oh -- bfny, 08:20:20 05/03/10 Mon