
DATE: Wednesday, March 19, 1997             TAG: 9703190495

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  200 lines

KENTUCKY DERBY DREAMS NORFOLK COUPLE RUNS FOR THE ROSES

When the horse-racing bug bites, the fever can stay with you forever.

Donald Grey was bitten in 1984, when a childhood buddy talked him into buying a percentage of a brood mare, Crimson Katie, that was in foal.

Grey's share: $8,000.

Twelve horses, 12 years and almost $100,000 later, Grey was still looking for his first trip to the winner's circle.

Some of Grey's horses had broken down at the track; viral infections ended the careers of others. One foal died when it was 3 weeks old. And then there were those who liked the view from the back of the field.

Horse No. 13, however, was running in a $33,000 allowance race last December that was being simulcast from Hollywood Park. So Grey went to the Colonial Downs Off-Track Betting Parlor in Chesapeake to watch.

Soon Grey wasn't just watching. He was in a lather. There was his horse, a coal-black colt named Pacificbounty, surging to the front and winning by 4 1/2 lengths.

Grey hooted and hollered so much that onlookers at the betting parlor figured he must have plopped down $1,000 on a winning long shot.

They should have seen Grey's reaction a month later when Pacificbounty came from 11th place to win the Golden Gate Derby, a $200,000 stakes race.

They should have seen Grey when Pacificbounty beat two of the country's top 3-year-olds on March 8 to win the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, again coming off the pace under crafty jockey Kent Desormeaux.

They should see Grey now when the words ``Kentucky Derby'' roll off of his tongue.

Grey, 69, has been on the phone a lot recently with the horse's other owners. Grey and wife Lynn own one-sixth of Pacificbounty.

The owners are deciding when and where their hard-charging colt will race next. One thing's for sure: It'll be a Kentucky Derby prep race, Pacificbounty's last before the Triple Crown kicks off.

Should they ship him to Kentucky for the Jim Beam Stakes on March 29? Or maybe the Arkansas Derby on April 12? More than likely, the California-bred colt will stay home and run in the Santa Anita Stakes on April 5?

The date and place that has stuck in Grey's head, however, is May 3, Churchill Downs: The Run for the Roses.

And Grey has a childhood friend, Jock Jocoy, to thank for that.

It was 1973 and Grey was barricaded in his office preparing a brief for the Virginia Supreme Court when the phone rang.

``I had told my secretary to hold all calls,'' Grey said. ``Finally, she comes in and tells me there's a guy on the phone who won't identify himself, but says he has to talk to me.''

When the caller asked if Grey knew who it was, Grey said, ``Earl `Jock' Jocoy, is that you?'' It had been 32 years since they last talked, but Grey recognized the voice.

Jocoy had become a horse veterinarian in California and had risen to the heights of his profession, servicing thoroughbreds at Del Mar Race Track, built by Bing Crosby in the 1930s, hard by the Pacific Ocean just north of San Diego.

Jacoy lived two doors up from Desi Arnaz. He often hung out with John Forsythe.

Grey and Jocoy first met in the 1930s, when their families lived along Bayview Boulevard in Norfolk's Ocean View section. Jock was a year older.

The Great Depression had a stranglehold on their lives. There was no money, so fun was invented, not purchased. Grey said Jocoy was a combination of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

He and Jocoy were inseparable - until Jocoy's father, a Navy warrant officer, was transferred to San Diego. After exchanging a few letters, they lost contact.

Grey went to William and Mary's undergraduate and law schools, rose to the rank of colonel in the Air Force, then retired from the military and began practicing law in Norfolk.

Jocoy, meanwhile, caught horse-racing fever. At one time he owned a series of horses with legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham.

After reconnecting, Grey and Jocoy competed on track and field's masters circuit, sometimes traveling to meets together.

Grey holds the state pole vault record for his age group (65-69) at 8 feet, 6 inches. And in 1990, he won an age-group (60-64) national championship in the pentathlon, which combines the long jump, javelin, 200 meters, discus and 1,500 meters.

Other than Derby Day, Grey's July 29 birthday is the most anticipated date on his calendar.

``Every masters athlete waits to hit that next five-year age group,'' Grey said. ``I'm definitely looking forward to that.''

In between track meets, Grey tackles the world of high finance. He once bought and sold the same stock, International Game Technology, which specializes in slot machines, four times in the same month.

``His glass is always full of water,'' said Lynn Grey, who although 16 years younger admits at times to having trouble keeping pace with her husband. ``He's a very optimistic person. Life is not a chore. With every sunrise, he's off and running like a horse out of the gates.''

So when Jocoy asked if Grey would be interested in acquiring a percentage of a horse, Grey said, ``I'm in.''

The $8,000 Grey invested didn't seriously pinch his purse, nor have the room-and-board and vet bills that have followed.

``It was a hobby,'' said Lynn Grey, 53, who manages a doctors' office in Norfolk. ``We were told very carefully 12 years ago that we may never have a winner. You do it because it's fun and never consider it a moneymaker. That way you won't agonize over it.''

They thought they had a winner six years ago when their filly of the hour, Fast Katie, showed impressive speed in morning workouts.

``She could run like a scalded dog,'' Grey said.

But Fast Katie, named after Jocoy's wife, made it to the track for only two races, didn't win, contracted a virus and never raced again.

She became a brood mare. Her first foal in 1991 ran five times without winning. The next year she was barren. The following year, her foal died at 3 weeks.

And then came Pacificbounty.

The ownership group - Ocean Air Stables - bred Fast Katie to Pirate's Bounty, a leading sire in California. Pirate's Bounty is by Hoist the Flag, who in his day was a leading 2-year-old before injury cut his career short. He went on to have a spectacular second career at stud.

``Jock sent me a letter shortly after the colt was born,'' said Grey, rifling through paperwork at his home in the Glengariff subdivision of Norfolk, across from the Botanical Gardens. ``I've still got it here.''

``He's a classy colt,'' Jocoy wrote. ``Could be a crackerjack. Race horse colts keep us old men young. Something to dream about. I'm excited about this little guy.''

Grey still has snapshots of the colt, so young that the hair from his mane sticks straight up like a '50s crew cut.

Shortly thereafter, Jocoy's health took a turn for the worse. He eventually sold his share of Pacificbounty.

Were Jocoy still part of the ownership group, there is a good chance that Pacificbounty, who ran four times as a 2-year-old, wouldn't be racing today.

``Jock hated to race 2-year-olds,'' Grey said. ``He believed horses weren't mature enough at that age. He liked to take them to the track in the spring when they were 3 and maybe start racing them in the summer.''

The Greys watched the Golden Gate Derby at the off-track parlor in Chesapeake. In their post-race euphoria was a trace of regret about not being there in person.

When Pacificbounty was entered in the El Camino, there was no chance the couple would watch this one on TV, particularly when their ownership partners began describing the feeling.

``My wife said when the horse won (the Golden Gate) it was almost more exciting than when our kids were born,'' said Gordon Sinkoff, one of the partners. ``It was the rush of a lifetime.''

The Greys flew to California the Friday before race day and took in a night racing card. But Grey was much too nervous to enjoy it.

``I made one bet the whole evening and it was on a half-brother of Pacificbounty's,'' Grey said. ``Naturally he won. I bet $20 and got back about $75.''

The next day was like a blur to Grey up to post time.

When the horses were being loaded into the starting gate, all Grey could think about were the times he'd spent at Del Mar when Jocoy was on the job. As track vet, Jocoy would ride a van around the track behind the field in case a horse came up lame. Grey would ride with him.

``From the van, you could hear everything the jockeys were saying,'' Grey said. ``Chris McCarron, one of Del Mar's top jockeys, is a real talker. He'd break into a Spanish accent and say to another jockey, `Hey, Jose, you got a lotta horse down there today?' Or he'd speak in an Irish brogue and start needling Desormeaux.

``And every time they broke from the gate, they'd get a few strides down the track and you could hear McCarron holler, `And away we go fellows!' ''

Grey came out of his trance in time to see Pacificbounty break from the gate first, unusual for the come-from-behind runner.

But Desormeaux and Pacificbounty quickly dropped to fifth, four lengths off the pace in the six-horse field as they rounded the first turn.

Up ahead, Carmen's Baby and previously unbeaten Wild Wonder, two horses already tabbed as Kentucky Derby contenders, were battling for the lead. Once the field hit the home stretch, Pacificbounty still had four lengths to make up.

In the race's last 150 yards, Pacificbounty went by Carmen's Baby and Wild Wonder as if they were standing still.

``Those two horses didn't stop running,'' Grey said. ``Our horse just ran 'em down.''

Once Pacificbounty hit the finish line, Grey said he was ``unable to put sentences together. I just spoke in clipped phrases. Everybody did.''

Lynn Grey said one thing stuck in her mind as the group was getting its winner's-circle picture taken: The photographer asked if the horse would mind having a blanket of white carnations over his neck.

``The crowd is going crazy, you can hardly hear the person next to you,'' she said. ``But I heard Jean Greenman, the trainer's wife, say, `He's a calm horse. He won't mind a bit.' ''

A blanket of roses adorns the Kentucky Derby winner, doesn't it?

Before the El Camino, gaming casinos in Las Vegas were listing Pacificbounty at 60-to-1 in their Kentucky Derby Future Book. There's talk that when the next Future Book comes out next week, the odds could be as low at 15-to-1.

Each year, more than 30,000 racing thoroughbreds are born. About 18 thoroughbreds make it to the Kentucky Derby's starting gate. There are 375 horses currently nominated for this year's Derby. Those still serious about the prospects will forward a $6,000 nomination fee to Churchill Downs by April 1.

This long shot is still a long shot, but not as long as before.

Are those roses the Greys are smelling? ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Donald Grey and his wife, Lynn, own one-sixth of Pacificbounty,

which they hope to run in the Kentucky Derby. Lynn admits to having

trouble keeping pace with her husband at times. ``With every

sunrise, he's off and running like a horse out of the gates,'' she

said.

Pacificbounty, with Kent Desormeaux aboard, wins the $200,000 El

Camino Real Derby by a length over Wild Wonder (No. 2) at Bay

Meadows on March 8. KEYWORDS: HORSE RACING KENTUCKY DERBY