Trinniberg Has World-Class Speed, but May Not Last at BetLM

LOUISVILLE (HORSES/Newsfeed) – Bis­nath Par­boo took in the crowd of reporters ask­ing his son over and over if Trin­niberg could han­dle the mile and a quar­ter run at the Ken­tucky Derby after never going longer than seven fur­longs. When the group dis­persed, the 72-year-old from Trinidad finally spoke up.

“The way he’s train­ing now, I’m 100 per­cent cer­tain he’s going to win,” Par­boo said. “He’s doing every­thing right. We couldn’t ask for noth­ing more. Noth­ing more.”

The patri­arch of the fam­ily is doing it his way with the Teu­fles­berg colt pur­chased entirely by chance for $ 21,000 at a Florida auction.

When Parboo’s fam­ily booked him in a fancy down­town hotel, he wouldn’t stay – pick­ing a cheaper option near the track. And when he arrived in the United States in 1982, a cler­i­cal error in the paper­work caused his last name to be mis­spelled. He didn’t care, nor did he bother to work to get it changed.

“That’s just Pops,” son and Trin­niberg owner Shiv­ananda Parb­hoo said. “It’s my father. We just leave him alone.”

Parb­hoo, who expects more than 40 peo­ple from among his friends and fam­ily to attend Sat­ur­day, said he stum­bled upon the sale for Trin­niberg while mak­ing a deliv­ery at Ocala Breed­ers Sales. He was taken by the horse’s look and had to have him even though he didn’t have his check­book. Parb­hoo shrugs at the notion that he had a spe­cial eye to find talent.

“I can’t look at $ 500,000 horses,” he said.

The dark bay colt is as col­or­ful as the fam­ily. He wears bright yel­low gear and even has his own Derby flair with a red dec­o­ra­tive pom­pom attached to his head that makes him instantly rec­og­niz­able as soon as he enters the track.

“Those are our col­ors,” Parb­hoo said. “Most of our horses, even though we run in a $ 5,000, they like to dress them up. It’s just a style we have. He’s going to wear it at Derby.”

He’s almost cer­tain to lead on Sat­ur­day, too, when the Derby begins, hav­ing been in first place in all seven of his life­time races at some point. He’s cer­tainly a pace­set­ter, once post­ing a first quar­ter mile of 20.8 in the Breed­ers’ Cup Juve­nile Sprint that he ended up los­ing by 13 1/2 lengths.

But since Willie Mar­tinez took over as his rider, Trin­niberg has been per­fect in two stakes races this year – win­ning the Swale at Gulf­stream Park and Bay Shore at Aque­duct by a com­bined nine lengths. Mar­tinez, who’ll be in his fifth Derby, said the horse has grown up.

“It’s an obvi­ous ques­tion. Dis­tance, dis­tance, will he get the dis­tance? That’s what everybody’s won­der­ing,” Mar­tinez said. “The only thing that I can say from my side, the rider’s point of view, there’s no bet­ter feel­ing for a rider than when the horse relaxes, espe­cially going two turns and espe­cially when everybody’s expect­ing you to be on the pace.”

The horse expected to be a long shot cer­tainly has looked relaxed in train­ing ses­sions this week, and his early break may cause other speed­sters like Juve­nile cham­pion Hansen and the Bob Baffert-trained Bode­meis­ter to chase, too, and could cause a favorite or two to fatigue too soon.

Of course, a lot will still be deter­mined on Wednesday’s post-position draw and Hansen trainer Mike Maker joked that he has an idea for it.

“Trin­niberg in the 1, Bode­meis­ter in the 2 and us in about the 13 or 14. That’s a per­fect sce­nario,” Maker said. “If I was pick­ing a post posi­tion, that’s what I’d pick.”

With­out know­ing the start­ing order, Parb­hoo hasn’t thought about what strat­egy he might give Mar­tinez. He does know he has no plans to sell Trin­niberg, but did pause to reflect when asked what would hap­pen if he were offered $ 1 mil­lion, $ 2 mil­lion or $ 3 million.

“I like the ques­tion,” Parb­hoo said, laugh­ing. “Remem­ber, every­thing is for sale in the USA. Every­thing. Every­thing is for sale. There’s a price for everything.”

But, there’s no price tag for the expe­ri­ence of win­ning the Ken­tucky Derby.

“This is a race that you dream it, you chase it and you want to taste it. That’s how I am right now. I’m just like Trin­niberg, I’m champ­ing at the bit to get a taste of it,” Mar­tinez said. “We don’t have to worry about noth­ing so we’re just going to go out there and have fun, take what they’re going to give us and hope­fully every­body else will expect to come back. He could rain on a lot of people’s parades.”