Tough days for Mick Cronin: His horse misses out on qualifying for Kentucky Derby

UCLA basketball coach Mick Cronin is having a tough few days. On Thursday, the Bruins were eliminated in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, and then on Sunday his trip to the Kentucky Derby was derailed by a couple of long shots in the $600,000 Sunland Derby.

Cronin is part of a 10-partner horse ownership consortium known as The Del Mar Group, which includes UCLA football coach Chip Kelly and St. John’s basketball coach Rick Pitino.

If his horse, Henry Q, had won the race he would have been given 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, which would be enough to make the starting field of 20 on the first Saturday in May.

But Henry Q was caught in a furious speed duel with the Bob Baffert-trained Hard to Figure and faltered at the end in a loss to Wild on Ice, who paid $72.80 to win. Low Expectations ($15.40 to place) was second and Henry Q finished a well-beaten third. Hard to Figure was last in the six-horse field at the track located on the New Mexico-Texas border near El Paso.

If Henry Q had won, there was another obstacle to getting to Churchill Downs. The 3-year-old colt was not an early nomination to the Triple Crown races but could have qualified for a $6,000 nominating fee Monday. If the horse were nominated by Jan. 28 it would have cost $600.

None of that mattered Sunday when the horse came up short.

The first quarter-mile in the 1 1/8-mile race was listed as going in 20.58 seconds and the first half-mile in 45.96, making it easy for trailing horses to catch up.

Henry Q was bought as a yearling at a Keeneland sale for $125,000. He made his debut for trainer Doug O’Neill at Santa Anita where he finished fourth in his first two races before winning his third. He was sent to Sunland for trainer Todd Fincher and crushed a field of eight by winning the Mine That Bird Stakes by 14 ¾ lengths.

Cronin is no stranger to horse racing, having spent parts of his youth going to River Downs race track, now called Belterra Park, near Cincinnati with his father. At various times, his father was a mutuel clerk and a jockey agent. Cronin also spent time talking horses with his former boss, Pitino, when he was an assistant at Louisville. Mick’s brother, Dan, is a professional handicapper.

As if Cronin’s horse racing weekend wasn't star-crossed enough, The Del Mar Group won a claiming race worth $24,000 on Saturday at Santa Anita but the horse was claimed by another group for $25,000. Win a race, lose a horse.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.