Ride On Curlin takes 'Bronco' Billy Gowan on wild ride

"Bronco" Billy Gowan grinned as he went to empty the wheelbarrow piled with soiled straw at his Churchill Downs barn.

"My groom gets here tomorrow," he said cheerfully last week while mucking out the stall of the 3-year-old colt Ride On Curlin.

Safe to say Gowan has everyday realities that the trainers of the other 19 horses in the May 3 Kentucky Derby don't face. The 48-year-old product of tiny Winnsboro — home of the annual Catfish Festival and largest U.S. flag flying in Louisiana — melds two worlds these days. He's the operator of a three-horse stable, a tough go in an industry that is very much a numbers game. And he's preparing Arkansas Derby runner-up Ride On Curlin for America's most coveted race.

Take, for example, how Gowan shipped his stable home after wintering at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

MORE:Mane Character | Ride On Curlin

Ride On Curlin went first class, in a Sallee van. The filly Miesque Amour got a lift to Churchill with Kentucky Oaks contender Sugar Shock. And Tracy Gowan drove the pickup trailering the Indiana-bred claimer Superstar Darrell that she and Billy own; her husband piloted the motor home in which he lived over the winter.

Except that the truck's transmission blew in Nashville. Veteran horseman Brett Zuver got a truck from his former in-laws and Tracy's parents, Joe and Jan Shulthise of the popular equine feed company, drove from Louisville to the Tennessee capital to fetch the stranded Superstar Darrell and trailer. The Gowans drove the motor home the rest of the way. Billy's truck is now fixed but remains in Nashville until he can find the time — and a ride — to fetch it.

It's doubtful Todd Pletcher or Bob Baffert face such transportation wrinkles.

Bridget Lambert is Gowan's groom; former jockey Bryan Beccia is his exercise rider — and the barn is looking for a hotwalker who meets Lambert's standards. That's an extremely labor-intensive operation for three horses, especially since Gowan also serves as the high-energy Ride On Curlin's designated hotwalker and helps Lambert caring for The Big Horse.

"I have to wonder, with the personal attention this horse gets, would he have reached his potential in a large barn with 50 other horses?" said owner Dan Dougherty's wife, Lori. "Maybe he would have been overlooked."

Interjected Gowan: "He'd have overcome anything, because he's a good horse."

Gowan will pick up three more after the Derby. A little over a year ago, he was wondering how he was going to stay in the horse business.

Down to two horses that he sent to Louisiana, one bowed a tendon and one was claimed for $5,000. Both were owned by Dougherty, the Louisville businessman who in 2012 bought one yearling, paying $25,000 upon Gowan's recommendation for a son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin out of the royally bred Storm Cat mare Magical Ride.

The colt now known as Ride On Curlin sold on the ninth day of the 11-day Keeneland September sale in 2012, pretty much the auction's K-Mart days. With that pedigree and that price, obviously there were conformational flaws.

"He just looked like a racehorse, body-wise," said Gowan, the son of a veterinarian. "If you look at his legs, he toes in on both front. But my dad always told me, 'If they toe in on both front, don't worry about it. If they're toeing in on one and out on the other, leave them alone.' "

At $25,000, it's the second-most-expensive yearling Gowan had ever bought and the most expensive at the time for Dougherty. And it was Gowan's shot to stay in business.

"It's a one-in-a-million chance," Dougherty said of making the Derby. "… But the perfect-looking horse isn't always the fastest."

When Ride On Curlin came flying in his debut to finish second to a nice horse trained by Mark Casse, the purchase offers began (including one from Casse).

"I knew right then when Dan made the decision not to sell the horse, what lie ahead," said Tracy Gowan.

Tracy works full-time as a nurse at Jewish Hospital and was also getting her nurse practitioner degree. They live on a farm in Shepherdsville with their daughters, 13-year-old Janet Kay and 11-year-old Alicia. Billy spent much of the prior winter in the role of Mr. Mom while his two horses were in Louisiana. She knew this time her husband would be gone for almost four months.

Selling Ride On Curlin would have made life easier, if not as exciting.

"I kept all that to myself, because Billy was on Cloud Nine," said Tracy, who in large part works full-time to keep health insurance for the family. "But it was heavy on my mind. Time went on, and the horse continued to get better and better. January 1, it was time for Billy to leave. I was devastated, tore up, scared about being by myself. Now that it's all over with, it worked out fine. I graduated from school; the kids didn't miss any sports practices."

Relatives, including Jan Shulthise and Tracy's aunt and uncle, pitched in over the winter. The girls stepped up and took on responsibility for getting themselves up, ready for school and doing homework without prodding.

"I knew Billy was living a dream, and I wanted to do everything I could to make it possible to work out for him," Tracy said. "It's very unlikely — just fate and good luck and hard work. There were a lot of times over the years when Billy would be disgusted and frustrated, and it took all he had to just keep moving forward. … Billy is an excellent trainer; he's very good with horses. I kept telling him, if you could ever get the opportunity to have a good horse, people will see."

After Ride On Curlin set the track record for 5½ furlongs in an Ellis Park maiden race in his second start last summer, Dougherty turned down a $1.4 million offer, Gowan said.

The colt subsequently finished fourth in Churchill's Iroquois after battling a shin issue. He's never been worse than third in six races since.

Ride On Curlin won a Jan. 12 allowance race, but then missed two weeks of training amid harsh weather. He was a well-beaten third in the Southwest, a very close third in the Rebel and then second in the Arkansas Derby as Danza got through on the rail en route to a 4¾-length victory while Ride On Curlin was forced to come wide.

Billy Gowan liked to say at Oaklawn that he's the only trainer with a three-horse stable and a Hall of Fame assistant, that being his mentor, Jack Van Berg. As part of Gowan's college degree from Louisiana Tech's equine program, he did a three-month internship with Van Berg, who a year earlier had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Alysheba. Gowan stayed 4½ years before going out on his own.

"I'd pick his brain every day," he said of being in the same Oaklawn barn with Van Berg. "I might fly him in Derby week just to make sure everything is going good."

"Anyone can pick them out when they get to $300,000, $400,000 at the sale," Van Berg said. "A good horseman is one who can pick them out where nobody is looking and buy them for that. Billy did a good job picking out the horse, and he's done a tremendous job with him.

"I told Billy, 'I'll tell you the same thing I told people with Alysheba, that I wouldn't trade horses with anybody going into the Derby.' They can have all these favorites, but his little horse don't lie. He's coming into the Derby about as perfect as you can get one."

Come Derby day, the Gowans, their daughters and Joe and Jan Shulthise won't be in pricey third-floor box seats. They'll spend the day at the barn — as they do almost every Derby — but this time also making sure all is well with their first Derby horse. The family will make the fabled walk from the backside, around the first turn and into the paddock for the 140th Kentucky Derby.

"Seems pretty wild from a year ago, when I was sitting on the couch wondering what I was going to do," Billy Gowan said. "Now I'm sitting here with a Derby contender. And I think a serious contender."

Contact Jennie Rees at (502) 582-4042. Follow her on Twitter @CJ_Jennie, Facebook.com/CJJennie and courier-journal.com/racingblog.