Frater Takes Thoroughbred to Kentucky Derby

CHURCHILL DOWNS, KY - Any Given Saturday, a thoroughbred owned by Frater Kenny Troutt of Beta-Chi (Southern Illinois University - Carbondale), is one of the favorites in this weekend's 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby. Dubbed "the most intriguing pick," by many racing analysts, Any Given Saturday finished second over the Churchill Downs strip in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last fall and was taken to Palm Beach Downs to prepare for his three-year-old season to torment the locals at Tampa Bay Downs this winter.

At first, the plan worked perfectly as this son of Distorted Humor, sire of 2003 Derby hero Funny Cide, rolled to an easy 2 3/4 length win in the Sam F Davis. Then, a funny thing happened along the way to the Tampa Bay Derby. His name was Street Sense and in an instant, Tampa Bay Downs got a whole lot tougher. In a memorable stretch duel, Any Given Saturday and Street Sense duked it out for nearly a quarter of a mile before Street Sense got his nose on the line first.

Undaunted by this defeat, Any Given Saturday would run next in the Blue Grass. However, when Circular Quay was taken out of the Wood Memorial, Any Given Saturday was thrown in. Having raced just three weeks earlier, "Saturday" still managed to battle with Nobiz Like Shobiz from the far turn to mid-stretch before calling it a day to finish third.

Frater Troutt is a native of Mt. Vernon, Illinois and a graduate of Southern Illinois University. He has been a horseman for over 20 years and an entrepreneur most of his life. He established his first horse farm, Landview, in Eastern Nebraska in the early 1980's. In 1988 he founded Excel Communications, a long distance telephone service company, which integrated the growing demand for telecommunications service with the unprecedented power of relationship marketing. As Founder and Chairman of Excel, his innovative business and marketing strategies resulted in the meteoric rise of the corporation and its subsequent success as a publicly traded enterprise in 1996.

Currently Frater Troutt serves on the Board of Trustees of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and on the Board of Directors of the Breeders' Cup. He resides in Dallas with his wife Lisa and their three children.

Any Given Saturday holds 12-1 Odds as of 05/03.

History on the Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, staged annually in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is over one and a quarter miles at Churchill Downs. The race is known in the United States as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" for its approximate duration, and is also called "The Run for the Roses" for the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in the US and typically draws around 155,000 fans.

Adapted from Wikipedia and the Kentucky Derby Website. If you would like to see your chapter news here, contact Communications Coordinator Tom McAninch.