Louie and Ronnie back at The Show

The Kentucky Derby experience will be richer for the return of Louis Roussel, who has been absent for a very long time. Roussel, once owner of the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, is a combination trainer, breeder, lawyer, raconteur, who brought Risen Star to the 1988 Derby and finished third to Winning Colors, the last filly to win the first leg of the Triple Crown.

A couple of things worked against Risen Star in the Derby, foremost of which was a slow start and typical bad Derby trip. The other was Pat Day’s decision to not challenge Winning Colors early. Though running on even terms with the filly early, Day took back on Forty Niner entering the first turn. Winning Colors, loose on the lead, survived Forty Niner’s late run by a neck.

The same horses put the Preakness in Risen Star’s lap. With D. Wayne Lukas and Woody Stephens trading barbs not made in good humor, Forty Niner carried out the task assigned and took Winning Colors by the throat early, a confrontation that blossomed into a half-mile in 47 seconds. Both gave way and Risen Star was nothing if not a strong finisher.

Risen Star’s tour de force would be the Belmont, which he would win 14 ¼ lengths with Forty Niner absent and a spent Winning Colors last of six.

“I brought the best horse in America here in 1988,” Roussel said on Tuesday. “I was 5-1 and the best I could do was third.”

In 1988, Risen Star, who did not race again after the Belmont, was not the best horse in America. Alysheba was a four-year-old on his way to being Horse of the Year. Personal Ensign, also four, was in the last season of a perfect career that would end with a victory for the ages over Winning Colors in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Nevertheless, Risen Star was a very good horse and the characters around him, Roussel and partner, Ronnie Lamarque, a good-timing New Orleans auto dealer, and a cast of characters not far removed from the French Quarter made that spring memorable.

“There’s going to be a crayfish party at the Derby,” said Ed Fountaine, the gentleman from the New York Post, after Recapturetheglory, the last horse nominated to the Triple Crown, won the Illinois Derby.

Not so, Roussel said, reminded of the party he and Lamarque hosted 20 years ago on a grassy area outside the clubhouse turn, transporting menu, chefs and whatever else, from New Orleans to Louisville. There was also the occasional afternoon crayfish and shrimp at the barn. Covering the Derby was never before or ever again such a feast for anyone who happened to be nearby at the right time. Nor had any other trainer brought his personal chef to the Derby.

The Derby is drawn in the evening nowadays, happy-hour-ish, downtown, midweek. The grassy is no longer green.

“The crayfish party was on Wednesday, that’s the draw,” he said. “Wish there was; love those crayfish.”

There’s more bad news. Lamarque, noted composer of several songs about his horses, has written no music in honor of Recapturetheglory, whose name, he claims, is impossible to rhyme.