A DIFFERENT BREED STUTE, 83, SEEKS TO BECOME OLDEST TRAINER TO WIN DERBY.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Warren Stute's 83 years are graced by tales of a man who would not give in. Not to obnoxious bettors. Not to a series of strokes. Not to old age itself.

Not even to the Kentucky Derby.

The story goes that the first time Stute trained a thoroughbred good enough for America's most famous race, he passed up the chance to take the horse to Churchill Downs because the colt named Great Circle would not have been among the favorites.

``But we'd get to see the Kentucky Derby!'' Stute was told by his little brother, Mel, Great Circle's groom at Santa Anita.

``Don't worry,'' Stute remembers replying. ``We're rolling now. We'll be in the Derby every year.''

That happened in 1950.

Since then, Stute has saddled a horse for the Derby exactly once.

And that was in 1967.

Warren Stute is back at the Derby this year, running the lightly raced Greeley's Galaxy and trying to become the oldest trainer to win it (Charlie Whittingham having been 76 when he won in 1989 with Sunday Silence).

In the barn area Wednesday morning, Stute could look around and see younger trainers who typically have more starters in a single Derby than he has had in half of a century.

Nick Zito will have five in the race Saturday, including George Steinbrenner's Bellamy Road. Todd Pletcher will have three contenders. D. Wayne Lukas had two until one got hurt.

Stute isn't too stubborn to say the trainers who build their careers around preparing 3-year-olds for the Triple Crown races have the right idea.

``They're smarter than I am,'' Stute said outside barn 47. ``I never thought it was that important.''

Stute has had his own ideas, all right.

But they've mostly been good ones.

He might have passed up the Derby with Great Circle, but a year later he won the Santa Anita Maturity (now known as the Strub Stakes) with that horse ridden by a very young Bill Shoemaker. He won the Hollywood Gold Cup with Figonero. He won Del Mar Debutantes with Tonga and Miss Houdini 51 years apart.

In contrast to his boisterous brother, Mel, who won the 1986 Preakness with Snow Chief and has made the Hall of Fame ballot in recent years, Warren has been publicity-shy to the point of cantankerousness.

It was heartwarming to see him surrounded Wednesday morning by more journalists than he's entertained in his life, playing the gruff-but-lovable role in this drama.

Alarmingly, to his friends at the Southern California tracks, Stute all of a sudden looks like a man in his 80s. His speech is slowed by blood-pressure medicine that dries his mouth. His hair is white and thick. His face is kept pale by sunblock.

But it was only a couple of years ago that he finally gave up exercising his own horses.

``I hope I'm walking them when I'm 81,'' Zito exclaimed Wednesday.

And it was only a couple of years earlier that he declared victory in what may turn out to be his final fistfight.

He'd stopped off for a doughnut early one morning on the way to Del Mar racetrack. This was shortly after Stute suffered one of his strokes.

``A guy recognized me and started saying bad things,'' Stute said. ``I said, 'I just got out of the hospital!' He said, `Too bad you didn't die.'''

Stute decked the guy.

The story doesn't surprise Glen Stute, Warren's son and assistant. Glen knows about how much a stroke slows down his father.

The first attack hit about five years ago on a morning at Santa Anita, where Warren trains out of the barn that used to house Seabiscuit.

``I said, 'Dad, you're having a stroke. Let's go to the hospital,''' Glen said. ``He said, 'No, we've got a horse to work (out).' We worked the horse. I said, 'OK, let's go to the hospital.' He said, 'No, we have a horse in the first race.' He won, and we were in the winner's circle, and I said, 'Now can we go to the hospital?' He said, 'Let's go up and have a drink with the owner first.' Which he did.''

When Greeley's Galaxy and jockey Kent Desormeaux won last month's Illinois Derby by 9 1/2 lengths to become a fringe contender for the Kentucky Derby, Warren stayed home and Glen saddled him. Not because Warren wasn't up to the trip, but because he had a horse in the Santa Anita Derby that day.

To B. Wayne Hughes, the longtime Stute client who owns Greeley's Galaxy, age is not an issue.

``There's nobody younger than him,'' Hughes said, meaning in spirit. ``Look at him this morning.''

``He wants experience, and, boy,'' Stute joked, ``am I loaded.''

In 1967, Field Master faded after one half-mile to finish next to last, 14 lengths behind winner Proud Clarion, for 45-year-old Warren Stute.

Saturday, Greeley's Galaxy will try to make the ultimate late run for the 83-year-old trainer.

Finally, Stute has noticed there's a race over here worth winning.

``I didn't miss coming back here,'' he said. ``But I'll miss it next year if I don't come.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) Santa Anita-based Warren Stute, 83, would be the oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby if Greeley's Galaxy wins Saturday's 131st running.

Jeff Haynes/Getty Images

(2 -- color) no caption (Greeley's Galaxy)

Box:

(1) OUT OF THIS WORLD

(2) OLDEST TO YOUNGEST

(3) KENTUCKY DERBY LINEUP