OUT OF THE DARK GIACOMO, A 50-1 LONGSHOT, WINS KENTUCKY DERBY.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - All through the wet winter, the clouds in Los Angeles parted for Giacomo. On Kentucky Derby day, a crowd of famous racehorses at Churchill Downs did the same.

``He never had a setback, never missed a training day,'' John Shirreffs, Giacomo's trainer, marveled after the race had been run. ``It seemed like his work(out) days would always come when it wasn't raining.''

Saturday, the gray colt's season of good fortune combined with his long-hidden talent to produce one of the biggest upsets in Kentucky Derby history as Giacomo and jockey Mike Smith made a winding rally from 18th place in the last half-mile to win at 50-1 odds for breeders and owners Jerry and Ann Moss.

In front of 156,435 fans on yet another sunny day for Giacomo, lightly regarded California horses ruled the Derby. After long shot Closing Argument and Afleet Alex took second and third, Santa Anita Derby graduates Don't Get Mad, Buzzards Bay and Wilko took fourth, fifth and sixth.

They all finished in front of Bellamy Road, the colt owned by New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner whose prep-race performance made him a solid favorite in the Derby betting and caused talk of a superhorse. Bellamy Road was head and head with leader High Fly at the top of the stretch but faded to seventh with no apparent excuse.

Bellamy Road, shockingly, was the top finisher among the record-tying five-horse team entered by trainer Nick Zito. Andromeda's Hero took eighth, High Fly 10th, Noble Causeway 14th and Sun King 15th.

The Derby's flair for the unpredictable struck again: Giacomo paid $102.60 for a $2 win ticket, second to Donerail's $184.90 in the 1913 race. The $2 exacta with Closing Argument paid more than $9,800, the $2 trifecta more than $133,000, the $1 superfecta $864,253.50.

If Bellamy Road was the most-watched horse of Derby week, the six products of the California winter were the most ignored.

Colts coming out of California were routinely pummeled in Derby preps elsewhere. The Santa Anita Derby won by Buzzards Bay was low-rated by analysts of race clockings.

``We certainly read (the insulting reviews),'' said Smith, a Hall of Fame jockey who won his first Kentucky Derby after 11 failures that included three second-place finishes. ``People didn't like the Santa Anita Derby. I loved it.''

Giacomo and Smith finished fourth in the Santa Anita Derby, two lengths behind the winner, his rally coming up short for the fifth race in a row since the maiden win that was his only victory before Saturday.

Smith thought the slow early pace of the Santa Anita race cost his mount a shot at catching the leaders and made the result misleading.

Things unfolded much differently in the 131st Derby, the first in two decades in which the maximum 20 horses broke from the starting gate.

Spanish Chestnut, the early leader as expected, rattled off fast fractional times and other long shots pressed forward to leave the usually front-running Bellamy Road back in fifth as the horses went down the backstretch. This was the scenario that handicappers thought might throw Bellamy Road off the form that won the Wood Memorial by 17 1/2 lengths.

``I don't have an excuse,'' Javier Castellano, Bellamy Road's jockey, said right after the race. ``He just didn't respond.''

While the early leaders faded on the turn and the popular Afleet Alex caught the attention of fans' binoculars with a surge, Giacomo and Smith were launching an attack after dropping about 15 lengths off the pace. Forced wide on both turns, the jockey in green and pink Moss silks found a seam between horses at the top of the stretch and - what else is new? - burst into the daylight.

With Smith whipping left-handed, Giacomo went around on the outside and put his shadow-rolled nose on the wire one-half length in front of Closing Argument and one length ahead of Afleet Alex.

Afleet Alex jockey Jeremy Rose said the Arkansas Derby winner simply gave way after a bumpy trip.

Giacomo is a son of Holy Bull, the 1994 Derby favorite who ran poorly with Smith aboard, and the mare Set Them Free, named for a Sting song. Giacomo, in turn, was named for Sting's now-9-year-old son.

He ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.75, not a fast time for the Derby.

The out-of-the-blue victory by Giacomo in the $2 million race put Smith back in the national spotlight after business got so lean in California that the jockey moved to Kentucky recently. It put newfound attention on Derby rookie Shirreffs, 59, a wonderful trainer who never seeks the limelight, and Jerry Moss, the A&M Records co-founder (with Herb Alpert) who has enjoyed most of his racetrack success in California.

Moss looked elated after watching a run of good luck in the winter produce a run to glory.

``I just kept watching Mike to see if he would find a way through (the other horses),'' Moss said of that charge down the stretch. ''I guess he (Giacomo) was just waiting to give us a big one.''

Kevin Modesti, [phone]

heymodesti(at)aol.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Jockey Mike Smith and Giacomo, left, pass Closing Argument as the horses near finish line to win the 131st Kentucky Derby Saturday at Churchill Downs. Smith, below, celebrates after the win by kissing the Kentucky Derby trophy.

Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images

(3) A blanket of roses is placed on jockey Mike Smith and Giacomo after their first place Kentucky Derby finish on Saturday.

Al Behrman/Associated Press

Box:

(1) PAYOUT

(2) KENTUCKY DERBY EXPANDED CHART

(3) THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT

(4) TRAINING DAY