At 9 o'clock on the cold, blustery morning of last week's Kentucky Derby, Trainer Jimmy Jones of Calumet Farm made an agonizing decision: he scratched Gen. Duke, the heavy favorite, because of a bruised hoof. Immediately, bettors switched affection to the Wheatley Stable's Bold Ruler. Almost forgotten was Gen. Duke's stablemate, the muscular bay colt Iron Liege.
At any other stable, Iron Liege would have been top banana. But at Mrs. Gene Markey's fabulously successful Calumet Farm he was only a talented understudy,* the pacesetter for the compact Gen. Duke, ranked by the...