WEST FRANKFORT - When Judy Dorris of West Frankfort watches the Kentucky Derby, it's personal.

She knows many of the trainers, jockeys, pony riders and assorted varieties of stable help who file past the television cameras on Derby Day. She may know some of the horses, she may know some of their siblings or parents.

However, most years Judy has to watch the Kentucky Derby from home - or more likely from the barn - on television. She is too busy with baby Thoroughbred race horses to leave the farm.

Judy and her husband, Tom Dorris, own and operate Oak Tree Farm, a Thoroughbred breeding facility in Southern Illinois. Tom trains, racing his horses in Illinois to take advantage of Illinois' race horse incentive program. Judy foals

the broodmares, meaning she is on hand when they give birth. She sees about 100 foals born every year on the farm.

"It's every (Thoroughbred race horse) breeder's dream, to win the Kentucky Derby," she said.

Even though she can't take the time away from foaling to go to the race herself, she said she and all the barn help watch the race on the big day.

"We plan our whole day around it," she said. "We make sure the help gets to watch, too, because they are interested in the race, too."

Judy said she doesn't have a favorite Kentucky Derby race, but she does mark time by which horse won the Derby that year.

The year Spend-A-Buck won, for example, was the year a friend got married.

"She's a horse person, too - I don't know why she got married on Derby Day," she said, laughing. "We told the minister he had to get this wedding on because we had to get down to the church basement where we had a TV set up to watch the Derby."

Tom has trained and raced at Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. He hasn't entered a horse in the big race yet, Judy said. However, he has been a top winning trainer at Kentucky race tracks when he raced in Kentucky.

Judy said Churchill Downs has so much history behind it, racing there at all is special.

"When you look up at those towers (on the grandstand), it just gives you chills," she said. "It's just beautiful, and the history there is awesome."

Entering the Kentucky Derby isn't just a matter of signing up your horse, Judy said. The race is for 3-year-olds. Those who think they have the right horse start laying plans when the horse is a 2-year-old.

"You get an exceptional horse, you just know - they are so much above the rest. They do everything so easy and they are so talented. It's just like with people - you know when someone is talented in an area," she said.

The Dorrises own about 25 horses of their own. Tom has between 50 and 60 horses total in training at any one time. Even with their nearly 1,000-acre farm, Judy said they are the little guy when it comes to the Thoroughbred scene.

To get to the Derby, they would be competing head-on with horse owners who spend millions each year, she said. She said money can make the difference, not so much with trainers or jockeys, but with the bloodlines and the individual horses the owners buy.

"But it doesn't always work that way," she said. "Sometimes you can have the best-bred horse in the world, and it still may not run."

If you have one that does, regardless of its breeding, and if you think the Derby is within reach, you can begin the process of getting to the starting gates.

"You work up to the Derby," she said. "You have to pay to get in it. You work your way up with stakes races and then the Derby trials. If your horse can compete at that level, you know you've got a chance."

And chance is what it's all about, she said. Luck - racing luck - is the factor no one can control.

That is what keeps horse racing interesting for the general public, and that's what keeps the "little guys" in the sport, she said.

"You can have the best horse and have bad racing luck," she said. "Everything has to go just right."

For this year's Kentucky Derby, Judy doesn't have a solid favorite yet. She said she tends to root for trainers that she and her husband have more in common with - the ones who don't have millions of dollars. This year, she like Greeley's Galaxy, but her favorite is probably Bandini. She said the horse has a good trainer, for one thing.

But really, she said, she doesn't much like to try to pick the winners.

"As soon as you pick one, some long shot comes up and wins it," she said.

And that, of course, is part of the fun.

andrea.hahn@thesouthern.com

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