He Never Wavered on Hendricks

A daily look at Brother Derek, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby and the morning-line favorite in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Today, owner Cecil Peacock, a Canadian oilman, talks to Times staff writer Robyn Norwood about sticking with trainer Dan Hendricks after Hendricks was paralyzed from the waist down in a 2004 motocross accident.

I’m not a trainer-changer. A trainer mostly needs his head for training. I spent 10 years training Dan Hendricks up to this situation. I wasn’t going to lose all that.

He’s a great lad. We have a lot of good times together. Since he’s been in a wheelchair, it’s been harder for me to keep out of his way than it was before.

He told me one day, he said, ‘If you don’t get out of the way, I’ll run you right over.’ So away we go.

I expected him to come back. He could still talk, still walk the walk, only it’s in a chair now. He’s done great.

He’s just so aggressive and positive. I just knew he’d be saying, ‘Well, let’s go.’ There was never a doubt in my mind he’d come back, because we have seen other people do the same thing. Not necessarily in horse training, but in other walks of life.

I don’t think there’s any lack of capacity to be a trainer, that’s for sure. I would say it’s as least as good as it was before, and it’s always been very well done.

At the moment we have five horses with him. He was recommended to me by someone in California because he trained under Richard Mandella. They also said he was a nice guy.

No, I don’t think he’ll ever change. I sort of gave up on any thoughts he’d ever change. I’ll have to put up with him the way he is.