A Racehorse That Was as Fresh as Gambino’s!

Springtime is the Louisiana Derby, one of the country’s most popular horse races, and a key competition on the road to the iconic Kentucky Derby. In 1994, a champion racehorse from Lake Charles and a local rock legend resulted in an unexpected nod to Gambino’s Bakery!

When we began looking through old Louisiana newspaper archives this year for Gambino’s references in honor of our 75th anniversary, we expected to uncover things like old (and hilarious) job advertisements, and news about the expansion of our many bakeries around the state.

One thing we didn’t expect was how Gambino’s has shown up in a variety of stories having little to do with baked goods, such as the “birdnapping” and subsequent return of a beloved parrot.

Our bakery, it turns out, is also involved in a lot of sporting news!

In future posts, we’ll show the delicious connection between Gambino’s Bakery and the Italian Open golf tournament, and we’ll dabble in how our bakery was frequently mentioned alongside Tulane University’s football program. 

But, since it’s Springtime, we wanted to focus on one of our region’s most prominent sporting events. This time of year in New Orleans, after all, means the Louisiana Derby at New Orleans’ Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. In addition to being our city’s most important horse race, it’s also a predictor of success at the upcoming Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs; the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course; and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.

Recently, for example, a horse named Epicenter won the 2022 Louisiana Derby and then placed an impressive second in both Kentucky and at the Preakness before being named the year’s 3-year-old champion. One year earlier, 2021’s Louisiana winner, Hot Rod Charlie, was a top-three finisher in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes and later won the Pennsylvania Derby.

The Louisiana Derby’s importance stretches back decades, however, with several Louisiana Derby winners taking top honors at a Triple Crown race.

Our story takes place 20 years ago, in 1994, when a horse from Lake Charles named Kandaly won that year’s Louisiana Derby. Owned in part by Louisiana Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ronnie Lamarque, Kandaly had a lot of momentum going into the Kentucky Derby.

So much momentum that Lamarque wrote a song about his beloved horse, titled “Go Kandaly Go!”

But when the Kentucky race rolled around, rain was coming down on the track. The conditions were so bad, Lamarque and his co-owners decided to remove Kandaly from the competition.

According to a May 20, 1994 Times-Picayune article, some critics of the owners’ decision to withdraw the horse from the race — known as a “scratch” — were so annoyed that they renamed Lamarque’s song, “Scratch Kandaly Scratch” or the less catchy, “Go Kandaly Go, Unless the Track is Sloppy.”

Kandaly’s handlers, however, were confident in their choice. They said they wanted their horse to race in the conditions for which he was best suited. In an interview with the Times-Picayune, Lamarque said seeing Kandaly at that weekend’s Preakness Stakes would be worth the wait.

“Kandaly’s going to run the race of his life,” he told the reporter. “He’s doing fantastic, and he’s fresh. He’s as fresh as Gambino’s Bakery!”

Thank you very much, Mr. Lamarque. That is very fresh, indeed!

And, as fresh as Kandaly might have been, the horse didn’t have the pace to pull out a win that weekend. He finished fourth in the Preakness.

Longevity was on his side, however. Kandaly lived until 2014, a foal from the last crop of Alydar, who was often called the best horse in the history of Thoroughbred racing never to have won a championship.

Until his dying days, Kandaly’s caretakers said he’d try to nip at them if he felt he wasn’t getting the amount of attention worthy of champion. This proved Kandaly was “fresh” in more ways than one!

The Louisiana Derby has been operating under a variety of names since 1894. It is one of 37 races classified as part of the “Road to the Kentucky Derby.”