Kentucky Derby 2017: Gunnevera trainer Antonio Sano was kidnapped twice

The lengths the horses travel to reach the Kentucky Derby would astound you. But the path of trainer Antonio Sano can only be described as harrowing.

He has already been kidnapped twice, once for 36 days, and while the fancy drinks are served and fancy hats thoughtfully adorned, Sano holds a story of something much worse in his mind that we’ll probably only know a fraction of.

Gunnevera’s trainer comes from Venezuela, a country whose people suffer from food shortages, organized crime, and the autocratic socialist government more intent on keeping itself alive than its citizens. The first time he was kidnapped was, though undoubtedly frightening, thankfully brief. He was forced only to empty out his bank accounts.

The second time, nine years ago, lasted for more than a month when the “horseracing mafia” asked for a figure of about $70,000, his colleagues say.

The Los Angeles Times, among many other outlets, profiled the 54-year-old Sano and has greater detail, but few details are known because Sano understandably does not wish to relive it publicly:

But on July 23, 2009, seven armed men emerged from an SUV in front of his house at 5:30 a.m. They dragged him into the vehicle and sped away.

He was held for 36 days, most of them spent in a room with no window, no toilet and no running water. He was shackled to the wall.

Sano’s wife, Maria Christina, got as much money as she could, sold assets and called upon the kindness of relatives, horse owners, trainers, jockeys and even grooms.

He lost 40 pounds while in captivity and was hospitalized for 10 days upon his release.

Sano and his wife, a professor of engineering, first moved to Italy, then moved to South Florida. Along with leaving the lives they knew behind, Sano left 165 horses.

“When I arrive in United States and start training, no horses – zero,” Sano told the Daily Racing Form.

By 2010, he had 37 wins in his new home in South Florida. In 2011 that doubled to 75. For his career, America’s Best Racing notes he has 502 wins in 3,933 starts, with $12,670,370 in winnings. In 2017, he has 22 wins, 30 second-place finishes and 34 thirds, good for $1,137,329 in winnings.

Gunnevera, who he acquired for the small sum of $16,000, makes up a sizable portion of that. He has earned just shy of $400,000 this year, with a victory while finishing in the money in all three starts. He has four wins in nine starts for his career.

“I liked his stride,” Sano told Jerry Izenberg of the Star-Ledger. “It seemed to tell me that he could go longer distances.”

The colt will start from the 10th spot — a nice middle gate — and was given 15-1 odds, which places him squarely in the second tier of horses who could win but are not expected to.

Should Gunnevera win, it would not erase the ordeal that Sano has gone through in his lifetime — nothing can do that. But it might mean a little more to have come from such great depths and to finally reach the ultimate peak in his sport.