Trainers Dutrow, Lake have enduring friendship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Scott Lake remembers sitting in Tony Dutrow's living room a few years ago, watching a $50,000 claiming race from Delaware Park. Lake's horse won and Dutrow's horse was second. Within seconds, each trainer's phone rang. Dutrow's assistant called to tell him their horse had been claimed. Lake's assistant called to tell him they had a new horse in the barn.

"Tony said, 'I lost that horse,' " Lake remembered.

"Yeah, I know," Lake told him. "I got him."

That was just business. Their friendship began a decade ago when Lake claimed another horse from Dutrow in Maryland. Dutrow, one of the circuit's top trainers, could not figure why Lake would claim a horse off him. Lake told him it wasn't an insult, not to take it personally. He didn't. They didn't.

They could not have two more opposite personalities.

They call themselves "Shake and Bake" from "Talladega Nights."

Lake is an open book, willing to share everything, quick with a story. Dutrow is always cooperative and insightful, but quite reserved.

"Lake is a good friend to me," Dutrow said. "I don't know his relationship with others, but he is a very good friend to me."

They are really perfect for each other.

"I get stuff out of him all the time and that's why his wife loves me," Lake said. "I made him go on vacation with us. We've gone to the Bahamas together, got him to float around on rafts, make him do it all."

Lake, who lives in Bensalem, has won more races than any trainer in the history of Parx Racing. Dutrow, who lives in Newtown, arrived from Maryland in 2004 and has been a force locally and nationally from that moment to this, winning the Cotillion Stakes at Parx in 2008 and 2010.

Dutrow's wife, Kim, and Lake's wife, Jennifer, are very good friends. The families hang out together all the time.

This week, Tony and Kim are here at Churchill Downs with three horses in three different Friday Breeders' Cup races. Scott and Jennifer are here with one horse for a Saturday BC race.

"[Lake] is such a loyal, down-to-earth person," Dutrow said. "He's a fantastic father. He's a fantastic friend. And he helps so many people around him."

Dutrow will start Rightly So in the Filly & Mare Sprint, Joyful Victory in the Juvenile Fillies and Cotillion winner Havre de Grace in the Ladies Classic, the Friday finale under the lights.

"They are three live horses," Dutrow said. "There is no gray area. However, I have the most confidence in Havre de Grace."

Lake is closing fast on 5,000 wins, but his professional and personal life fell apart a few years back when he discovered his accountant, a lifelong friend from Harrisburg, had not filed tax returns for 5 years and money he thought was in accounts had, instead, been gambled away. Lake is matter-of-fact in explaining what happened.

"The accountant stole it and gambled it all away," Lake said. "The worst gambler in the world. I would almost have respect for him if he stole, he put it away and he's living on an island somewhere for the rest of his life."

How much money was lost?

Lake isn't sure because trying to track it is so difficult. The best estimate is $1.2 million "that we know of." Lake had to declare bankruptcy. He's emerging from it, but the hurt is still there.

When Lake heard from a friend recently that the accountant tried to commit suicide, he asked: "Who stopped him?"

Has it been hard to watch his friend go through it?

"It's not hard for me to watch because Scott is very capable of enduring that," Dutrow said. "Scott's not the kind of guy who is going to let that type of thing bother him. He's going to overcome it . . . It's not going to be much of an effect on him. Where, for myself, I would be devastated. I would not be able to handle adversity nearly as well as him."

At its peak, the Lake stable had 283 horses in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. He has cut back to two circuits - Parx and Delaware Park. He is down to 70 horses.

The best of them is Pashito the Che, a winner of more than $500,000 and a contender in the Sprint. The colt has been worse than second only once in his last 15 starts. And he was third that day, beaten by a half-length.

"A couple of the top contenders had dropped out and the owners said we know this horse has as much talent as any around," Lake said.

Lake nearly won the Sprint 8 years ago at Arlington Park with Thunderello. Sent off at 48-1, Thunderello led until the final yards before finishing second.

Memories?

"Painful ones," Lake said. "Every now and then, I will pull the race up and watch it."

Lake has won the majority of his races with claiming sprinters.

"Everybody wants to win the Derby," Lake said. "I've always wanted to win the Breeders' Cup Sprint and realistically think I can get it done sooner or later."

Now that he is down to 70 horses, Lake's life is much less hectic. He no longer lives on I-95. He spends more time with his children.

"But it is an adjustment as your ego goes, too," Lake said. "You're used to your phone ringing every moment."

Dutrow and Lake adjusted one other aspect of their business lives. They made a pact. They no longer claim off each other.

"It just made us uncomfortable," Lake said.

But it is still a business. Lake will be there tomorrow rooting hard for Dutrow. On Saturday, Dutrow will be back home, tending to the rest of his stable

"I have a lot going on," Dutrow said. "I would like to stay, enjoy the races and socialize and promote myself, but I have a responsibility to my clients to get back."

Dutrow, however, will find a television. And he will be rooting for Lake, the man who claimed that horse from him 10 years ago and started a friendship that will endure quite a bit longer than a decade.