Antley’s stock is on the upswing

Steve Carp

Thursday, June 3, 1999 | 10:16 a.m.

BELMONT, N.Y. -- It wasn't the best choice of words. But given Chris Antley's enthusiasm and the fact he has turned his life around, perhaps he can be cut a little slack.

"I've been on a high for a while now."

The 33-year-old jockey, who has overcome an addiction to drugs, has a date with history Saturday. If Antley can navigate Charismatic over the 1 1/2-mile oval at Belmont Park unscathed and in front at the conclusion of the 131st running of the Belmont Stakes, he will have piloted thoroughbred racing's first Triple Crown winner in 21 years and complete one of sport's great comeback stories.

The fact that Antley's even riding, much less piloting a Triple Crown contender, is amazing. Battling weight problems that eventually spilled over into drug addiction, Antley never dreamed he'd be in this position.

"No, I wasn't thinking like that," he said Wednesday at Belmont, a Charismatic button pinned to his shirt. "I just wanted to return, period. That was my Triple Crown, just riding again."

It's a different high, of course. And that's why you can forgive Antley for the poor selection of prose to describe his situation.

He was a high school dropout, but he's no dummy. He has a keen sense of timing, whether it is sitting atop a 1,600-pound thoroughbred or sitting at his computer, deciding what stocks to invest in.

He is such a sound analyst when it comes to playing the market, he has his own web site, "The Ant Man Report," and has more than 1,000 followers who check in daily to see what he likes.

But his real passion has always been racing.

He began his career in 1983 in Maryland and quickly became a champion rider on the New Jersey circuit. He led the nation in riding victories in 1985 when he found the winners' circle 469 times, including 39 stakes victories.

Antley eventually worked his way to the big time in New York, where he rode for eight years and gained his first Kentucky Derby win, guiding Strike the Gold to victory in 1991 for New York-based trainer Nick Zito.

He still loves Saratoga, the summertime home of New York racing. He maintains a home in New York. But California is where his heart is these days and it was there where fate intervened and changed his life.

D. Wayne Lukas, the Hall of Fame trainer of Charismatic, was looking for a jockey with big-time experience for his horse, who he believed had big-time potential. When Lukas' son Jeff suggested he use Antley, the trainer agreed.

"I thought he was a good fit," Lukas said of Antley and Charismatic. "I thought Chris had a lot of things going for him. He's a world-class rider. He was by my barn every morning and he was hungry. He was an underdog. He had been there and done that. He'd won a Kentucky Derby. And he's a super finisher, something I thought this horse needed.

"I told Chris that if he was just looking for a Derby mount, then forget it. But if he was committed to the horse and really wanted to ride him, he was the guy I wanted."

Lukas told Antley to watch Charismatic in the Lexington States at Keeneland and if he liked what he saw, to let him know.

Charismatic won by 2 1/2 lengths. Antley was sold. In the meantime, Lukas had to sell his owners, Bob and Beverly Lewis, that Antley, despite his checkered past, was the right jockey for their horse.

The Lewises gave Lukas the green light. Now, they're all a race away from immortality.

Antley, a regular in the jockey colony at Hollywood Park, recalled the long road back to the saddle. He had not ridden in 18 months. His weight had ballooned to 147 pounds, some 30 over his regular riding weight. He was pounding pizza and beer and in his own words, "I was a fat sucker."

But he couldn't get racing out of his system. So he went to his parents' home in South Carolina and began the comeback. He would run as many as 25 miles a day. People started calling him "Forrest Gump," after the character in the movie.

The weight came off. His head was clear. His body was drug-free. And when he returned to Southern California to resume his career in February, it was like he never left.

"When I walked into the jockey's room, I got the same chills as the first time," he said. "Maybe like Charismatic, I had a lot of growing up to do. Maybe I had a lot of figuring out to do.

"I thought about it a lot. I just tried to put one foot in front of the other."

He still needed that one big break. Lukas and the Lewises gave it to him and he is forever grateful.

"Charismatic is a gift from God," he said. "There's nothing I'd like to do more than give back to this game."

Winning the Derby and the Preakness has allowed Antley to repay those who believed in him. Saturday, he has a chance to do something for himself.

"I hope I can get this done," he said, smiling, a cup of coffee in his hand. "Nobody wants it more than I do."