Vic Zast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It’s just like a guy who got a Kentucky Derby runner with the first horse he ever bred to think positively. 

Thirty-four-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Kent Hersman, in Louisville on leave from active duty in the U.S. Army in South Korea, sees the rain and the mud of Churchill Downs a lucky omen.

“They didn’t name him Storm in May for nothing,” Hersman said, noting that the 20-1 morning line long shot is bred to run on any kind of track.  “He’s proved that the track won’t make a difference. He’s run on the mud, in the slop, on the turf — in all kinds of conditions.”

Storm in May has hit the board in 12 of his 13 lifetime starts.  His most impressive race to date was a six-furlong dash called the Sunshine Millions, a $250,000 purse restricted for horses bred in Florida and California that he won at odds of 25-1. Nevertheless, few experts believe he can compete with the caliber of competition in the Kentucky Derby regardless of liquid courage.

When Storm in May was 2, Hersman sold the colt for $16,000 to Bill Kaplan, who now trains the horse.

“As soon as we found out Storm in May was going to be in the Derby, my commander approved my leave,” said Hersman. “Maybe I’ll get a reason to extend my stay,” he said optimistically, believing that Storm in May will be running in the Preakness. “I feel certain that he’s going to surprise people. The oddsmakers set the line, but we know the horse.”

Hersman flew his wife Tracey and two children — daughter Autumn, 5, and son Kelton, 18 months — from his base in South Korea to his home base in Enterprise, Alabama a week ago, then drove the family to Louisville on Wednesday.  He believes it won’t be a problem to convince his commanding officers to make further exceptions on his behalf, but treads carefully when it comes to revealing a lot about his army service.

“There will be a lot of guys getting up early on Sunday morning to watch the Derby on television,” Hersman said.  South Korea is 15 hours ahead on the clock of Louisville, so the first Saturday in May is the first Sunday in May where Herman’s come from. “The entire base has been aware of the media coverage,” he noted.  “I’m sure there’ll be a party when we get back.”

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A committed military man, Hersman and his family have been living in South Korea for two years.  But being all those time zones away from the breeding industry doesn’t seem to interrupt Hersman’s ambition or enterprise. “I research my bloodlines and study the broodmares from there, and I maintain my relationship with people I trust,” he explained.

Hersman, operating as a breeder under the Flying H Enterprises name, boards Storm in May’s dam, the unraced Laun Shaw, at the Broodmare Resort in Ocala, Florida. He foresees a day when he can have his own farm in Ocala, but for now he’s happy entrusting the care of his mare to Jodi Anderson.

Hersman got his first horse when he was three.  He bred and sold quarter horses in West Virginia before joining the military.  When stationed in Louisiana at Fort Polk, Hersman met a retired sergeant major who got him going in the thoroughbred game.

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Hersman purchased Laun Shaw, in foal to a Storm Cat son named Tiger Ridge, because he liked her sire Relaunch.  The prescient purchase cost merely $7500, leading one to believe that Hersman’s interest in Laun Shaw might have had something also to do with an enlisted man’s salary.

As often happens when you’ve sunk your life’s savings into a flyer, disaster struck. A week after the mare foaled, Hersman found out that her baby colt was blind in one eye.

Undaunted, he used “imprint training” techniques to ease Storm in May through his handicap.  Imprinting involves handling of the foal from birth to establish behavior patterns.  It’s a method that might have made the difference between watching this Derby from a barracks in South Korea and sharing a spot on the winner’s podium at Churchill Downs in Kentucky.

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