Your take on.....

[my miss storm cat]

Peb.

Love him or hate, well not him but his stuff?

Just wondering.

WINNING COLORS
Peb's next mural will depict all 106 Derby-winning trainers


After sketching caricatures of horse racing luminaries for more than 50 years, Pierre Bellocq -- the artist known as Peb -- observes that "silks, I can paint blindfolded."

So that's one difference between his 2005 Churchill Downs mural of all the jockeys who had won the Kentucky Derby and his current venture: depicting the 106 men who have trained the 133 Derby champions.

Peb, 77, said he particularly enjoyed painting the early trainers, noting, "People were dressed up so nicely, with hats and very elegant ties."

The mural -- about 7 feet high and 30 feet wide -- will be mounted on the wall across from Churchill Downs' second-floor food court before the spring meet begins April 26.

The French-born Peb was both a racing and political cartoonist when Walter Annenberg owned the Daily Racing Form and Philadelphia Inquirer. When the Inquirer was sold in the early 1970s and the new owners wanted him to stick with politics, he instead stuck with his roots as at least the fourth generation to be involved in racing.

Peb, who had to expand his studio in Princeton, N.J., to paint the Churchill murals, said he spent about two months researching the trainers' edition.

For the early Derby years, he sought photos or drawings from his own extensive book collection but found himself seven short, filling in the gaps through racing museums, the Keeneland Library and private collections.

"He actually was able to find some just here in our hallway where we have all the winner's-circle pictures of previous Derbys," Churchill general manager Jim Gates said. "He said he was really excited about it, because whereas a lot of the jockeys looked a lot alike and were all on the back of a horse and dressed in silks, he said the personalities, especially of the old-time trainers, really lend themselves to what he's doing."

"The last one, guess where I found it?" Peb said, referring to William Bird, trainer of 1884 winner Buchanan. "The Monmouth Park library. … The old pictures, I had to use a little bit of my artistic interpretation. I see it as a chance to revive them in my own way."

The mural's center will feature the legendary father-son team of Ben and Jimmy Jones, who teamed for eight Derby scores, looking at a Courier-Journal newspaper from the day after Citation's 1948 victory.

Among contemporary trainers, Wayne Lukas will be depicted in sunglasses and cowboy hat near a saddle towel with the number 4, designating his quartet of victories; John Shirreffs (Giacomo) sporting his ever-present Mill Ridge Farm ballcap; and Bob Baffert raising three fingers to denote his victories.

Roses, of course, are prominent throughout.

Joked Peb: "I'm sick and tired of painting red roses."

For more information, visit www.pebsite.com.

-- Jennie Rees

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/.../1037/SPORTS08