The 2005 Kentucky Derby was run today, Tom Durkin with the call as they turn for home.

They're at the John Deere quarter pole and Jerry Bailey wearing the Wrangler pants shifts into gear blowing past Mike Smith and his Trim Spa turtleneck and bearing down now on Jose Santos and his Long John Silver's gear as they approach the Net Jets eighth pole.

Pat Day now gets in the mix with those Valvoline striped britches swinging wide for a final charge with the Powered by Dodge sixteenth pole ahead. In the final jumps it's Bailey and Wrangler, Day and Valvoline, a last surge by Smith and Trim Spa as they come to the Rolex finish line, it's Bailey winning the first leg of the Visa Triple Crown, the 2005 "Got Milk?" Kentucky Derby!

There are a few who feel it might soon be that extreme after the jockeys' victory to wear advertising in this year's Kentucky Derby, that a giant can of corporate worms has been opened and it will be hard to differentiate between Corey Nakatani and Jeff Gordon someday soon with all the advertising patches on their uniforms.

I say welcome to the 21st Century for those racing diehards who still wish Seabiscuit would return and bring with him the era that saw its best days decades ago, never to return, a time when racing trailed only baseball as America's sport. Before anyone, except in Flash Gordon movies could even dream of an interconnected country by flipping a switch or punching a keyboard.

I am close to a 100 percent certain that Mr. Doubleday never intended for there to be consideration for a blockbuster movie sequel logo to adorn a base when he was filling sack with sawdust and introducing the country to the game it would embrace. Of course he also probably never envisioned his game being played in front of stadium walls splashed with after shave and beer ads so common from the 1940's until those cookie cutter steel and concrete monstrosities came to be in the 1970's.

With even greater certainty when the crème de la crème gathered in 1762 at the Jockey Club in England to forever change the way the public viewed racing by choosing colors for jockeys to wear to designate the owner of the stead, an endorsement tie-in never crossed their minds.

Everybody's doing it, promoting themselves and their sport through advertising. Amateur athletics as well with high school and college arenas and fields named for a company who put up the cash to make the dream of a new facility come to fruition. Is there a college bowl game whose name isn't proceeded by a corn chip or car manufacturer or insurance company? Only a handful of pro teams from football to basketball play at a venue not carrying a corporate name on the marquee.

Does this make it right? What it simply makes it is that it exists and a generation now has grown up accepting this. From that beacon of pure athletics (at least they still hold to it) the Olympics right onto the nightly TV screen with the scores crawl at the bottom, business is booming in the business of sports.

It would be hypocritical for racing to tell jockeys they can't make an extra buck, or in Bailey's testimony before a federal judge, a quarter of a million dollars annually, by wearing a sponsor's name down the side of their pants. How can the most famous series of races that was saved by connecting with a major credit card company or the Breeders' Cup that might soon have a sponsor for every race, frown on the athletes in their quest for a slice of good old American capitalism pie?

A jockey is about the only pro athlete who isn't getting endorsement deals to peddle deodorant or house paint on national television. Skateboard guru Tony Hawk gets more deals than any of the top jockeys combined. It's the pecking order that goes back to 18th Century England, the jockeys are still considered at least fourth on the list behind the horse, owner and trainer. And the powers that be in the sport aren't doing anything to market the riders as talented, specialized athletes who should be recognized more.

Not that it is time to give the riders carte blanche. In the chicken or the egg thinking from some owners, there wouldn't be jockeys without their horses. Then again, how many owners tell trainers to get Gary Stevens or John Velazquez or Alex Solis to enhance their horse's chance of winning? They need each other and there has to be that compromise. Jockeys shouldn't be the only athletes without a product backing, but they also must be selective in using their new freedom because of their dependency on the owner. Athletes in team sports have done this as well for the sake of their owner and their own image. And there was no controversy in the Derby about the ads the jockeys wore.

Eventually the rich will get richer in the jockey colony just like all the other athletes. The top riders will get the prime sponsors and in the rare Stewart Elliott moment, an unknown who becomes known will get a quick deal. There will be jealousy in the ranks just like all other athletes in all other sports, especially for those still picking up $50 a mount with no hopes of anything other than JMG on their leg. Their union, Jockeys Management Guild will have to work on that but the price tag cuts both ways in all business ventures.

If nothing else the jockeys stand at Churchill Downs, while not of Curt Flood taking baseball to the Supreme Court magnitude, did make the sport step out of the shadows of a bygone time and face the corporate glare that can shine on everyone successfully.

And for that rider in the winner's circle, I doubt if the smiling owner next to him will soon be worried about what is written on the side of his pants.