LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A little after 6 p.m. on Saturday, Resilience will be pulled from his stall in Barn 19 and readied for the walk from the backside to the paddock at Churchill Downs. He'll be accompanied by his trainer, Bill Mott, who will make the walk for the 11th time with his 13th entrant in the Kentucky Derby.

Also in tow will be owners Emily Bushnell and Ric Waldman, each making the storied stroll for the first time. But missing will be the person who made Resilience possible, who made Wall Street dreams for many probable and who, at one time, was the king of California thoroughbred breeders.

Martin Wygod died in La Jolla, Calif., on April 12 after struggling with lung disease. Emily is his daughter and Ric is his longtime bloodstock agent. Resilience was not an inheritance gift by Wygod, the horse was free.

Bushnell said this was the only horse her father ever gave her.

"He sold me a few horses, but he had never given me one," Bushnell said. "He hadn't broken his maiden yet. We all liked him, but we had no idea what the road was we had in front of us. We had no idea this was going to happen."

Wygod made all his money in home medical services and pharmaceuticals. In 1993, he sold his mail-order prescription company for $6.5 billion. He was later chairman of WebMD, which he also sold.

The thread that runs through his life is his love of horse racing. For about 25 years he was on the board of Del Mar, a position he held until his death.

"Marty certainly knew his way around a business, he was a very, very successful guy," said Joe Harper, Del Mar's longtime president and chief executive. "He was just one of those guys who came up with the right answers.

"He made some of my employees a little nervous in the boardroom. It was a good thing. He wanted to know why and it was a little more enlightening when he would explain why it should go this way. You had to listen to a guy like Marty because was basically always right, at least in the business sense."

Wygod loved business, his family, horses but he had a real passion for practical jokes.

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