Mike Brunker Horse racing editor • Profile • E-mail

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Joe Lerro, wearing a Philadelphia Eagles jersey and a smile as broad as his shoulders, gestures at the scene outside Tim Ritchey’s barn at Churchill Downs — the reporters and TV crews, the woman selling T-shirts draped over a sawhorse and the visitors merrily taking photos of the star getting his morning bath — and asks a question that demands no answer: “How can we not believe in karma?”

If smiles and hugs were the coin by which the Kentucky Derby was awarded, Afleet Alex would have won the race in walkover. The atmosphere outside the colt’s stall in Barn 41 borders on festive, with trainer, owners and T-shirt selling volunteers emitting enough good vibrations for a Beach Boys concert.

Though Afleet Alex has contributed to their sunny dispositions by training well before finishing third in Saturday’s race, that is not the only reason they are so upbeat. They also have been buoyed by the fact that his success has enabled them to hook their good fortune to a good cause that has made Afleet Alex something of a poster horse for the fight against cancer.

It seems no Kentucky Derby is complete these days without at least one horse tale guaranteed to melt the heart of the most-hardened gambler, and Afleet Alex is this year’s runaway winner.

Like Funny Cide and Smarty Jones before him, the colt has everyman owners — five friends and acquaintances from Philadelphia, three of whom ran in the Kentucky Derby with the first horse they have ever owned. The slogan embraced by Lerro, Chuck Zacney, Jennifer Reeves, Bob Brittingham and Joe Judge — “just a bunch of knuckleheads trying to have some fun” – tells you all you need to know about their approach to the game.

Lerro said beforehand that he and Afleet Alex’s other owners planned to abandon the luxury of the owner’s enclosure early in the day to experience the raucous infield party and hand out Afleet Alex T-shirts and buttons.

Like his predecessors, Afleet Alex also arrived at the Derby after a roundabout journey from humble beginnings. He was purchased for the bargain price of $70,000 and began his career at Delaware Park, a mid-level racetrack just a few hours up the road from Smarty Jones’ old stomping grounds of Philadelphia Park.

In addition to sharing Smarty Jones’ Philadelphia connection, Afleet Alex’s has a trainer and jockey are cut from the same cloth as those of last year’s Kentucky and Preakness Stakes winner:

Tim Ritchey, who looks a little like a young Mel Brooks, is an accomplished but little-known trainer who has toiled in relative anonymity in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic. And, though aptly named for the Kentucky Derby, Jeremy Rose is a young journeyman jockey with no Triple Crown races on his resume.

The parallels continue: Like Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex survived an early life-threatening situation that helped cast him as an underdog who had to fight his way to the top.

“His mother had some problems at birth and unfortunately she didn’t have any milk, so he was bottle fed by two little girls at the farm where he was for 24 hours a day for the first 12 days of his life,” Ritchey recalled Thursday. “He learned at an early age that he had to be very trusting of people and that’s something that has carried over. To this day, he just has complete faith and trust in humans.”

But, as if a screenwriter somewhere keeps fine-tuning a script, Afleet Alex’s story has a new dimension as well. Like a modern-day Seabiscuit, he is a horse with a gift for bringing people together and helping them find hope in tragedy.