Barbaro's trainer plans special reunion before race

Mike Martz will meet three grown-up children he helped rescue from a plane crash 17 years ago.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Trainer Michael Matz will have a few special guests at the Kentucky Derby -- three of the now-grown children he helped rescue from the burning wreckage of a plane crash in an Iowa cornfield 17 years ago.
Brothers Jody and Travis Roth and sister Melissa Radcliffe planned to arrive before Saturday's race for a brief reunion with Matz and his wife, D.D. Alexander, who also survived the crash of United Airlines Flight 232 on July 18, 1989. More than 100 people died.
The Roth siblings and Matz last met 10 years ago.
Travis Roth, now 26, and Radcliffe, now 29 and the mother of two, have been planning their trip for more than a week. Jody Roth, now 31, is able to make the trip after his wife gave birth to a boy Wednesday.
Special seats for race
Along with friends and relatives, the three will sit in a suite compliments of Churchill Downs and NBC Sports, which is televising the Derby.
"I think Michael is one of those rare people who does amazing things and doesn't showboat or take a lot of credit," Melissa Radcliffe said Thursday. "In the plane crash we knew him, but we had no idea he was an Olympic equestrian rider. He said he was just a guy who likes horses."'
Travis Roth lives in Laramie, Wyo., and just completed work on his master's degree; Melissa Radcliffe lives in Denver with her husband, Hamilton; and Jody Roth lives in Fort Collins, Colo. The Roth siblings were traveling without their parents on the ill-fated flight.
The family will fly into Indianapolis and drive to Louisville on Saturday morning.
"We'll try to meet up sometime, I'd like to see them," said Matz, the trainer of Barbaro. "And I'm sure sometime, whether it's after the race or the next day or before the race, I'm sure something will work out. ... I'm not going to break down in tears, but I'll be happy to see them. I'm glad everything worked out for them in their life. And that's all we can ask for."
Stayed with kids at crash
Radcliffe said after they were rescued, Matz and Alexander, his fiancee at the time, stayed with the children until they were safe.
"They took over the role as our parents and made sure we were taken care of," she said. "We were just strangers on an airplane and here he is in the Derby and doing amazing things."
Beside the connection to Matz, Radcliffe also has a link to Barbaro through her husband.
Hamilton Radcliffe is the nephew of John Hamilton, who sells stallion shares at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway. Barbaro, as fate would have it, is a son of Dynaformer, a stallion who stands at Three Chimneys.
"None of the kids have ever been to a horse race, but Melissa is shopping for a hat," John Hamilton said from Lexington. "And now a horse with a great shot to win the Derby is somehow connected to my family. It's just so amazing."
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