Chief’s Crown Runs Away With Blue Grass Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. —  Chief’s Crown ran one of the strongest races in the 61-year history of the Blue Grass Stakes Thursday, overpowering the remainder of the field at Keeneland to win by 5 1/2 lengths.

The victory was his sixth straight and improved his record to nine wins and two seconds in 12 starts. Chief’s Crown covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 3/5 in a superlative effort. The time missed the track record, set by Round Table in the 1957 Blue Grass, by only a fifth of a second and tied Ridan’s 1962 clocking as the second-fastest in stake history.

Chief’s Crown ran the last eighth of a mile in 11 4/5 seconds, a menacing finishing kick that should be useful when he goes to the post as the favorite a week from Saturday in the 1-mile Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

“This was the best possible way to go into the Derby,” trainer Roger Laurin said. “He finished well. To me, it’s not how fast he ran but that he put in a good, solid race.”

There were only four starters in the $195,900 race, testimony enough to Chief’s Crown’s formidable presence. The winner, who was syndicated for breeding for $20 million before his Breeders’ Cup win at Hollywood Park last November, is owned by the Star Crown Stable and the Three Chimneys Farm. Chief’s Crown’s $143,940 payday Thursday swelled his earnings to more than $1.2 million.

Chief’s Crown, winner of the Swale Stakes and the Flamingo in Florida in his only other starts as a 3-year-old, paid $2.60 in front of a crowd of 18,364 that was limited to win wagering on the Blue Grass.

Floating Reserve, trained by California’s Joe Manzi, got second by a head over Banner Bob, who was 11 lengths ahead of Under Orders, a 3-year-old colt owned and trained by Louie Roussel III, a New Orleans lawyer and banker.

J.J. (Bud) Sarner, the crusty 66-year-old trainer of Banner Bob, who had won the Jim Beam Stakes at Latonia in his last start, had deftly avoided Chief’s Crown in Florida this year but said there will be no place to hide in Louisville.

“I don’t care who Chief’s Crown is going to go against, he’s going to whip them,” Sarner said. “He just played with these horses. Nobody can beat him in the Derby. If he’s on the pace and they try to hook him, he’ll take off like a fresh horse. I can’t beat him.”

Although Banner Bob had been a speed horse in most of his races, Laurin correctly guessed that the colt’s jockey, Keith Allen, wouldn’t push for the lead Thursday, much as he had done in the Jim Beam.

So Don MacBeth hustled Chief’s Crown to the front. The bay son of Danzig made the lead with fractions of :24 2/5 and :48 2/5, always comfortably ahead of Banner Bob, who settled into second place.

MacBeth didn’t use his whip. “I flipped it a little bit but never hit him,” the jockey said. “He was really running easily. I don’t know if he can run another eighth of a mile, but I’ll tell you this--I like his Derby chances. As a prep race for the Derby, it was nearly perfect. I wouldn’t change anything.”

Chief’s Crown was timed in 1:12 for six furlongs and 1:35 4/5 after a mile.

“He relaxed nicely,” Laurin said. “When Don asked him to pick it up, he picked it up. He had a cough that cost him a couple of weeks of training in Florida early in the year, but I think he probably still wouldn’t have run any more races than he’s run this year. There are different programs for different horses, and I think this is a program that suits him perfectly.”

Manzi will ship Floating Reserve, the fourth-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby, to Louisville today, accompanied by his filly Fran’s Valentine, who’s scheduled to run in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs a week from today.

“I don’t know about the Derby,” Manzi said. “I’ll have to see how the horse comes out of this race and then evaluate the situation. This race puts Chief’s Crown in the garden spot. After him, I think the other horses with the best chance are Stephan’s Odyssey and Skywalker.”

Horse Racing Notes Clever Allemont, whose undefeated record was shattered with a sixth-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, has been taken out of the Kentucky Derby because of a quarter-crack injury. His absence leaves Pat Day, the nation’s leading race-winning rider the last three years, without a Derby mount. “If this injury had happened a week ago,” said Jim (Coach) Read, Day’s agent, “I think we could have gotten back on Skywalker.” Day was replaced on Skywalker by Laffit Pincay for the colt’s Santa Anita Derby win, and Eddie Delahoussaye will ride him in the Derby, with Pincay taking Stephan’s Odyssey. “We’re still looking around for a Derby mount,” Read said. . . . Trainer Joe Manzi said that Pat Valenzuela would ride Fran’s Valentine in the Kentucky Oaks a week from today. A shoulder injury prevented Valenzuela from riding the 3-year-old filly when she finished fifth with Don Brumfield up in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland last Saturday. . . . Sandy Hawley will ride Floating Reserve again if he starts in the Derby. “We saved ground all the way and tried hard, but the winner was too much,” Hawley said of the Blue Grass.