Trainers Pose Leading Question in Santa Anita Derby

Who’ll make the lead is almost as good a question as who’ll win today in the 63rd Santa Anita Derby. Few horses have won this race on the front end, and all of the jockeys and trainers involved today would rather have a target than be one.

“Maybe we’ll inherit the lead,” said trainer Wayne Lukas, who’s running the filly Surfside against five colts. “If that’s the case, we’ll be in good shape, because we’ve got the best guy [Pat Day] in the world to milk a horse.”

Surfside, 6-1 on a morning line that makes undefeated War Chant the 9-5 favorite in the $1-million race, has been ridden by Day in all nine of her races, seven of them wins. But she hasn’t blown the doors off the opposition this winter at Santa Anita and this will be her first try against males.

Only three fillies have won the Santa Anita Derby, most recently the Lukas-trained Winning Colors, who also won the Kentucky Derby in 1988.

Lukas said that he no longer gets close to his horses, because of the “emotional roller-coaster ride,” but added that Day got attached to Surfside before the daughter of Seattle Slew and Flanders had ever run a race.

“I remember him coming by the barn the first day we had her,” Lukas said. “He said, ‘Where’s that Flanders baby?’ and he went down to her stall and spent some time with her. Last year at Saratoga, he was the guy who was bringing her carrots.”

The other candidates to set the pace in the 1 1/8-mile race are War Chant, who has won three in a row, including a front-running victory in the San Rafael Stakes in his last start, and Cocky, who was the gate-to-wire leader when he broke his maiden on Feb. 11. Cocky finished third, three-quarters of a length behind War Chant, in the San Rafael.

Just off the pace is usually the way the Santa Anita Derby is won. Winning Colors led all the way for her win, and used the same style in the Kentucky Derby a month later. Since Winning Colors, the only front-running winner has been Personal Hope in 1993, and even he was passed briefly by the filly Eliza before regaining the lead.

“I don’t think War Chant will be on the lead,” Lukas said. “That’s not [trainer Neil Drysdale’s] style.”

Drysdale would prefer that jockey Jerry Bailey sit off the pace with War Chant. In his last race, the free-running War Chant reached the stretch and flinched when he spotted a small promotional sign attached to the inner rail. In his previous start, he also led all the way.

“He doesn’t have to be on the lead,” Drysdale said. “I thought he made the lead prematurely last time, and that’s not his style. I think he’ll do better if he’s aimed at [another horse].”

An undefeated horse going into the Santa Anita Derby is not much of a rarity. There were five in the 1990s, and Mister Frisky, in 1990, and Indian Charlie, in 1998, survived the California race before their streaks were ended in the Kentucky Derby. Today’s race is the last local prep for this year’s Kentucky Derby, to be run at Churchill Downs on May 6.

Lukas has won each Derby four times, but he hasn’t won the Santa Anita version since Winning Colors, having started 12 horses while searching for No. 5. The most recent of those, of course, was Charismatic, who was fourth, beaten by 8 1/4 lengths, at Santa Anita before his upset win at Churchill Downs.

The jockey might be the same, but there will be other changes today for Surfside: She will be running on Lasix again, after having been off it in the Santa Anita Oaks, and will be wearing blinkers as Lukas tries to sharpen her up.

The Lasix decision was not related to any recent bleeding. In fact, Lukas, feeling that the diuretic has a downside, would like to avoid it, but he’s acquiescing to a suggestion from Bob Copelan, a Kentucky veterinarian who does work for William T. Young, Surfside’s owner, at Overbrook Farm.

One behind Lukas in Santa Anita Derby wins is trainer Bob Baffert with three wins in the last four years. Baffert’s hope today is Captain Steve, 8-1 on the morning line.

“He won’t go off any 8-1,” Baffert said. “For one thing Mike Pegram [the colt’s owner] won’t let him go off 8-1.”

Pegram, who bought Captain Steve for $70,000 at a yearling auction, may have a betting war chest, because he has already won $840,256 with the colt. Although Baffert won with Indian Charlie in 1998, the Pegram colt he saddled, Real Quiet, settled for second place. That has been part of the Santa Anita Derby pattern three years running--get beat here and win the big race in Kentucky.

After running 11th as Anees won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November, Captain Steve finished the year with victories at Churchill Downs and in the Hollywood Futurity, but in two starts this year has been third in the Santa Catalina--won by The Deputy--and third in the Louisiana Derby at the New Orleans Fair Grounds.

“If I can get him back to running the way he did in the Hollywood Futurity, we’ll be all right,” Baffert said. “We lost some time with all the rain at Santa Anita, and that’s why I shipped him out of town. The Fair Grounds was a demanding, deeper track than he usually runs on, and I think he got a lot out of that race.

“Then he’s been fast and sharp in workouts here. He seems to be catching up, and I hope we’ve turned him around.”

Horse Racing Notes

Wayne Lukas is running horses in two other Grade I races today, Cat Thief in the $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap and Cash Run in the $500,000 Ashland at Keeneland. . . . Budroyale, who outfinished the sixth-place Cat Thief while running second to General Challenge in the Santa Anita Handicap, is the 122-pound high weight at Oaklawn Park. Others in the six-horse field are Allen’s Ooop, K One King, Pleasant Breeze and Almutawakel. . . . General Challenge will carry 123 pounds Sunday, spotting his four rivals between nine and 11 pounds, in the $150,000 San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita. . . . Chris Kotulak, 37, has signed a three-year contract to call the races at Hollywood Park. Kotulak has been the track announcer at Louisiana Downs since 1994. He replaces Michael Wrona, who has moved on to Lone Star Park.

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Santa Anita Derby Field

The lineup for today’s $1-million Santa Anita Derby, in post-position order:

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Horse Jockey Odds Surfside Day 6-1 Captain Steve Albarado 8-1 Anees Nakatani 4-1 War Chant Bailey 9-5 The Deputy McCarron 2-1 Cocky Solis 8-1

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Post: 2:30 p.m.

* TV: Channel 11, 2 p.m.