Point Given Has History on His Side

Point Given may have been beaten--by a nose--in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but historically his comeback victory Saturday in the Hollywood Futurity could have more lasting impact.

Breeders’ Cup winners flop in the Kentucky Derby, if they even make it to the race. Hollywood Futurity winners are the opposite; in the 1980s, Gato Del Sol, Ferdinand and Alysheba used the December race at Hollywood Park as an early prep for the Derby, and more recently Thunder Gulch and Real Quiet went from the Futurity to the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs.

Speaking of Thunder Gulch, the 1995 Derby winner is the sire of Point Given, and Gary Stevens, who rode the latest Futurity winner, was also aboard when Thunder Gulch won the Derby.

With the scratch of longshot Palmeiro, Point Given beat only three horses in the $362,500 race Saturday, the smallest field in the stake’s 20-year history. But Point Given’s trainer, Bob Baffert, was no less impressed as he picked up the top prize in the Futurity for the third time in the last four years.

“He’s a big, long-striding horse like Real Quiet, but you really can’t compare horses,” Baffert said. “It looks like this horse could be something pretty special. At the three-eighths pole, I could tell that Gary had a lot of horse left.”

Running 1 1/16 miles in 1:42 1/5, Point Given beat Millennium Wind, a colt making only his second start, by one length. It was seven gaping lengths back to Golden Ticket in third place, with Bank Street, up from the claiming ranks, finishing last. Point Given, paying $2.60 as the heavy favorite, earned $204,300 for Prince Ahmed Salman’s Thoroughbred Corp.

Stevens, who has won the Derby three times, had been 0 for 10 in the Futurity before Saturday, his best finishes a couple of seconds with Music Merci in 1988 and Brocco in 1993. Four different jockeys had ridden Point Given in his first four starts--two wins, two seconds--before Stevens took over in the Breeders’ Cup.

“This was actually a very easy win,” Stevens said. “Easier on him than all of our nerves going into the race. When you’re 1 to 5 and it doesn’t look like there is any way you can get beat, you know there are always ways they can get beat by small mistakes.”

Millennium Wind, breaking from the inside, was the early leader, with Golden Ticket not far back. Stevens, sensing the slow pace, sent Point Given from last place right up into the fray after only a half-mile.

“That wasn’t according to plan,” Stevens said. “I wanted to sit back and still be stalking at the sixteenths pole. But he just galloped by those horses without any encouragement. Then he got in front and started playing around. That’s why I didn’t want to get in front too soon.”

Point Given took the lead just past the eighth pole. Millennium Wind, ridden by Chris McCarron, tried to fight back the rest of the way.

“To quote the great Yogi Berra, ‘His future is all in front of him,’ ” McCarron said of the $1.2-million yearling that he rode. “He was unseasoned, inexperienced and not as fit as he will be in another couple of months. I didn’t expect to be in front, but he just pulled me to the lead.”

Stevens hit Point Given once, about 50 yards before the wire.

“He really started to shut it down then,” Stevens said. “He reminds me a lot in temperament of his daddy. He’s quite a bit further advanced than Thunder Gulch was at this stage of the game. Thunder Gulch didn’t want to learn. He was a very rebellious colt. This colt has a little streak in him. I wouldn’t say it’s mean, he’s just very playful.”

In fact, Point Given reared up in the receiving barn before the race and nicked himself above the left eye.

“He got a little bit stirred up in there,” Baffert said. “We were real confident about him. We thought he was going to handle the track coming over from Santa Anita, because he was here earlier in the summer.”

Salman sent Point Given to Baffert, along with four other horses, early this year.

“I have to thank him for that,” Baffert said. “I needed a picker-upper then, because (owner) Aaron Jones had just left our team with his horses.”

Trainer David Hofmans sent out Millennium Wind off a three-length maiden win at Hollywood on Nov. 18.

“I loved this race,” Hofmans said. “He was hooked every step of the way, and he still ran all the way to the wire. He’s still gangly--it seems that Baffert’s horse is twice as big as mine. It’s no disgrace to get beaten by the horse that won. I think we’ve got a real future here.”

Macho Uno, after holding off Point Given in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, is expected to win the Eclipse Award for best 2-year-old male. Baffert also finished fifth with Arabian Light and eighth with Flame Thrower at Churchill Downs, and both of those horses have been sidelined. Arabian Light, who suffered a hairline fracture of his coffin bone, will miss the Triple Crown races and probably won’t be back until early summer. Flame Thrower, winner of the Del Mar Futurity and the Norfolk at Santa Anita, has had surgery on both knees and should return in about a month.

Baffert said that he and Richard Mulhall, general manager for Thoroughbred Corp., will have to map out a campaign for Point Given as a 3-year-old.

“We could shoot for the Santa Anita Derby,” he said. “Or there’s Florida or Louisiana. They’ve taken the ($1-million purse) away from the Santa Anita deal (the Derby there has been cut to $750,000). My main concern is keeping the horse happy. I want to run him a couple of times to get him ready for the Kentucky Derby. He’s quite a horse. He’s something you really get excited about.”

Notes

Baffert’s 2-year-old filly, Whoopddoo, is 5-1 on the morning line for today’s Starlet Stakes. Trainer Wayne Lukas, who has won the race seven times, including last year with Surfside, will run Avalon Bay, who took six races to break her maiden at Hollywood Park on Nov. 8. The favorites are Cindy’s Hero, 8-5 after a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and Jetin Excess, 9-5 as she bids for a fifth consecutive win. . . . Tiznow, working for the second time since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, turned in a five-furlong time of 1:00 3/5 at Santa Anita Friday. Trainer Jay Robbins said that Tiznow missed two days of training, speculating that he might have bruised his left front foot in the win at Churchill Downs, but said the horse is still on schedule to run in the San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 13. . . . Stevens also won Saturday’s other stake, riding the French-bred filly Keemoon to victory in the Waya Handicap. . . . Separatist, who has won eight of 10 starts this year, is the second choice behind 2-1 A Ransom in tonight’s $400,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos. Corona Kool, who is also part of the 10-horse field, beat Separatist by a head in the Los Alamitos Derby on Nov. 11.