Consolidator Blazes in San Felipe

Those familiar figures at Churchill Downs -- owners Bob and Beverly Lewis and trainer Wayne Lukas -- may be around for an encore at the Kentucky Derby on May 7. Their calling card this time would be Consolidator, who ran the fastest San Felipe ever at Santa Anita on Saturday, winning the Derby prep by a stakes-record 6 1/2 lengths.

“They say we might be back,” Lukas said, “but in my mind, we’ve never been away. We won the thing not that long ago.”

Lukas has won the Derby four times, most recently with the Lewises’ Charismatic in 1999. Since 1981, when he started his first of a record 41 horses in the race, Lukas has failed to show up at Churchill only twice, last year and in 2001. The Lewises also won the Derby with the Bob Baffert-trained Silver Charm in 1997.

Consolidator, ridden by Rafael Bejarano, an Eastern hotshot who had never won at Santa Anita before Saturday, ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:40, shattering the record of 1:41 1/5 set by Pole Position in 1979. Consolidator’s margin broke the record of six lengths that Variety Road won by in 1986.

Santa Anita’s wet-fast track was producing fast times all day. In the race before the $250,000 San Felipe, Family Guy, a 3-year-old maiden, ran 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:01.80, just missing the record of 1:01.74 set by the champion sprinter, Kona Gold, in 1999.

Consolidator, winner of only two of eight previous starts, paid $16.40 for $2, earning $150,000 for the Lewises. “I didn’t have a nickel on him,” Bob Lewis said when told about Consolidator’s price.

The retired Newport Beach beer distributor paid $1.25 million for the Storm Cat-Good Example colt as a yearling. Last week in Pomona, Lewis bought five young horses for almost $4 million.

Giacomo, an honest sort who still struggles to win, finished second, half a length ahead of Don’t Get Mad, who was making only his fourth start. Wilko, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, was fourth in his 2004 debut. Roman Ruler, the 3-1 favorite, was last.

The Lewises and Lukas also have another Derby contender, Going Wild, who was second to the now-sidelined Declan’s Moon in the Santa Catalina on March 5. Although both of the horses are stabled at Santa Anita, neither may run in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9.

Lukas said that Going Wild would probably run in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, also on April 9, and for Consolidator he’s leaning toward the Blue Grass, at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., on April 16.