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Gormley races Saturday at Santa Anita in his next step on the Kentucky Derby track

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Trainer John Shirreffs was ticking off all the things he liked about his Kentucky Derby hopeful Gormley.

“Not too big or too small,” he said. “Beautiful conformation. Well-muscled. Keen. Intelligent.”

Wait, how do you know a horse is intelligent?

“I guess when he counted to 1,000, it took my breath away,” Shirreffs said with laugh.

You know things are going well when a trainer tries a little stand-up.

On Saturday, Gormley will take the next step in the seemingly forever and exceedingly difficult march to the first Saturday in May. He will face six horses in the $100,000 Sham Stakes (Race No. 7, post time about 3:30 p.m.) over a mile at Santa Anita. Among them will be American Anthem, a sharp-looking colt making only his second start for Bob Baffert. Gormley is the 8-5 favorite with Anthem listed at 9-5.

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“I would say it’s a process of elimination,” Shirreffs said about making it to the Derby. “As the races go on you have to show improvement. They develop into a Kentucky Derby possibility rather than showing up as one.”

Gormley, named after the British sculptor Antony Gormley, started his racing career with a 4¼-length win over 6½ furlongs at Del Mar, then pulled an upset by winning the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes by three lengths at Santa Anita. But he was no factor in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, finishing a well-beaten seventh. If you’re looking for excuses, Gormley bobbled at the start and ran most of the race four wide.

“We’re always trying to figure out what happened,” Shirreffs said. “But I don’t really have an answer for what happened there. ... it might have been one of those things that just didn’t work out.”

Gormley was first offered up at the Kenneland September sale as a yearling. He didn’t bring the $150,000 reserve price but was brought privately by Jerry and Ann Moss. The Moss-Shirreffs connection brought Zenyatta along to become one of the most popular and successful horses of all time.

Gormley wasn’t the brightest kid in the class, but there was potential. He was sent to the McKathan Brothers Training Center, near Ocala, Fla. The facility has hosted a who’s who of promising yearlings, including Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

“When he went to the farm, he might have been behind the other horses mentally,” Shirreffs said.

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Chris Alexander, the farm manager at McKathan, also remembers it that way.

“You knew Pharoah was mature when he came out of the womb,” Alexander said. “Gormley was like a 10-, 11-year-old kid that you knew could throw the ball good, but he couldn’t run. But he got smarter in everything he did. He got better week by week, month by month.

“Gormley started very unassuming. He wasn’t the biggest, strongest, fastest. But every time he worked he got bigger, stronger and faster.”

Gormley also caught the eye of jockey Victor Espinoza after he rode him for the first time.

“John asked me to do a favor and work him to see what I thought and if he had ability or a future,” Espinoza said. “When I worked him I was very impressed. This horse has an excellent future but I believe he can be even better.

“He has everything to be a Derby horse but he has to improve a little more. He has the pedigree … He has everything you could ask for if he can use that ability.”

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Espinoza even called Alexander after the first workout and asked if Gormley was as good as he thought he was. The answer was yes.

Gormley was definitely a changed colt when he was returned to Shirreff.

“One of things is that he loves to train,” Shirreff said. “He loves to gallop. He has a good attitude about things, even though he’s a little high strung. He does everything that’s asked of him.”

The fact that Gormley graduated to a Derby hopeful is partly due to his intelligence, even if he can’t really count to 1,000.

Shirreffs says figuring out a horse’s intelligence is more an art than science.

“You look in their eyes,” he said. “Is it an intelligent look or a blank look? How does he relate to his environment? Is he confident in his environment? You watch his ears.”

Espinoza also pays attention to such mannerisms and in this example could not pay Gormley a higher compliment.

“The horse reminds me of California Chrome,” Espinoza said. “He’s like a happy little kid just playing around. He can’t sit still for one moment and that’s how California Chrome was. That’s what I like about him, he’s a happy, happy baby.”

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It goes without saying that owner Jerry Moss shares in the happiness.

“He has a 2-year-old first-time winner and a Grade 1 stakes winner who is now a 3-year-old,” Shirreffs said. “It’s as exciting as you can get in this business.”

Saturday’s race will go a long way toward determining whether that mood can continue.

john.cherwa@latimes.com

@jcherwa

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