Two Colts Revive Rather Lifeless Derby Outlook

A race at Gulfstream Park last Monday put some much-needed life into this year’s Kentucky Derby picture.

When Proud Truth and Stephan’s Odyssey ran 1-2, only a neck apart, in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, Derby watchers finally had a couple of genuine 3-year-olds capable of negotiating the rigorous route that leads to a May 4 date at Churchill Downs.

Before the Proud Truth-Stephan’s Odyssey battle, early Derby developments were mostly negative. Consider that:

--Chief’s Crown, last year’s 2-year-old champion, missed 10 days of training with a cough and still appears to be more than a month away from his first 1985 start.

--Saratoga Six, an undefeated 2-year-old, was injured and retired to stud.

--Spend a Buck, Smile and Spectacular Love, other top 2-year-olds in ‘84, were ailing when the year ended and aren’t expected to be factors early this year.

--Overtrump, trainer Jerry Fanning’s top Triple Crown candidate, broke down at Santa Anita and had to be destroyed.

--Stone White, the top 3-year-old in New York, won’t be running in the Derby. “The Derby means nothing to me,” owner-trainer Gil Puentes said. “Stone White is a gelding. He has no breeding potential, so why should I spend all that money to get to Kentucky to fight the best horses? I just want to make some money with this horse. I don’t care about glory. I’ll go where the money is.”

Even on the track, winners of some of the early 3-year-old races haven’t stimulated anybody’s imagination:

--Irish Sur, winner of the Tropical Park Derby at Calder, was nursed by a cow and is a son of a stallion who stands for a $1,500 fee.

--Banner Bob, winner of the Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream, is a $10,000 yearling whose sire, Herculean, also stands for a low fee, $2,500.

--The Rogers Four, winner of two sprint stakes at Santa Anita, has yet to be tested beyond seven furlongs.

--Tank’s Prospect, winner of the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, is an early favorite for the Santa Anita Derby, but he wasn’t even the top 2-year-old in trainer Wayne Lukas’ barn last year, and he may not be the best 3-year-old, either.

Jorge Velasquez, who rode Tank’s Prospect to his win at Bay Meadows, said after the race that his 3-year-old options are open, but they may have closed somewhat after his victory aboard Proud Truth in the Fountain of Youth.

Proud Truth didn’t get much attention last year because he was in the same barn with the stakes-winning Script Ohio. But trainer John Veitch backed off on Script Ohio early this year, and Proud Truth, a son of Graustark, may emerge as the better of the two.

Proud Truth’s time of 1:43 3/5 for the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth was ordinary, but it was over a dull racing strip, and Proud Truth had to move seven horses wide for the stretch run.

The only horse wider was Stephan’s Odyssey, and his trainer, Woody Stephens, was satisfied with the second-place effort, especially since the Hollywood Futurity winner was spotting Veitch’s colt 10 pounds. They’ll probably face each other again, at equal weights, March 2 in the Florida Derby, which should be a horse race with just those two. The 3-year-old division badly needs another good horse race.

Slewzuki, a 3-year-old son of Seattle Slew trained by John Russell for Dogwood Stable, has been eighth and ninth in his only two starts, but if size means anything, he could eventually be a race horse.

“He’s an elephant,” Russell said. “He stands well over 16 hands (64 inches), and he was as big six months ago as he is now, which is why he didn’t get to the races until last December.

“Most of the real big Seattle Slews haven’t done that well, until Slew o’ Gold came along. And they weren’t very high on him when he was a young horse.”

One of the 3-year-olds expected to run Saturday in the San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita is Floating Reserve, whose sire, Olden Times, also sired Roving Boy, the 2-year-old champion in 1982. Roving Boy was an unlucky horse who died after suffering multiple leg injuries when he collapsed just past the wire while winning the Alibhai Handicap at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, 1983.

“There are similarities between the two horses,” said Joe Manzi, who had Roving Boy and has Floating Reserve for Houston oilman Bob Hibbert. “Floating Reserve is slightly bigger than Roving Boy and has powerful hind legs that should help him the farther he goes.”

Floating Reserve won the Santa Catalina Stakes Feb. 6.

At a meeting of the California Horse Racing Board in Arcadia Wednesday, Santa Anita and other state tracks were authorized to publish lists of certified bleeders.

“It’s a step in the direction we want to go,” said Alan Balch, an assistant general manager at Santa Anita. “But it doesn’t satisfy my request to the board, which was to publish names of horses who are medically treated for bleeding the first time. But maybe that will follow what we’re going to be able to do now.”

Illinois publishes what is probably the most information regarding horses on medication for bleeding, but the California board says a study of that system indicates that some of the data is inaccurate.

“Just because it might be poorly done elsewhere doesn’t mean it can’t be properly done here,” Balch said. “We owe it to the fans to give them complete information, and we’ll be meeting soon with the board’s medication committee to try to obtain approval to run a first-time-on-Lasix list.”

Lasix, the diuretic commonly given bleeders, sometimes greatly enhances horses’ performances the first time they’re treated.

Racing Notes Manager Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds, an avid horseplayer, considered giving his children horses for Christmas. “But I found out that I had to build a fence for $13,000 and a barn for $18,000,” Rose said. . . . Chris Speckert is another of Charlie Whittingham’s former assistants who is trying to become a successful trainer, as Joe Manzi, Neil Drysdale and Dick Lundy have done. The first horse Speckert saddled on his own, Don’t Say Halo, won at Santa Anita last Saturday. . . . An appeal by the owner of Stone White, winner of last year’s Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct but disqualified because he carried the wrong weight, was turned down by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. The owner, however, is planning to take the case to a civil court. . . . Santa Anita is conducting a poll of reporters and horsemen to determine the 10 outstanding stakes winners in track history. How does a list of John Henry, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Swaps, Seabiscuit, Round Table, Ack Ack, Ancient Title, Cougar II and Native Diver sound?