Snow Chief, Badger Land Run 1-2 in Florida Derby

The best in the West established that the least is in the East Saturday, when Snow Chief and Badger Land, a couple of interlopers from Santa Anita, ran roughshod over 14 pretenders in the $500,000 Florida Derby.

Before a record Gulfstream Park crowd of 33,735, Snow Chief sizzled on a cool, windy Florida day, brushing off a challenge by Badger Land on the last turn and pulling away to a 1 3/4-length victory. After Badger Land, it was five lengths back to Mogambo, the third-place horse, who got to the wire a neck in front of Regal Dreamer.

Besides being worth $300,000 and swelling Snow Chief’s bank account to more than $1.4 million, the win in the first major race for 3-year-old colts made the California-bred a solid early favorite for the May 3 Kentucky Derby.

Snow Chief had won 7 out of 11 starts before Saturday, all in California, and the Florida Derby gave the Reflected Glory colt four straight wins and six victories in his last seven tries.

“The winner is a good horse, there’s no doubt about it,” said Angel Cordero, who rode Mogambo. “The only knock on him is that he’s been in training since last July, and that’s a long time. That might be the only hope anybody has on Kentucky Derby day.”

Ridden on the lead by Alex Solis after breaking alertly from the No. 13 post position, Snow Chief paid $5, $3.80 and $2.80 as the slight favorite over the entry of Mogambo and Glow. Badger Land, unable to finish ahead of Snow Chief for the fourth time, still ran a strong race and paid $11.60 and $4.40. Mogambo’s show price was $2.60.

After the first four horses, the order of finish was My Prince Charming, Wolark, Glow, Papal Power, Sunny Prospector, Jig’s Haven, Strong Performance, Mykawa, Ensign Rhythm, Dr. Dan Eyes, Mr. Classic and Raja’s Revenge.

On a tiring Gulfstream surface that has been playing especially slow, Snow Chief was timed in a snailish 1:51 4/5, the slowest in the Florida Derby since Nashua in 1955 and the fourth slowest in the 35-year history of the race.

After the race, trainer Mel Stute, hurrying to catch a flight for Los Angeles, where he will saddle Right Con in today’s Santa Anita Handicap, said that because no plane is available, Snow Chief will remain at Gulfstream until next Saturday. Then he’ll return to Stute’s barn at Santa Anita, where he’ll be readied for the Santa Anita Derby on April 6, probably his last start before the Kentucky Derby.

“That last eighth of a mile seemed like it took an eternity, it must have been a half an hour,” Stute said. “I told Alex before the race that I wanted our horse to be on the rail by the time he got to the quarter pole, because based on some races earlier in the day, it looked like you should be inside to win. But I was worried about our horse having the lead on the backstretch. That could have been a disadvantage because of the wind. We were really breaking the wind for the other horses.”

Solis, a former leading rider at Gulfstream before he moved to California last year, started riding Snow Chief in the Del Mar Futurity, the colt’s fourth career start, after Pat Valenzuela and Rafael Meza had other commitments.

“The wind might have bothered me more than the horse,” Solis said. “The other horse (Badger Land) got nose and nose with us (just before the quarter pole), but when my horse saw him, he said to himself, ‘I gotta go,’ because I didn’t have to urge him. This shows he can run on the lead and win. I think he’s better that way than coming from off the pace.”

Snow Chief is owned by two septuagenarians, Carl Grinstead of Chula Vista and Ben Rochelle of Beverly Hills. About two years ago, Rochelle, a former vaudeville hoofer who remembers Jack Benny when he was “just a fiddle player,” bought a 50% interest in the horses owned by Grinstead, a retired electrical engineer.

“I did it just to have a lot of fun, but more than anything else, I was looking for a tax shelter,” said Rochelle, who danced with his late wife, Jane, retiring from the stage in 1959. “We’ve got a horse who has a lot of stamina. He doesn’t give up at the end.”

The Snow Chief crowd showed confidence in the horse at the mutuel windows. Stute hit the $131.60 trifecta, picking the first three horses, and Rochelle, besides having the trifecta, also bet $1,000 to win and $1,000 to place on Snow Chief.

“I bet Snow Chief and Badger Land with all the rest of the horses in the trifecta,” Stute said.

The day before the Florida Derby, Stute blew out Snow Chief in :35 for three furlongs. Like Will Rogers, many of the horsemen here only knew Snow Chief from what they read in the newspapers.

But Don MacBeth, who rode Regal Dreamer Saturday, saw Snow Chief work Friday and felt he would be the horse to beat in the Florida Derby.

“Anybody who watched that horse Friday had to appreciate what he saw,” MacBeth said.

Snow Chief is the fourth California-based horse, after Correlation in 1954, Candy Spots in 1963 and Croeso in 1983, to win the Florida Derby. Candy Spots is the only other California-bred to win this race, but then he finished third in the Kentucky Derby. The best in the West and so much better than the least from the East, Snow Chief figures to do much better in Louisville.