Blue Grass Stakes : English-Bred Colt Bucks Odds and Dirt in a Field of 11 Today

Someone said to Clive Brittain that it was no embarrassment to lose to trainer Charlie Whittingham last Sunday in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita, because Whittingham was winning that stake for the 12th time.

“Charlie had luck on his side this time,” Brittain said.

That was a typical, stiff-upper-lip reply from Brittain, the 52-year-old English trainer who plans on nothing but winning when he brings a horse to America.

Brittain thought he should have won the San Juan with Jupiter Island, who finished third, 3 lengths behind Whittingham’s victorious Dahar.

“Only the foot beat Jupiter Island,” Brittain said.

The day before the San Juan, Jupiter Island suffered a small crack in a hoof during a gallop around Santa Anita. The acrylic patch on the crack came off during the San Juan.

So circumstances worked against Brittain on this two-ply invasion of the United States. The ambitious trainer is hoping for better luck today when he runs Bold Arrangement in the $200,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. If Bold Arrangement runs well enough in this 1 1/8-mile race, he’ll go on to Churchill Downs and try to join Omar Khayyam and Tomy Lee as the only English-breds to win the Kentucky Derby. Omar Khayyam won in 1917, Tomy Lee in 1959.

Bold Arrangement is 12-1 in the morning line, but if Brittain’s pattern continues, the chestnut colt will at least hit the board today. Brittain has started horses in four races in the United States. He won the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes at Aqueduct with Pebbles, finished third with Jupiter Island in the San Juan and the Washington D.C. International and was third with Come On The Blues in a stake at Aqueduct.

Bold Arrangement, who cost his owners, brothers Anthony and R.K. Richards, about $20,000, has won 4 of 10 starts, with purses of $79,709. Third in England against older horses in his only start this year, he has won only about $40,000 in purses in important races, a criterion for determining the Derby field if more than 20 want to run.

“That’s the main reason we’re running in the Blue Grass, to get some money next to his name for the Derby,” Brittain said.

On a gooey Keeneland track two mornings ago, Bold Arrangement went five furlongs in :59 4/5, the fastest workout at that distance that day.

“I was surprised he went that quick,” said Kenny Black, the former California jockey drafted by Brittain as an exercise rider. “He was looking around every step of the way.”

Pat Eddery, the Irish jockey who rode Pebbles to her win in the Breeders’ Cup, will be aboard Bold Arrangement today. The 11-horse Blue Grass field, in post-position order, includes Bachelor Beau, The Flats, Pillaster, Strong Performance, Major Moran, Big Play, Blandford Park, Blue Buckaroo, Icy Groom, Bold Arrangement and Bolshoi Boy. Son of the Desert, who was entered and a 50-1 shot, was scratched Wednesday.

Bolshoi Boy and Icy Groom are the favorites, at respective odds of 3-1 and 4-1.

This will be Bold Arrangement’s first start on dirt, and to prepare him for the assignment, Brittain trained him in company with other horses on a sand track in England. That way, Bold Arrangement experienced sand hitting him in the face.

Bold Arrangement is considered a miler in Europe and in fact has never won while going farther than seven furlongs.

“A mile in Europe translates into 1 miles, or even 1 1/2 miles, over here,” Brittain said. “Because the tracks over there are grass and not as fast as the dirt here. Our horses last longer and they don’t have to use as much energy.”

Like Pebbles, Bold Arrangement has a liberal amount of Guinness stout poured into his feed each day.

“Since he’s been in the states, he’s never missed an oat,” Brittain said. “Or a drop of Guinness, either.”