All but Shoemaker Have Some Explaining to Do : Rest of the Jockeys in Santa Anita Derby Try to Find Answers for Their Defeat

The flag is up for the Grade I Santa Anita Derby. The field is sent on their way and Lookinforthebigone bounces straight to the lead and goes a length in front. But now Something Lucky is pulling his way up on the outside. Temperate Sil also hard on the bit right there third. Laffit Pincay has the favorite Masterful Advocate striding along comfortably in fourth just two lengths off them. Another length and a half back to Chart the Stars and the early trailer is Flying Flags.

That’s the way race caller Trevor Denman saw the start of Saturday’s $500,000 Santa Anita Derby, one of the steps on the road to Churchill Downs and the May 2 Kentucky Derby.

Less than two minutes later, Temperate Sil and jockey Bill Shoemaker were assured of making the trip to Louisville, having won the race by 5 1/2 lengths and convincing trainer Charlie Whittingham that the journey might be worthwhile.

As for the other five, including Masterful Advocate, who had been regarded as one of the Kentucky Derby favorites before Saturday’s race, who knows?

Beforehand, trainers, jockeys and owners alike had voiced the usual optimism about their horses’ chances. Afterward, in the jockeys’ room, the five losing riders each groped for an explanation for their defeat.

“He was really rank and trying to get out,” Pincay said of Masterful Advocate, who managed to finish second, a nose in front of Patrick Valenzuela aboard Something Lucky. “Look at his stride, he’s not even going. He doesn’t run that way. He wasn’t trying to run today.

“After I got him on the outside, he just ran one steady pace. Any other time, he would have been pulling me to the lead. He was just trying to get out more than anything else.

“Usually, he breaks and he wants to run. Today, he broke and his stride was very short. He didn’t seem interested. He didn’t want to go. I don’t know. He just didn’t run his race, that’s all. I was surprised he was second the way he was running.”

Considering he was on a longshot, Valenzuela was more than pleased with his third-place finish.

“Well, he (Something Lucky) was a little rank the first part but he relaxed when we got to the backside,” Valenzuela said. “When I asked him around the turn, he picked it up but he just couldn’t get to Shoemaker’s horse and barely got beat for second. He ran a good race, though.”

Gary Stevens, too, was pleased with the ride he got, even though it earned him only fourth place in the six-horse field. In fact, Stevens had nothing but praise for Lookinforthebigone. Asked when he thought he knew he was beaten, he replied: “Not till they passed me.

“I had a lot of horse the whole way. If my horse had had a route (longer) race under him, I would have been right there. He was right there anyway. He’s never been around two turns, he got real hot going to the gate. He had everything going against him, and he still performed well. I was real happy with the way he ran. He’s still very green. I had a hard time making him switch leads down the backside and down the stretch. He’s a genuine colt.”

Gary Baze, meanwhile, had a succinct explanation for Flying Flags’ fifth-place effort, saying: “He just kind of ran a dull race today. That’s the best way to answer that, I guess.”

Eddie Delahoussaye, who came home last aboard Chart the Stars, also recognized early on that it was not going to be his gelding’s day.

“I knew down the backside I was in trouble,” he said. “When I got on the backside he didn’t pick it up and I said, ‘oh, oh.’ He wasn’t running at all today. The other day, he was aggressive and everything. Even though he broke bad, he’s been bumped around before and he’s always tried. It’s just one of those things. You hate to have it happen in a big race, though.”

“He’s not a big horse. He’s always been honest and stuff. He just didn’t fire at all, and they weren’t going that fast.”

Shoemaker, meanwhile, had a virtually trouble-free trip even though the race did not set up as he had expected.

“Actually I thought I’d be laying about fourth,” he said, “but Laffit’s horse didn’t come out of there like everybody expected he would and Patrick (Valenzuela) took back after he went a little ways, and I had to jump over his (Something Lucky’s) heels and get to the outside because I didn’t want to check my horse and shut him down. So I wound up (laying) second, which is all right, but before the race I thought I may be be laying fourth.

“That shows you that they don’t turn out like you think they will.”

All those who finished behind Shoemaker Saturday will agree with that.