Horse Racing Notes : Lukas Trying Different Approach With Capote

Trainer Wayne Lukas says his own early Kentucky Derby failures--not Capote’s health--are the reasons behind the 1986 juvenile champion’s brief and unorthodox prep campaign for the May 2 Kentucky Derby.

“I like my situation,” Lukas said after the former favorite dropped a few more notches on the early Derby line by running fourth, 9 1/2 lengths behind the winner, Gone West, in the April 4 Gotham Stakes.

The one-mile race, Capote’s first in five months, represented exactly half of his prep schedule. He’ll finish the campaign in the 1 1/8-mile Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on Saturday.

“I’ve been where the others are,” Lukas said of the horses who have raced themselves ahead of Capote in the Derby rankings. “I’ve been ready in April and I didn’t feel too good in May, so I thought I’d try it another way.”

Lukas’ explanation is unlikely to convince the many doubting Thomases, who believe the untraditional, and perhaps unrealistic, regimen was born of necessity rather than design. Those skeptics suggest that Capote’s illness last November was more than the brief 10-day bout with an intestinal virus that Lukas reported.

But Lukas says Capote never missed a day of scheduled training to the illness. And the colt, who ran the first half-mile of the Gotham in :44 2-5, did not look unhealthy in his debut; he simply looked as if he was not yet in shape.

So, perhaps Lukas is being perfectly straightforward when he says he’s tired of losing with favorites and wants to try something different. It’s not as if he hasn’t tried the traditional prep route.

He saddled Badger Land for four Derby preps last year, won two of them and took second in the others. The colt went to Louisville in top shape, went off as the second favorite and finished fifth.

Tank’s Prospect also ran four Derby preps in 1985 and went to Churchill Downs off an impressive 6 1/2-length romp in the Arkansas Derby. He finished seventh.

The previous year, two equally prepared Lukas fillies, Life’s Magic and Althea, went off as the favorites and finished eighth and 19th, respectively.

His three-horse entry of Marfa, Balboa Native and Total Departure, the betting choice in 1983, ran fifth, ninth and dead last.

Lukas said he intends Capote to peak in, rather than before, the Derby.

“I think we’re very much on schedule,” Lukas said. “I’m not trying to sell him to you. I really think he’s right on track for the Kentucky Derby.”

In case you missed it . . . a lot of folks in the Aqueduct grandstand got Kentucky Derby fever when Java Gold, one of 1986’s best juveniles, made his 3-year-old debut April 4 with a 4-length victory over older horses in a six-furlong allowance. But trainer Mack Miller and owner Paul Mellon did not.

“Right now he is nominated to about every three-year-old race around, but he won’t run in the Wood (Saturday) or the Derby,” Miller said.

Miller said there is a possibility Java Gold, winner of the Grade I Remsen last year, might run in the May 16 Preakness Stakes, middle jewel of racing’s Triple Crown.

Chris McCarron, who sat out much of the fall season with a shoulder injury and the winter with a broken leg, has been sidelined again--this time with a pulled muscle in his upper right leg. McCarron, who just returned to riding last month, hurt his leg while warming up Notsoready for the second race at Santa Anita on April 2.

Agent Scotty McClellan said McCarron would miss about 10 days and return around April 15.