After 62 Years, Blue Grass May Be Dying Out : A Field of Only Five Horses Is Entered in the Final Major Kentucky Derby Prep

Only five horses have been entered for Thursday’s $200,000 Blue Grass Stakes, once the last major prep for the Kentucky Derby but now a race that has been swallowed up by competition and is adversely affected by changes in training philosophies for 3-year-olds.

The Blue Grass field starts at the rail with Leo Castelli and Jose Santos. Castelli is the horse and Santos the jockey. Outside them, in order, are War, with Herb McCauley riding; Valid Prospect, Pat Day; Alysheba, Chris McCarron; and Avies Copy, Don Brumfield. All of the starters will carry 121 pounds for the 1 1/8 miles.

Traditionally run nine days before the Derby, the Blue Grass is 62 years old and used to be a barometer for how horses would perform in the Derby. Seventeen horses that finished first or second in the Blue Grass have gone on to win the Derby. On a muddy track in 1941, Whirlaway finished second to Our Boots in the Blue Grass, then won the Derby and swept the Triple Crown.

Lately, though, the Blue Grass has been anything but a feeder for the Derby. Only two Blue Grass runners--Gato Del Sol in 1982 and Spectacular Bid in 1979--have won the Derby in the last 14 years.

In the 1980s, the winners of the Blue Grass have finished 5th, 18th, 6th, 13th, 3rd and 14th in the Derby and the 1982 winner, Linkage, didn’t even run in the Derby.

In 1985, Chief’s Crown was such a big Blue Grass favorite that only three other trainers bothered to enter, making for the smallest field in the stake since 1966.

This year, there is not a strong favorite for either the Derby at Churchill Downs May 2 or the Blue Grass, yet there is only one more horse running Thursday than ran in 1985.

“It’s a combination of things,” said Bill Greely, Keeneland’s general manager, talking about the Blue Grass’ fall from popularity. “The big difference, I think, is that trainers don’t need that extra race going into the Derby anymore.

“They don’t want to have a horse over-raced for the Derby and the rest of the Triple Crown, and they’ve got more of a reason to need a fresh horse later in the year, when the Travers at Saratoga will be a million-dollar race for the first time and when the million-dollar Breeders’ Cup races are run in November.”

The Blue Grass is also preceded by at least 40 other stakes races for 3-year-olds. Tiny Turfway Park, in Florence, Ky., about 100 miles north of here, ran a $500,000 stake, the Jim Beam, in March, and the Birmingham, Ala., Turf Club, a new track, ran the $350,000 Alabama Derby a couple of weeks ago.

Oaklawn Park offers a $1-million bonus for any horse that wins two of its races and the Kentucky Derby. Demons Begone, the lukewarm Derby favorite, has a chance to win the money a week from Saturday.

“We had talked just a little about doing something to make the Blue Grass more attractive,” Greely said. “Then when the race came up with a small field for the second time in three years, we started talking a lot more.”

Another drawback to the Blue Grass from a training standpoint is the weather. Keeneland can be a tiring track in the mud so if it rains and a trainer is forced to scratch his horse, he risks going into the Derby one race short.

The temperatures have been in the 80s this week, and rain is forecast for today with partly cloudy skies likely Thursday.

Keeneland is a prosperous track, but it derives considerably more money from the commissions on six multimillion-dollar horse sales than it does from operating two 16-day racing meetings.

A better date rather than an increased purse would be more likely to revive the Blue Grass. On April 11, Keeneland ran the Lexington Stakes, worth only $100,000 and not considered a major race. Even so, the field consisted of three horses, War, Candi’s Gold and Momentus, who are scheduled to run in the Derby and two others, J.T.’s Pet and Faster Than Sound, who would have run if they hadn’t been injured in the Lexington.

Horse Racing Notes

Gone West, who won the Gotham at Aqueduct on April 4 and then was nipped at the wire by Gulch in the Wood last Saturday, will not run in the Kentucky Derby. Gone West’s trainer, Woody Stephens, wanted to run, but the $1.9-million yearling’s owner, James Mills, decided to skip the race. Mills, who has acute arthritis, would not have been able to attend the Derby if Gone West ran. . . . Jose Santos will ride Cryptoclearance in the Derby, which means that LeRoy Jolley, who trains Gulch, will need a jockey for his Wood Memorial winner.

Based on his win in the Lexington, War will probably be a slight favorite in the Blue Grass. . . . Alysheba, scratched from the Santa Anita Derby when he ran a temperature a few days before the race, has been training well since arriving in Kentucky. . . . Don Brumfield, the 48-year-old rider who has won more races and more stakes than anybody in Keeneland history, has never won a Blue Grass.