‘COME ON, T-BONE!’ : That’s Saratoga Passage, Who Will Seek Another Upset Victory in San Felipe

When Santa Anita runs the $150,000 San Felipe Handicap today, a little girl will be standing on her tiptoes in the stands yelling: “Come on, T-bone! Come on, T-bone!”

As usual, most of the people around 5-year-old Melissa Bennett won’t know which horse she’s rooting for, because there’s none with a name even resembling T-bone in the San Felipe.

Melissa’s T-bone is Saratoga Passage, one of eight 3-year-olds running today in the first of California’s two major preps for the Kentucky Derby. The other is the Santa Anita Derby April 9.

Melissa Bennett, whose father, Brad, is an assistant trainer for Saratoga Passage, has seen the Washington-bred gelding win all three of his races, including the Norfolk, a major stake for 2-year-olds, almost five months ago at Santa Anita.

Although some of Saratoga Passage’s owners nicknamed him SAM , which stands for surface-to-air missile in military argot, Brad Bennett started calling him T-bone, and that’s the name that has stuck around the barn.

“I don’t know why I made it T-bone,” Bennett said. “Maybe with a name like that, he was easier to yell at.”

Because of the layoff, Saratoga Passage’s 12-1 upset in the Norfolk will be difficult to duplicate today, but he is likely to be a long price again.

Lively One and Tejano, who will be favored, are also carrying the most weight--122 pounds each--with three horses--Saratoga Passage, Mi Preferido and Purdue King--bracketed at 119 pounds. Please Remit, What a Diplomat and Jet Charlie complete the field.

“He might need a race,” Bennett said of Saratoga Passage. “But he shouldn’t be short, because he’s had a lot of training and we’ve kept him on his toes. Our main objective, of course, is the races back East (starting with the Kentucky Derby May 7).”

Bennett is with Saratoga Passage all of the time because the horse’s trainer, Bob Leonard, is a full-time commercial airline pilot. Leonard, who is based in the Seattle area, has had enough accrued vacation time to be with Saratoga Passage about five days a week this season at Santa Anita.

Saratoga Passage’s nickname might be T-bone, but he’s substantially more than that on the hoof. A good-sized horse stands 16 hands--that’s 64 inches--and Saratoga Passage has grown to 17 hands and weighs about 1,150 pounds.

“We had to let out his equipment a notch or two,” Bennett said. “But he’s still a big baby. He acts like a little kid.”

The other morning, after Saratoga Passage had worked 3 furlongs in 35 seconds for Joe Steiner, who will ride him today, Bennett groomed the horse and arranged the bedding in his stall.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this,” Bennett said. “When he gets in there, he does what he wants with that stuff, anyway.”

After Vicky Aragon--who was once Steiner’s fiancee--rode Saratoga Passage to a fourth-place finish in his first race at Longacres last August, Steiner was aboard for four more races at Longacres and the win in the Norfolk. Saratoga Passage has two seconds besides his three wins and the fourth.

Steiner, 23, was the leading apprentice jockey at Santa Anita in 1982, but has been riding at Longacres more recently, twice finishing second in the Seattle track’s standings. Steiner arrived at Santa Anita a month ago to gallop Saratoga Passage and has failed to win with 18 mounts, many of them longshots, at the meeting.

Although there was an off track for the Norfolk, Bennett would prefer to see Saratoga Passage run on a fast surface. Leonard didn’t decide to run the horse until minutes before scratch time for the Norfolk.

“In the work before the Norfolk, the horse didn’t handle the mud,” Steiner said. “But that was a different kind of mud than what we ran on. It was real muddy for the work, but it was only sloppy (water atop the track with a firm bottom) for the race. The way he warmed up in the post parade that day, I could tell that he was going to run good.”

Bennett, 26, has never seen the Kentucky Derby, or even Churchill Downs. His older brother, Grant, is no longer in racing, but at one time he worked as an assistant to trainer Ron Warren in Kentucky.

“He sent me pictures from back there,” Brad Bennett said. “Now he’s happy and envious for me with this horse.”

If Saratoga Passage makes it to Kentucky, Brad Bennett will be able to return the favor and send his brother some Derby pictures. Close-ups of the winner’s circle are what he has in mind.

Horse Racing Notes

Turfway Park officials have been told that Brian’s Time, winner of the Florida Derby, will run in their Jim Beam Stakes April 2. . . . Trainer Dick Mulhall, who won last’s year’s San Felipe with Chart the Stars, saddles What a Diplomat in today’s race. . . . Jade Hunter, winner of the Donn and Gulfstream Park Handicaps in Florida this year, broke a bone in his right foreleg during a workout last week and has been retired. Jade Hunter, owned by Bruce McNall and Allen Paulson, will stand at stud at Paulson’s farm near Lexington, Ky.