UNTIL IT’S TIME : Veitch Has Brian’s Time on Schedule for Wood Memorial

On a station wagon parked next to Barn 21 at Belmont Park is a New York license plate that reads: ALYDAR 2.

“Those plates cost me an extra $15 a year,” Charlie Rose said. “When I first applied for them, I was surprised to find out that a plate with just the name Alydar on it had already been taken. Some guy on Long Island who’s not connected with racing. Just a fan, I guess. But I saw the plates once. He drives a BMW.”

A ritzy car honoring a ritzy horse.

Ten years ago, Alydar had the dubious distinction of being the only horse to finish second in all three Triple Crown races, barely losing to Affirmed in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, but he still won 6 major races, 14 of 26 starts overall and almost $1 million in purses.

Rose was Alydar’s exercise rider for trainer John Veitch when they worked for Calumet Farm. Now, working for Wally Phillips of Columbus, Ohio, they are beating on the Derby door again with Brian’s Time, a small, unassuming colt who could become the race favorite if he has a strong winning performance in Saturday’s $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Brian’s Time has not run a dull race in four starts this year. In Florida, he won easily, going 1 1/16 miles. He was a fast-closing fourth in the Fountain of Youth at the same distance. He won the Florida Derby by a neck over Forty Niner with another late move, and in the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., he came from last, more than 15 lengths behind, and finished third, beaten by a head and a nose.

Churchill Downs’ long stretch--it’s 1,234 1/2 feet--and the Derby’s 1-mile distance would seem to be ideal for a horse with Brian’s Time’s staying power. The disadvantage for a horse with his running style is that in a large field--which this year’s Derby expects to have--traffic problems are likely.

No matter what Brian’s Time does in the 1 1/8-mile Wood--assuming he emerges from the race sound--Veitch plans to ship the horse to Louisville next Tuesday, 11 days before the Derby.

Veitch has had one Derby starter since Alydar, saddling fifth-running Proud Truth in 1985. Churchill Downs had an especially hard running surface that year, and the Derby was the start of a leg problem that led to surgery for Proud Truth.

But Veitch had him back in action by that fall, and Proud Truth won the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Aqueduct.

“Kind of funny, isn’t it,” Rose said. “Proud Truth won the Breeders’ Cup, and Skywalker, another horse that got hurt in the same Derby, came back to win the Classic the following year.”

On the 10th anniversary of the Affirmed-Alydar rivalry, it was surprising the other day when Veitch named Davona Dale as the best horse he ever trained.

Davona Dale was a strapping filly, built along the lines of Winning Colors, an outstanding filly who will try to win the Derby this year, but she didn’t run in the 1979 Derby, winning the Kentucky Oaks against fillies at Churchill Downs the day before.

“We didn’t even nominate her for the Derby,” Veitch said. “But we should have. I know that was Spectacular Bid’s year, but it would have been interesting to see what she would have done.”

Veitch’s father, Syl, is a member of the racing Hall of Fame, but until Wayne Lukas’ lifetime record went to 0 for 12 last year, the elder Veitch had the poorest record in the Derby, with no wins in 10 starts.

John Veitch, 42, is not proud of the training job he did with Davona Dale, even though she won 11 of 18 races, 9 of them stakes events, in 1979 when she won the divisional championship.

“It took me 10 races, but I screwed her up,” Veitch said.

Davona Dale swept Belmont Park’s triple crown for fillies, but Veitch says now that if he had been smart, he would have rested her after she had won the third race in the series, the Coaching Club American Oaks.

“Instead, I got greedy,” he said.

At Saratoga in August, Veitch vacillated about running Davona Dale in the Alabama, for fillies, or trying her against colts in the Travers. He ended up running her in both races. She finished second in the Alabama and was fourth in the Travers. Davona Dale won only one stake in the rest of her career.

Could Winning Colors win this year’s Derby?

“It depends on the horse,” Veitch said. “Elliott Burch (another Hall of Fame trainer) would run fillies against colts when they were 2-year-olds and would beat them frequently. My experience is that fillies usually fare better against colts later in their 3-year-old years.”

Brian’s Time will have a new jockey in the Wood--new to the horse but not new to the Wood or the Derby. Angel Cordero has won the Wood four times and the Derby three times. He has seldom ridden for Veitch, but the trainer gave him the mount even though Jorge Velasquez, a longtime Veitch rider, and Laffit Pincay were also interested.

“There’s not a lot to like about Cordero personally,” a friend of Veitch said. “But in a big race, he’s a good guy to have on your side.”

Velasquez, Jerry Bailey and Randy Romero have already had shots at riding Brian’s Time but have landed on other Derby candidates. Bailey has been riding Proper Reality in Arkansas; Velasquez will ride Cherokee Colony in the Wood, and Romero, who rides regularly for the Phipps family, will be aboard Seeking the Gold here Saturday.

Seeking the Gold and Perfect Spy will play important roles in the Wood for Veitch. They will supply much of the speed that Brian’s Time will be trying to run down in the end.

The trainer is not predicting whether he’ll get there. All he knows is that Brian’s Time is in a much better position now than Davona Dale was for a run at the 3-year-old colts at the end of 1979.