Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland : Canadian-Bred Granacus Is a Surprise Winner

A trainer who got his license just 3 years ago and a jockey who hadn’t ridden in Keeneland’s major Kentucky Derby prep in 25 years found themselves in the 114th run for the roses after Granacus, a Canadian-bred 15-1 shot, won Thursday’s $293,625 Blue Grass Stakes here by 3 lengths.

The trainer is Pat Collins, a red-haired, 39-year-old Dublin-born Irishman and the jockey is 44-year-old Jacinto Vasquez, a 2-time winner of the Kentucky Derby who now has a mount a week from Saturday at Churchill Downs even if the owners of Risen Star decide to dump him.

Although Vasquez rode Risen Star to an upset win over Forty Niner in the Lexington Stakes here two weeks ago, that colt’s handlers have asked Eddie Delahoussaye to work the horse at Churchill Downs early next week before they decide which rider will get the mount.

The affable Collins, who had been a groom, an exercise rider, a racing secretary and a bloodstock agent before he settled into training in 1985, said he was confident that Vasquez would be back to ride Granacus in the Derby. The jockey himself said he would wait until early next week to decide, although Collins is in a position to force the issue, since agents for both Laffit Pincay and Jose Santos were ringing his telephone Thursday night.

A crowd of only 16,332--the smallest for a Blue Grass since 1975--saw the Derby hopes of six and maybe seven 3-year-olds disintegrate. Only Granacus and Intensive Command, who finished second, are certain for Churchill Downs. Regal Classic, ridden by Pat Day, was the day’s biggest disappointment after running third as the 9-10 favorite. The colt will be sent to Louisville before trainer Jim Day (no relation) makes a Derby decision.

Granacus’ win will do nothing to disturb the Derby favorite status of Winning Colors, the filly who won the Santa Anita Derby, and Private Terms, the undefeated winner of the Wood Memorial. Granacus beat eight horses that had never won an American stakes races and he did it by running 1 1/8 miles over a fast track in 1:52 1/5--the slowest time for a Blue Grass since 1958.

Granacus and Intensive Command were next to last and last after a half mile. Intensive Command, who was 13-1, finished three-quarters of a length ahead of Regal Classic. They were trailed, in order, by Cougarized, What a Diplomat, Buoy, Drouilly’s Boy, Five Star Camp and Delightful Doctor.

Granacus earned $190,856 for his owner, Steve Stavro, the head of a Toronto supermarket chain who bought the colt as a yearling for $46,000 and named him after a river where Alexander the Great fought his first battle. Granacus paid $33.60, $15 and $5.40. The other payoffs were $14 and $5.40 for Intensive Command and $2.40 for Regal Classic.

Granacus, a butterscotch-colored son of Sweet Candy and Lucinda Light, had won only 2 of 12 starts before Thursday. A horse who seemed to find trouble in many of his races, Granacus ran 4th in the Everglades, 12th in the Flamingo, won an allowance race at Calder and was 3rd in his last race, the Tropical Park Derby, when Vasquez rode him for the first time.

Breaking from the outside post, Granacus ran in the middle of the pack going down the backside, with Buoy spurting along the rail to overtake the California-breds--Drouilly’s Boy and What a Diplomat.

On the turn, Granacus felt the sting of Vasquez’s right-handed whip and began to move up. Cougarized had moved from third to first place at the top of the stretch but flattened out and Granacus, splitting horses, collared him midway through the lane. With Vasquez shifting his stick to the left side, Granacus reached the wire comfortably.

“He never really had any trouble when I asked him to run,” Vasquez said. “In the stretch, it looked like he was going to catch them easy, but then I really had to get into him (with the whip). After I got the leader, my horse drew away. He’s as good as anybody now.”

Collins, who has won four of six races with three horses at Keeneland in recent weeks, said that Granacus was in the right position early, even though he was once 10 1/2 lengths behind Drouilly’s Boy.

“The key thing was keeping him on the outside, out of trouble,” Collins said. “He was relaxed in the paddock and we thought he might be a little sharp, because he hadn’t raced in 26 days. The horse is so fit right now that I think he wants to go a mile and a half.”

The Derby is only 1 miles, but even that distance might be too much for Regal Classic, another Canadian-bred who was coming off a 2-week rest after not having run for 4 months.

“We were very far back early, and that wasn’t a good sign,” trainer Jim Day said. “If Pat (Day) had a handful of horse, it would have been OK, but the horse wasn’t taking hold, and that made me wonder what was happening.”

Horse Racing Notes

Regal Classic beat Granacus three times, by 31 3/4 lengths, in three races as a 2-year-old, and in Florida, Granacus had finished behind most of the horses he beat Thursday. . . . Pat Collins may be the most realistic trainer around. “There is no question that this whole crop of 3-year-olds, probably with the exception of Private Terms, is mediocre,” he said. . . . Kingpost and Cefis head an 8-horse field in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby Trial at Churchill Downs. Others running in the 1-mile race are Lover’s Trust, Jim’s Orbit, Frosty the Snowman, Velvet Fog, Morgan’s Levee and Pastourelles.