Horse Racing / Bill Christine : France-Based Tagel, Not Houston, Is Real Derby Mystery Horse

Houston has been called the mystery horse, and Santa Anita is billing Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby as the mystery race, but the real mystery among the candidates for this year’s Kentucky Derby is a 3-year-old colt who is in training more than 4,000 miles away from Churchill Downs.

Tagel is his name, and although the France-based, Kentucky-bred horse has yet to race this year, a consensus of future books in Las Vegas lists him as a respectable 12-1 to win the Kentucky Derby, which will be run four weeks from Saturday.

The trend this year is for many horses to go into the Derby lightly raced, but Tagel’s campaign borders on the non-existent. He will run only once, in a mile race on the grass at Longchamps in Paris on April 16. If he does well, trainer Francois Boutin will wait until the first week of May to ship him to the United States, just a few days before the Kentucky Derby.

The race later this month will be only Tagel’s fourth start but he’s already familiar with Churchill Downs. Last November, in his only race on dirt, Tagel lost for the first time, running third behind Is It True and Easy Goer, in the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Louisville.

Tagel broke slowly and was beaten by 9 1/4 lengths, but he still ran better than seven other 2-year-olds used to racing on dirt.

Boutin, who has been exposing Tagel to a dirt training track in France, is known for shipping horses to America and having them win right off the plane. He won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes twice that way with the brilliant filly Miesque and he won the Turf Classic with April Run twice in New York, each time just a few weeks after she ran in the Arc de Triomphe at Longchamps.

Tagel’s Kentucky Derby prep race is the same one that Blushing John won a year ago. Blushing John, owned by Allen Paulson, as is Tagel, won the Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park last month.

The real mystery in the 52nd Santa Anita Derby is why Mr. Bolg will run and try to beat undefeated Houston, Sunday Silence and three other horses--Hawkster, Music Merci and Flying Continental--who have won stakes.

Mr. Bolg has early speed--he ran a half-mile in 44 seconds at Santa Anita in January--but he has never run beyond seven furlongs and his only two victories in eight starts have been in races restricted to California-breds.

Mr. Bolg is a son of Bolger, who is a speed sire. His dam, Brew Mistress, won at 1 1/4 miles and there are other indications of stamina on the female side of Mr. Bolg’s bloodlines.

“He won that last race (at seven furlongs by five lengths in 1:22 3/5 on March 10) very impressively,” said Yves Seguin, who trains Mr. Bolg. “In the race before that (the Bolsa Chica Stakes), he was a close fourth despite a rough trip. He has been training specifically for Saturday since his last start.”

The longest-priced winner of the Santa Anita Derby was Destroyer, who paid $89.80 when he upset Agitate in 1974.

Remember Win, the horse who finished second to Zoffany in the Hollywood Turf Cup in December 1985?

Tendon problems have kept the 9-year-old gelding away from the races ever since, but Win has popped up in the entries at Aqueduct and will run in a seven-furlong race there today.

Win actually injured his tendon twice, the second time in a comeback attempt nine months after the Hollywood Park race. He underwent surgery last year and returned to training in October.

In 1985, Win would have won the male grass title, but Cozzene won the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Aqueduct at the end of the year and beat him out in a close vote.

“He’s been doing great since the surgery,” said Sally Bailie, Win’s trainer. “We’ve never looked back.”

Larry Bramlage, the veterinarian from Ohio State who performed the surgery on Win, may want to move on to Kerosene, the highly regarded 3-year-old whose racing career was ended by a tendon injury in Florida this week.

Kerosene, who had two wins and two seconds in four starts, would have been one of the favorites at Hialeah Saturday in the Flamingo, which, along with the Santa Anita Derby, is one of four remaining major preps for the Kentucky Derby. The others are the Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 15 and the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 22.

With Kerosene out of the Flamingo, the 9-5 favorite in a nine-horse field is Awe Inspiring, trained by Shug McGaughey. McGaughey will be at Aqueduct Saturday, to saddle Easy Goer, the future-book favorite for the Kentucky Derby, in the Gotham Mile.

Easy Goer is a 1-2 favorite in a field of four. Trainer Wayne Lukas, who is starting Texian, says openly that he’s running for second-place money.

Jockey Pat Valenzuela was examined by a Santa Anita track doctor Monday and given permission to resume riding this week by the stewards. Valenzuela, who is ranked among the nation’s top 10 riders with $1.5 million in purses, rode three winners Wednesday his first day back.

Last Sunday, for the second time in recent weeks, Valenzuela canceled his mounts because of illness. Laffit Pincay, who replaced him on Ruhlmann, won the San Bernardino Handicap. Valenzuela is scheduled to ride Sunday Silence in the Santa Anita Derby Saturday.

Because of his history of drug problems, any absence by Valenzuela causes suspicion. The stewards ordered Valenzuela to be tested for drugs this week.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Joe Manzi, who has taken a course on cardiac-pulmonary resuscitation, put it to use last week on Bruce Ferguson, a horse owner who collapsed at Santa Anita. Manzi had left the winner’s circle after a win by his 3-year-old filly, Formidable Lady, and was on his way back to watch a television rerun when he noticed a commotion. “The man was gasping for air and his eyes were going back in his head,” Manzi said. “Everybody was running around and didn’t know what to do. I kept pressing on his heart and pretty soon he started breathing and his color came back. Then they took him on a stretcher to an ambulance.”

It was incorrectly written here that Jerry Moss, who owns Ruhlmann, had also switched from trainer Bobby Frankel to Charlie Whittingham with the stakes-winning Pay the Butler. Pay the Butler isn’t owned by Moss, and Frankel continues to train the horse. . . . Chris McCarron, back in action after a five-day suspension, will ride Pranke in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap April 23. . . . Walter Guerra, who has been riding for five years in Florida, returns to Santa Anita next week. . . . Tenacious Tom, who wasn’t nominated for the Triple Crown races, is the only 3-year-old colt with two stakes wins at the Santa Anita meeting.

Many observers were surprised that John Brunetti, the owner of Hialeah, made a strong showing in battling the incumbent Del Mar Thoroughbred Club for the 20-year renewal to conduct racing at the seaside track. Brunetti received two of the six votes from the State Race Track Leasing Commission. Apparently, though, the votes were cast by commissioners who were not necessarily in favor of Brunetti, but who were generally opposed to the Thoroughbred Club, which has operated Del Mar since 1970.