Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Valenzuela Not Out of Line in Derby Ride

Although Gary Stevens broke his whip while trying to give Music Merci encouragement in the stretch run of the Santa Anita Derby, it looked as though another jockey in the race, Pat Valenzuela, might come back with a damaged stick.

Sunday Silence, winning by a record-breaking 11 lengths, felt Valenzuela’s whip 10 times--once right-handed and the rest from the left side--in the stretch last Saturday. By contrast, Pat Day didn’t hit Easy Goer once in the Kentucky Derby favorite’s 13-length victory the same day in the Gotham at Aqueduct.

The stewards at Santa Anita were concerned enough about Valenzuela’s use of the whip on Sunday Silence to review the race before deciding that he had cause to hit the colt as much as he did.

When Valenzuela hit Sunday Silence the first time, from the right side, at the top of the stretch, the colt ducked inside and came close to hitting the fence. Sunday Silence didn’t move a foot or two off of the fence all the way to the wire.

“It looked like Pat had to keep hitting him, to make sure he stayed off the fence,” said steward Hubert Jones, a former jockey.

The stewards also noted that the strokes from Valenzuela’s whip weren’t especially hard.

“He got into a rhythm, hitting the horse about every other stride,” said ex-jockey Pete Moreno, a placing and patrol judge at Santa Anita who reviewed the race with the stewards. “But he was tapping the horse more than really whacking him.”

Hawkster, fourth in the Santa Anita Derby and winless in five starts since he won the Norfolk about six months ago, will run in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6.

Shelly Meredith, who owns Hawkster, made the decision after trainer Ron McAnally recommended that the horse not run.

Hawkster has found his share of ways to lose. In the Santa Anita Derby, he broke through the gate just before the start. In the Florida Derby, he wilted in the humid heat. At Bay Meadows, he was trapped on the rail, and last year at Hollywood Park he didn’t like having mud splashed in his face.

McAnally was critical of the starting-gate crew at Santa Anita after Hawkster’s gate problems last Saturday.

“That was the fifth time that’s happened to one of my horses at the meet,” McAnally said. “It might not happen to my horses five times in a year. For it to happen in an important race is uncalled for.”

Pete Pedersen, one of the stewards at Santa Anita, said that as the result of a request from the jockeys, there are as many assistant starters as there are runners at the track this season.

“I don’t know if that has anything to do with the bad starts, but that’s a change that we’ve made,” Pedersen said.

McAnally said that he doesn’t have a rider for Hawkster in the Kentucky Derby. The colt has had different riders in his last three races, with Chris McCarron riding him last Saturday.

A decision on whether Music Merci will run in the Kentucky Derby won’t be made for another week. Music Merci, who has won four stakes, was third in the Santa Anita Derby.

“I think I’ve got the third-best 3-year-old (after Easy Goer and Sunday Silence) in the country,” said Craig Lewis, Music Merci’s trainer. “But unfortunately, this is a year when we’re looking at two of the best 3-year-olds to come along in a decade. I’m not anxious to go to Kentucky to run third, but we’re continuing to look at the possibility.”

Lewis feels that Music Merci might have finished second Saturday if he hadn’t broken stride coming out of the far turn.

“Apparently there was a spot on the track and he tried to jump it,” Lewis said. “His hind legs almost went out from under him. (Jockey) Gary (Stevens) thought the horse broke down when it first happened.”

Owner Gene Klein says, “I’m keeping an open mind about Open Mind,” when asked about his 3-year-old filly, who will run in either the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5 or in the Kentucky Derby the next day.

Open Mind won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs last November, is undefeated as a 3-year-old and has an overall record of seven wins and two seconds in nine starts.

“There are still some Derby preps to be run, and we’ll take a look at those and decide,” Klein said. “Easy Goer looks like a monster, but then we don’t know what he can do at a mile and a quarter (the Derby distance), and (trainer) Charlie Whittingham’s horse (Sunday Silence) ran a great race in the Santa Anita Derby.”

Klein won the Kentucky Derby last year with Winning Colors, only the third filly to win the race.

“The temptation to become the only owner to win two straight Derbys with fillies is there,” Klein said, “but it shouldn’t be the overriding factor. We don’t want to be lulled into doing the wrong thing with the filly. Another factor is that I’ve still got a couple of colts who are Derby possibilities.”

Is It True, who because of knee surgery hasn’t run since he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November at Churchill Downs, makes his debut as a 3-year-old in a six-furlong race Friday at Santa Anita.

Klein says it’s possible that Is It True could come back and run in the Arkansas Derby a week from Saturday at Oaklawn Park. That same day, Klein will be running another 3-year-old, Malagra, in the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields.

Trainer Wayne Lukas has indicated that his recommendation to Klein will be to run Open Mind in the Kentucky Oaks.

“She would have an excellent chance to win the Oaks and then go on to the New York triple crown for fillies,” Lukas said. “Winning Colors was a big filly. She’s even bigger as a 4-year-old--she hardly fits in the van. But Open Mind is the delicate type. If you’re running a filly in the Derby, she better be dead-center strong.”

Undefeated Belek, a 3-year-old colt owned and trained by Louie Roussel, won Wednesday’s $53,925 Lafayette at Keeneland by two lengths over Notation and paid $4.20 to win. Roussel was co-owner and trainer of Risen Star, who won the Preakness and Belmont after finishing third in last year’s Derby.

Roussel said that Belek would run in the Derby Trial on opening day at Churchill Downs on April 29, but has no plans to run him in the Derby. Belek, unraced as a 2-year-old, got his third consecutive win, running seven furlongs in 1:23.

Luge II, winner of last year’s Laurel Futurity, has an outside chance of running in the Kentucky Derby but needs a strong performance at Keeneland a week from Friday in the Forerunner, which is 1 1/8 miles on grass.

Brad MacDonald, former assistant to Neil Drysdale, says one of Drysdale’s former stakes winners, Magnificent Lindy, is being bred to Alysheba at Calumet Farm this week. MacDonald is now training in Kentucky.

Majesty’s Imp, the 3-year-old colt owned by former baseball manager Chuck Tanner, pitcher Rick Rhoden of the Houston Astros and minor league manager Bob Skinner, among others, is scheduled to run in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland April 25. Majesty’s Imp finished second to Dispersal in the Louisiana Derby.