Blue Grass Stakes at Lexington, Ky. : Western Playboy Earns Trip to the Derby

A quarter of a mile from home in Saturday’s Blue Grass Stakes, jockey Randy Romero was telling himself that this would be the easiest $250,000 race he ever won.

Then it became the hardest. Just when Western Playboy and Romero were about to ramble past Dispersal at the top of the stretch, the leader in the Keeneland race swerved from his position on the rail.

If Western Playboy hadn’t been in the way, trying to pass, Dispersal might have gone all the way to the outside fence and on into the grandstand. Instead, the undefeated Louisiana Derby winner bumped Western Playboy hard, knocking Romero’s colt sideways. A couple of strides later, Dispersal came over and bumped Western Playboy again, though not as hard this time.

Undaunted, Western Playboy, who had been running in a straight line in the middle of the track before the first bump, shook off these intrusions and went on to a half-length victory before 26,330 fans on a raw, overcast day. The victory over five other 3-year-olds will send Western Playboy, Romero and trainer Harvey Vanier to the Kentucky Derby on May 6 at Churchill Downs, where the Illinois-bred will be the third betting choice, behind Easy Goer, the odds-on favorite, and Sunday Silence, the Santa Anita Derby winner.

They’ve played this bump and grind before in the Blue Grass, the next-to-last major Derby prep, with only Easy Goer’s Aqueduct appearance in next Saturday’s Wood Memorial remaining. In 1983, Western Playboy’s sire, Play Fellow, was the beneficiary when that celebrated rowdy, Marfa, knocked Desert Wine and Copelan out of the race. Play Fellow, clear of the trouble, went on to win and give Vanier his first Blue Grass victory.

Like Marfa, who had difficulty running straight in several of his races, Dispersal has also been a time bomb waiting to explode, even though his career before Saturday consisted of only three starts. In the Lousiana Derby, when Jose Santos rode him for the first time, Dispersal bore out at the start, jostled Santos and was a handful for the veteran jockey all the way around.

“He was green at the Fair Grounds,” Santos said before the Blue Grass. “He was a little crazy. But after working him in Kentucky, he seems like a different horse and has been relaxing a lot more. Now he goes the way I want him to go.”

So workouts can be deceiving. Dispersal also carried Tricky Creek, the other speed horse in the race, wide on the first turn on Saturday. Trainer Bud Delp, who had won the Blue Grass with Spectacular Bid before winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness 10 years ago, said after Saturday’s race that he wasn’t sure what caused Disperal to misbehave--lack of seasoning or the possibility that the colt’s shins might be bothering him again. Dispersal didn’t race last year because of sore shins.

Dispersal finished nine lengths ahead of Tricky Creek, the third-place horse who had a neck on his stablemate, Feather Ridge. Trailing the field were Arcadia Falls and Revive.

Western Playboy, who won his first stakes race, the Jim Beam, at Turfway Park two weeks ago, has four wins and four seconds in nine starts. Favored because of the win in the Beam and his fondness for muddy tracks, he paid $4, $2.60 and $2.20. Dispersal, the second choice, paid $2.80 and $2.40; Tricky Creek, coupled with Feather Ridge in the betting, paid $2.20, and a $2 exacta on the first two finishers was worth $10.20.

Western Playboy’s time for 1 1/8 miles was a slow 1:51 1/5. The big chestnut earned $185,900 for Nancy Vanier--the trainer’s wife and breeder of the horse--and Raymond A. Roncari, a Connecticut construction man who bought a 25% interest in the colt earlier this month.

Coming off the track after the ceremony in the winner’s circle, Romero took three of the five pairs of goggles that he wore and flung them to fans. Romero’s No. 1 Kentucky Derby horse was Dixieland Brass, but he went lame as the favorite in the Florida Derby, a race in which Western Playboy finished second. Then Romero finished second to Western Playboy while riding Feather Ridge in the Jim Beam.

“I’ve had my eye on this horse (Western Playboy) for a long time,” Romero said. “I went to Mr. Vanier the day after the Jim Beam and asked him if I could ride him.”

Pat Day, who rode Western Playboy in the Beam, had a commitment dating back to last year to ride Easy Goer as a 3-year-old.

“We were just loping by the leader today when the bumping started,” Romero said of the Blue Grass. “My horse is so big that he overcame all that. It slowed our momentum, but he still finished beautiful. He belongs in the Kentucky Derby. A mile and a quarter should be his best distance.”

Back at the barn, an hour or so after the Blue Grass, Vanier’s stable hands rejoiced with champagne, some Kentucky whiskey and even a little rum. Western Playboy completed several circuits of the shed row and appeared to have survived the race with only a couple of minor nicks on his rear legs. One of his handlers said that the Jim Beam had been a four-nick race.

Santos could offer only a flimsy explanation for Dispersal’s wrong turn at the top of the stretch.

“He saw the (starting) gate and started getting out real bad,” the jockey said. “He worked good the other day, but then he didn’t see anything like today. He’s still learning. He ran straight after he passed the gate. He did the same thing when he saw the gate in the Louisiana Derby.

“The other horse (Tricky Creek) stayed close to me all the way down the backside, and that took a lot out of my horse. I had some horse left in the stretch. He started running again after we bumped.”

The Blue Grass started in front of the stands, and after the horses left, the gate was moved up the stretch parallel to the outside fence and opposite the three-sixteenths pole.

Romero won the race after the Blue Grass, giving him four winners for the day and 13 victories through the first seven days of the meeting. The 31-year-old jockey has also won five of the seven stakes run, and when he went to the barn late Saturday to check on the condition of Western Playboy, Romero gave away yet another pair of goggles to a fan. The sky’s the limit when a jockey’s riding as he is.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Bud Delp said that he would make a decision today regarding whether Dispersal runs in the Kentucky Derby. . . . None of the other Blue Grass horses will run in the Derby. . . . In his only other start at Keeneland, Western Playboy won the first race of his career, beating maidens here last October. . . . There hasn’t been an off track at the Derby since 1970, but Western Playboy would benefit if it rained this year. He’s had three wins and two seconds in five off-track starts. . . . Western Playboy’s earnings grew to $669,541. . . . Randy Romero already has broken, by one, the Keeneland stakes record of four wins in a season. The record had been shared by Eddie Arcaro, Kenny Knapp, Don Brumfield and Earlie Fires. . . . Easy Goer is scheduled to work five furlongs this morning at Belmont Park.