After Winning Wood, Easy Goer Looks Good

Their chances were never good to begin with, and now, after Easy Goer’s convincing victory in the Wood Memorial, speedy horses such as Sunday Silence and Dispersal seem to have even less chance of upsetting him in the Kentucky Derby May 6.

Perhaps the only way Easy Goer can be beaten in the Derby is through a combination of factors--a slow start by the heavy favorite and a breakneck pace by another horse that might not give him enough time to catch up in the long run through the Churchill Downs stretch.

In recent years, the Derby has been won by horses that blasted out of the gate and were not caught. In the 1985 Derby, Spend a Buck ran the fastest half-mile and mile in the race’s history, then maintained his advantage to the wire in a 5 1/4-length victory. Last year, WinningColors capitalized on a slow pace, held a 3 1/2-length lead at the top of the stretch and gasped her way home a jump ahead of Forty Niner.

Sunday Silence, winner of the Santa Anita Derby, has the kind of starting speed that has won Kentucky Derbys on the front end. But while there was no one who wanted to run with Spend a Buck or Winning Colors, Easy Goer can stay with Sunday Silence early in the race. Before Easy Goer’s three-length victory Saturday at Aqueduct in the Wood, Shug McGaughey, the colt’s trainer, was asked about the prospect of playing catch-up to Sunday Silence in the Derby.

“Sunday Silence is a nice horse,” McGaughey said. “The proof was right there in the paper (the Daily Racing Form). He ran a good race (winning the San Felipe Handicap), and then he improved. You could tell he was going to run well in the Santa Anita Derby, because he worked (five furlongs) in :58 2/5 a few days before.

“I know we’ll see some speed in the Derby. But twice already, they’ve thrown half-miles of 44 and change at my horse and he’s won. As the races get longer, my horse will be a little more prominent. If they run a half-mile in 46 or 47, we’ll be right there with them.”

Against horses that were the same caliber that ran Saturday in the lackluster California Derby at Golden Gate Fields, Easy Goer could have set the pace in the Wood if jockey Pat Day wanted to. After three-quarters of a mile, he was only a length behind Diamond Donnie, while under a snug hold from Day. The fractions were so slow--the first half-mile was run in :48 3/5--that there was no other place for Easy Goer to be.

So Easy Goer, whose come-from-behind style has never been questioned, has now added another dimension, as though he would need one.

Moreover, his problems leaving the gate seem to be behind him. He was a bad beginner as a 2-year-old even before be broke poorly in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs last November. About eighth lengths behind early on, he lost to Is It True by 1 1/4 lengths for the second--and most recent--defeat of his career.

In the 1 1/8-mile Wood, which is an eighth of a mile shorter than the Derby, Easy Goer improved his record to three for three as a 3-year-old.

“In the Swale (Easy Goer’s first race as a 3-year-old), he didn’t break at all,” McGaughey said. “Then in his next race (the Gotham), he broke better. Then on Saturday he broke perfect, the best he’s ever come out of there. We feel that we have that part under control now.”

Easy Goer, McGaughey and Day have the Kentucky Derby under control as well. Before the Wood, the trainer told his jockey that he didn’t want to go to Churchill Downs with “an empty tank.”

On the contrary, Easy Goer’s fuel level is at full, and every ounce is super octane.

* Mike Downey has the day off.