Pimlico Special Will Give West Still Another Chance to Gloat

After Sunday Silence became the fourth straight California horse to win the Kentucky Derby, trainer Charlie Whittingham was asked if there was a reason for the trend.

“All you’ve got to do is look,” Whittingham said. “That’s where the toughest racing is.”

Whittingham’s statement will get another test Saturday, when top horses from both ends of the country face each other in the $700,000 Pimlico Special.

It will be a challenging race because of its geographic diversity. Of the 12 horses in the lineup, four are based in New York, three in California, two in Maryland and one in Canada. The other two came here from Arkansas after the end of the season at Oaklawn Park. But the Special might come down to an East vs. West duel, between Cryptoclearance and Whittingham’s colt, Lively One.

Cryptoclearance has been a tough competitor throughout his career; he was third in the 1987 Preakness, third in the 1988 Pimlico Special. But now that his most formidable contemporaries have retired to stud, he has emerged as the leading older horse in the country.

He made impressive stretch runs to defeat Slew City Slew in the Donn and Widener handicaps in Florida this winter. Slew City Slew beat him in the Gulfstream Park Handicap, but the circumstances of that race were somewhat fluky--the winner got away with a ridiculously slow pace, and Cryptoclearance bled.

Cryptoclearance’s superiority to Slew City Slew took on added meaning when the latter colt went to the Oaklawn Park Handicap and defeated a good field that included Stalwars, Blushing John and Proper Reality--all of whom are considered legitimate competitors in the Special.

It was a roughly run race in which several of the losers had excuses, but the inference is that Cryptoclearance is better than all of these horses. He also has whipped Little Bold John a couple of times; he’s better than the Pimlico home team.

All of these factors make Cryptoclearance a legitimate 123-pound highweight in the Special field and a logical favorite.

Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that Lively One is ready to play in Cryptoclearance’s league. The colt showed flashes of excellence last year (he was narrowly beaten by such aces as Seeking the Gold and Precisionist), but he was a couple of notches below the country’s best. However, Whittingham’s horses generally don’t hit their best stride until they are 4 or 5, and Lively One is beginning to look like another such late-bloomer.

The 4-year-old gave an excellent performance in his last start at Santa Anita to finish a close second behind Ruhlmann, who might be the sharpest horse in California now, in the excellent time of 1:47 1/5 for 1 1/8 miles. (Speed figures indicate that might have been slightly better than Cryptoclearance’s last win.)

There aren’t any clear lines of comparison between Lively One’s form and that of Cryptoclearance. If the track is sloppy on Saturday, making fine distinctions about their relative ability might be irrelevant. Cryptoclearance is an ace mudder; Lively One has no established off-track form.

But if the track is in decent condition, and Lively One is anywhere near his morning-line odds of 10-1, it might make sense to bet that the West is going prevail once again over the East.