SANTA ANITA : Grand Canyon Hurt, Out of Derby

Grand Canyon, the winter-book favorite to win the Kentucky Derby on May 5, has suffered a leg injury and will be sidelined for at least four months.

Trainer Wayne Lukas disclosed the injury Friday at Santa Anita, after having been asked for weeks about rumors that there was something wrong with Grand Canyon.

Lukas said that Grand Canyon has a pull or a strain of the flexor muscles near his left knee. There is also secondary inflammation in the knee area.

Lukas said that Grand Canyon stumbled as jockey Angel Cordero pulled him up after a smashing victory in the Hollywood Futurity Dec. 17. Grand Canyon’s mile time of 1:33 was the fastest ever by a 2-year-old.

Until this week, Grand Canyon had not had an official workout since the Futurity, prompting speculation that he might be injured. Last Tuesday, after Grand Canyon had worked half a mile in a mediocre :48 4/5, veterinarians examined him and diagnosed the injury.

“The vets said we could have gone on with him,” Lukas said. “But with such an important horse as this, we’d just as soon give him time to heal and have him ready for the big races at the end of the year. We’re doing what’s in the best interests of the horse.”

Grand Canyon, an $825,000 yearling purchase, is owned by Lukas and William T. Young of Lexington, Ky. Lukas said that the colt will be sent to his training center near Del Mar for recuperation.

“I think he got hurt when he rapped himself in the leg after the Futurity,” Lukas said. “This is not a bowed tendon (which frequently ends a horse’s career). If this was a bow, we would be looking for a breeding shed for him.”

Grand Canyon is expected to also miss the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, the other Triple Crown races run in a five-week period after the Derby.

“A flexor is usually serious,” said a veterinarian familiar with the type of injury Grand Canyon has. “When they say four months, they’re hoping. A flexor can be the beginning of a more serious injury.”

With Grand Canyon injured, Rhythm becomes a lukewarm favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. Rhythm, who makes his debut as a 3-year-old in the Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park today, beat Grand Canyon by two lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November at Gulfstream, then edged out Lukas’ colt for the Eclipse Award as best 2-year-old colt.

Grand Canyon won the Norfolk at Santa Anita before the Breeders’ Cup and rebounded from his Breeders’ Cup defeat by winning a stake at Churchill Downs and the Hollywood Futurity. Advance Derby betting in Las Vegas was heavier on Grand Canyon than Rhythm because Grand Canyon’s overall record was deeper. Rhythm’s Breeders’ Cup triumph was his only stakes victory of the year.

Grand Canyon, with four victories and three seconds in eight starts, has earned $1 million.

Grand Canyon joins a list of top Lukas 2-year-olds who missed the Derby, including Stalwart, Saratoga Passage and Landaluce. Lukas won the Derby in 1988 with the filly Winning Colors and was hoping that Grand Canyon might become his first colt to win the race.

“Grand Canyon was a horse capable of taking us to new levels,” Lukas said. “We may still go to the Derby, but we don’t have another Grand Canyon out there. We’ve got some good horses--Land Rush, Richard R. and Table Limit, to name a few--but nothing like Grand Canyon.”

Ron Hansen wanted to ride Sunday in the $300,000 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita, but the Arcadia track has banned the jockey from riding under the same exclusion rule that Golden Gate Fields invoked against Hansen last Sunday.

Hansen was going to be named to ride Variety Road in the San Antonio for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer before Santa Anita issued the ban. Golden Gate has been able to ban Hansen, the Bay Area’s leading jockey, under a catch-all state rule that gives a track that prerogative. Golden Gate officials have not given their reasons for the ban.

Pat Valenzuela will ride Variety Road.

Hansen has not been deprived of his riding license and might try to compete at other tracks, among them Bay Meadows, which is now conducting a quarter horse meeting.

Hansen’s attorney, James Basin, is attempting to appeal Golden Gate’s action through both the California Horse Racing Board and the courts. Basin was unable to get a temporary restraining order against Golden Gate this week. At the court hearing, Golden Gate presented part of its case to Basin.

“Some of what they have is double and triple hearsay,” Basin said. “Their allegations are untruthful. What they’ve shown me is surprisingly weak in substance.”

Basin, however, would give no details about Golden Gate’s allegations.

Eight horses are entered in the San Antonio, headed by Ruhlmann, the high weight at 122 pounds.

The lineup, in post-position order with jockeys and weights, is:

Stylish Winner, Corey Black, 113 pounds; Criminal Type, Alex Solis, 117; Hollywood Reporter, Gary Stevens, 112; Present Value, Eddie Delahoussaye, 120; Payant, Robbie Davis, 117; Ruhlmann, Chris McCarron, 122; Complicate, Russell Baze, 110, and Variety Road, Pat Valenzuela, 115.

Horse Racing Notes

Dominant Dancer, winner of the Oak Leaf at Santa Anita last fall, has a new trainer, moving from Don Harper to Jack Van Berg. A track veterinarian scratched Dominant Dancer, saying she was unsound, when Harper tried to run her in the Hollywood Starlet on Dec. 3. Two weeks later, after she was supplemented into the Hollywood Futurity against colts for $50,000, Dominant Dancer beat only one horse. . . . Santa Anita will run the next two Mondays, with the Santa Ysabel Stakes on the schedule next week and the San Luis Obispo Handicap on the Feb. 19 card.