HORSE RACING : Housebuster Will Stick to Sprinting

Based on comparative times for the first half-mile, Housebuster would have been about 15 lengths ahead if he had run in the Florida Derby last Saturday at Gulfstream Park, instead of in the Swale Stakes on the same track about three hours before.

It is unlikely that any of the Derby horses would have been able to catch Housebuster with a lead like that, no matter how much he might have slowed down in the remaining five-eighths of a mile. Unbridled, the winner of the Florida Derby, improved his position by five lengths in the stretch, but he did so not because of any rapid acceleration, but because the horses ahead of him were out of gas. He ran the last eighth of a mile in just under 13 seconds.

In the seven-furlong Swale, Housebuster beat Summer Squall, who may become one of this season’s best 3-year-olds, by only one length, but he actually won the race more comfortably than that. Craig Perret brought him to the wire under a hand ride, while Pat Day, aboard Summer Squall, hit his mount several times.

“My horse was waiting on the other horses,” Perret said. “And when they came to him, he took right off.”

As his trainer, Jimmy Croll, says, Housebuster has no right to be running 1 1/4 miles--the Kentucky Derby distance--because sprinting is the colt’s game. The odds are astronomical against Housebuster’s running in the Kentucky Derby, and trainers who get to Churchill Downs on May 5 will breathe easier. A horse this fast could still be dangerous in Louisville.

Housebuster is going to Kentucky and eventually Churchill Downs, but not to run in the Derby. The plan is to run him in the seven-furlong Lafayette at Keeneland on April 11 and in the one-mile Derby Trial on opening day at Churchill Downs, the Saturday before the Derby.

Croll is not fishing for a reason to consider the Derby. “If he wins the Trial,” he said, “we’ll all go out to dinner and celebrate. Then we’ll ship him home to New Jersey (and Monmouth Park). To run him a mile and a quarter would be asinine.”

Bob Levy, the owner of Housebuster, also raced Bet Twice, who finished second to Alysheba in the 1987 Kentucky Derby and five weeks later won the Belmont, spoiling Alysheba’s $5-million bid for the Triple Crown. Levy agrees with Croll’s assessment of Housebuster’s limitations and is an owner who seems immune to Derby fever.

Croll said Housebuster is the best pure sprinter he has seen since Mr. Prospector, who was one of the fastest horses ever to race.

Croll didn’t have the control with Mr. Prospector that he apparently will have with Housebuster. As a yearling, Mr. Prospector broke the sales record at Keeneland, where Abraham (Butch) Savin, one of Croll’s clients, bought him for $220,000.

As a 3-year-old in 1973, Mr. Prospector won his first start by 12 lengths at Hialeah in Florida. Croll won the Florida Derby that year with Royal and Regal, but the talk at Gulfstream that day was about Mr. Prospector, who won the following race by 10 lengths in a time of 1:07 3/5, which is still the fastest six furlongs ever run at the track.

Savin started thinking about the Kentucky Derby. “The horse had never been around two turns,” Croll said. “I literally begged him not to do it.”

Croll was told that if he wouldn’t prepare Mr. Prospector for the Derby, Savin would find a trainer who would.

At Keeneland, Mr. Prospector ran in the 1 1/16-mile Calumet Purse and finished third, the first loss of his career. In the Derby Trial, which was then run four days before the Derby, Mr. Prospector finished second but chipped a bone in his ankle. He came back as a 4-year-old to set a six-furlong record at Garden State Park, but he was injured again and this time was retired, with a modest record that included purses of slightly more than $100,000.

At stud, Mr. Prospector has been a wonder. His offspring have earned more than $33 million, and besides siring three sprint champions--Gold Beauty, Eillo and Gulch--he has also accounted for Conquistador Cielo, a Belmont winner; Preakness winner Tank’s Prospect, and Forty Niner, who won the Travers. Fappiano, a son of Mr. Prospector, is one of the top younger stallions.

It was probably just as well that Mr. Prospector didn’t make it to the Kentucky Derby for another reason: That was the year of Secretariat.

Roger Stein’s attorneys are protesting the appointment of Amanda Behe as the administrative law judge for a hearing in Los Angeles on April 17.

Behe was the judge who ruled against Stein when the trainer’s case first went before the California Horse Racing Board early last year. Six trainers were charged with running horses that tested positive for cocaine, and all but Stein were exonerated. Stein, who received a six-month suspension and a $2,000 fine, is suing the racing board and others for $25 million. Another trainer, Laz Barrera, is suing the state’s testing laboratory for $25 million.

“Amanda Behe has a special relationship with the racing board’s staff,” said Russell Iungerich, who represents Stein. “It is not part of her normal rotation that she be given this case again. We have asked her to remove herself from the case.”

Although only six horses are expected to run Sunday in the $300,000 San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita, the 1 1/2-mile grass race is not an easy one to handicap. Included in the field will be Prized, who won the Arcadia Handicap in his last start; Hawkster, who set a world record for the San Luis Rey distance when he won the Oak Tree Invitational last fall, and Frankly Perfect, winner of the San Luis Obispo Handicap this season.

El Senor, who hasn’t run since finishing seventh in last November’s Breeders’ Cup Turf won by Prized, has shipped in from Gulfstream Park and is expected to stay for the San Juan Capistrano Handicap on April 22. Delegant and Just as Lucky are also expected to run Sunday.

Present Value will try to become the fourth California invader to win the Gulfstream Park Handicap when the $300,000 stake is run at 1 1/4 miles Saturday. Other California horses who won the race were Round Table in 1958, Pretense in 1967 and Snow Sporting in 1970.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Kent Desormeaux won one and lost one this week. On Wednesday, the Maryland Racing Commission overruled its stewards and gave Desormeaux a victory that had been taken away via a disqualification in a small stake at Laurel last November. On Thursday, the stewards at Santa Anita handed Desormeaux a five-day suspension, which starts Sunday, for the interference ruling that disqualified Delight’s Tribute after she finished first last Sunday. The Maryland ruling means Desormeaux’s record for wins in one year is increased to 598.

Alex Solis, who has never finished higher than 16th in the national money standings, ranks fourth with purses of $1.7 million. Three other California riders--Gary Stevens, Chris McCarron and Eddie Delahoussaye--are ahead of Solis. . . . Pat Day got the mount on Florida Derby winner Unbridled after Roger Velez suffered multiple pelvic injuries in a spill at Calder.