Derby Step for Summer Squall : Horse racing: He runs a muddy 1 1/8 miles in a fast 1:49 2/5 under Day. Blue Grass Stakes is the colt’s next scheduled race.

Jockey Jerry Bailey stepped out of a shower at Turfway Park and walked over to a television monitor to watch a rerun of Saturday’s $500,000 Jim Beam Stakes.

“Hey,” Bailey said, “are they going to call this the Pat Day race next year?”

Day, making his fourth appearance in the stake, had won the Kentucky Derby prep for the fourth time. Day abandoned his first three winners--At the Threshold, J.T.’s Pet and Western Playboy--to ride other horses in the Derby but probably won’t this time. Summer Squall’s 2 1/2-length victory on a muddy track stamped the $300,000 Storm Bird yearling as one of the strong favorites when the Triple Crown chase begins at Churchill Downs on May 5.

Although Day has ridden another Derby contender, Florida Derby winner Unbridled, Cot Campbell, the manager of the syndicate that owns Summer Squall, is confident that Day will also be his jockey for the first Saturday in May.

“I can’t speak for Pat,” Campbell said, “but I’d bet money that he’ll take our horse.”

Campbell said that Day would contact him today or Monday with his decision. Both Summer Squall and Unbridled are scheduled to run in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 14.

In what was the most impressive victory by a Kentucky Derby candidate this year, Summer Squall edged ahead of the pace-setting Bright Again inside the eighth pole and coasted to the wire with Day never resorting to his whip. The early fractions were good--1:11 2/5 for six furlongs and 1:37 2/5 for a mile--and the winning time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:49 2/5, only two-fifths of a second off the track record.

Bright Again, ridden by Craig Perret, finished second, eight lengths in front of Yonder under Bailey, and it was six lengths farther back to Power Lunch in fourth place. Southland-based Tight Spot finished fifth after being close to the pace until the top of the stretch, and he was followed by Private School, Top Snob, Fighting Fantasy, Sluki and Seven Spades.

Favored by the crowd of 16,872, Summer Squall paid $3.80, $3.60 and $2.80. Bright Again paid $5.60 and $4.20, and Yonder returned $3.60. A $2 exacta on the first two finishers was worth $20.40.

Two of the runner-up trainers thought Summer Squall’s race thrust him into the forefront of Derby picture.

“I thought this horse was the best 2-year-old last year, and I think he’s the best 3-year-old right now,” said Rusty Arnold, who handles Bright Again. “His time was tremendous. My horse ran big, but the other horse was just a little better.”

Bright Again needs another race before the Kentucky Derby, but Arnold plans to avoid Summer Squall at Keeneland. Bright Again will run in the Lexington Stakes there April 24.

“The winner was much the best,” said Ron McAnally, Tight Spot’s trainer. “He took mud in his face down in there all the way and still had a lot left. But this race isn’t as much of a barometer as it might seem, because we had to run on an off track.”

Summer Squall thrives on mud. Undefeated as a 2-year-old, two of his five victories--at Churchill Downs and at Saratoga--came on off tracks.

“We had an edge going into this race, because we knew the horse could handle the mud and we had a jockey like Pat Day,” said Neil Howard, Summer Squall’s trainer. “This horse has won all over the country, so he’s proved that he doesn’t have to carry his track around with him in a suitcase. That’s an attribute you need with a good horse, because you know you’re going to be traveling with him.”

Summer Squall earned $300,000 with his sixth victory in seven starts. His debut as a 3-year-old was delayed because he bled during a workout at Gulfstream Park, and he went 15 days without a workout. Finally, on March 17, Summer Squall was treated with an anti-bleeding medication, and he made his first start in 6 1/2 months. He finished within a length of Housebuster, one of the country’s premier sprinters, at seven furlongs.

Still, Summer Squall hadn’t been around two turns until Saturday, and now the fidgety Howard has less of a reason to fidget. “You’re never ahead of schedule when you’re trying to get a horse ready for the Kentucky Derby,” Howard said. “But at least I think we’re on schedule with this horse now.”

Day has won many big races, but never a Kentucky Derby.

“I’d like to win it eight or 10 more times,” Day said of the Beam. “All of them are sweet, but this was the shortest-priced horse of the four, and he really has a great future. He was practically pulling me out of the bridle. The distance has never been a question in my mind, but you don’t know until you put them to the test, and he passed it.”

Breaking from the inside post, Summer Squall dropped into third place while Bright Again and Tight Spot ran ahead of him. Arnold thought that Bright Again’s chances were hurt because Tight Spot kept the pressure on his colt.

The Blue Grass, which has fallen out of favor with trainers in recent years, was moved to an early date last year and could be this year’s strongest, top-to-bottom Derby prep. Just having Summer Squall and Unbridled there makes it a formidable race.

“Those two horses are very close together right now,” Bailey said. “I’d love to have the chance to pick either one of them.”

Horse Racing Notes

After the race, Summer Squall was kicked in the rear left leg by the outrider’s pony as he was being escorted to the winner’s circle. Trainer Neil Howard said that Summer Squall was nicked in two spots in the upper part of the leg and there was a small amount of bleeding. “He’s got two spots on him,” Howard said. “One little scrape and a little place above it. The upper spot called for two little stitches. It was a superficial cut.”

There were surprises in two other Kentucky Derby preps Saturday. At Oaklawn Park, Nuits St. Georges, a colt who hadn’t won a race until he beat maidens at Santa Anita March 4, won the Rebel while the favorite, Tarascon, finished third. Nuits St. George, who paid $63.80,was ridden by Jamie Bruin and is trained by Doug Peterson. . . . At Garden State Park, Dr. Bobby A ($15.20) won the Cherry Hill Mile by 6 1/2 lengths as the favorite, Smelly, finished second on a sloppy track.