SANTA ANITA : Warcraft Special to Derby Veteran

When it comes to the race track, it helps to have a genuine Renaissance wrangler, such as Otto Draper, on the payroll.

Otto knows race riding. He was a jockey on the Northwest and mid-Atlantic circuits for 15 years.

Otto knows training. His barn was up to as many as 20 head during the mid-1980s before financial setbacks turned business sour.

Otto even knows painting. After nearly 20 years of brush work and sketches, Draper has begun to sell some of his equine oils and drawings.

But most of all, Otto knows Warcraft, the 3-year-old colt from Charlie Whittingham’s stable who has been Draper’s morning exercise partner since last December.

Warcraft will be among the contenders in the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, and a solid performance by the son of Ack Ack could buy him--and Draper--a ticket to the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.

Draper already knows what it takes to win the Derby, either the Santa Anita or Kentucky version. While working for Wayne Lukas, Draper was the regular exercise rider for Winning Colors in 1988, when she swept both races and became a national darling.

But whereas Winning Colors was a tightly-wound bundle of muscle and nerves, Warcraft is an easygoing colt who doesn’t know enough yet to get all excited.

Draper describes Warcraft as a baby-faced kid with a mouth as soft as expensive glove leather. Exercise riders like that quality in a horse, for the softer the mouth, the more responsive the animal is to pressure on the reins and bit.

“He impressed me the very first time I worked him,” Draper said.

That was last Dec. 11 in a five-furlong breeze at Hollywood Park. Warcraft worked in company with another promising Whittingham colt, Far Out Star, who ran second in his debut last Sunday.

“Luis (Jauregui) was on Far Out Star,” Draper recalled. “We were going along head and head. I looked over and smiled at him, then loosened the reins just a little bit. Warcraft immediately started to pull away.”

Draper quickly throttled down, afraid to tap into Warcraft’s true ability too soon. Still, it was a memorable moment.

“If you’re riding a horse in the afternoon who feels like he did, you’ve got the confidence that you could win any race at any time,” Draper said.

The Santa Anita Derby will be Warcraft’s sixth race in 76 days, a strenuous schedule by most standards and an apparent departure from Whittingham’s slow, patient style. But more than anything else, Whittingham is known for tailoring a schedule to fit a horse, not the other way around. He says Warcraft can stand the gaff.

“One thing you’ve got to remember, this colt never raced at all last year,” Whittingham said. “You don’t want to push the Ack Acks too early or you’ll be in trouble later on. And this colt had an awful lot of foundation under him before he even got to the races.”

Warcraft made his debut on Jan. 21 and finished a so-so fourth, going seven furlongs that neither delighted nor disappointed his people. He came back on Feb. 4 to break his maiden at 1 1/16 miles, then finished far back going a mile on a muddy track on Feb. 18.

“That was really his only bad race,” Draper said. “And I blame it on the fact that he’s still immature. He really didn’t know how to handle getting hit with all that mud.

“To look at him right now, he’s still got a little baby face and a real soft, quiet eye. Give him a peppermint and he doesn’t even know how to eat it yet. He kind of sucks on them a little, mouths them and then drops them, like he’s saying, ‘What do I do with this?’ ”

Warcraft, who is owned by Whittingham in partnership with Mary Bradley and Nancy Chandler, bounced back from his mud race and won by six lengths on March 4. In the San Felipe Handicap on March 18, his stakes debut, he finished second to upset winner Real Cash, losing by 5 1/2 lengths.

“He’s maturing fast,” Draper added. “We’ve moved him right along, and he’s handled everything we’ve thrown his way without getting all stirred up.

“He just putzes along and does his own thing. He doesn’t get up on his hind feet and rear like Sunday Silence. He’s not a run-off like Winning Colors, and he doesn’t have a 15-race winning streak like Mister Frisky. He’s quiet, and some may overlook him because of that. But he has a presence about him.”

Horse Racing Notes

Warcraft had his final Santa Anita Derby prep Wednesday morning, going half a mile in :47 before the rains came. Chris McCarron, who rides him Saturday, was aboard for the workout. With only $30,000 in graded race earnings, Warcraft needs a healthy chunk of the purse Saturday to be assured of a starting berth in the Kentucky Derby, which is limited to 20 runners.

Leading rider Gary Stevens returns to Santa Anita today after making a special appearance at Longacres Racetrack. Stevens, who wore a leg brace because of Perthes’ disease when he was a child, made a special appearance at a Seattle area children’s orthopedic hospital, then rode the opening-day card Wednesday where he won the $30,000 feature aboard Hilco’s Scamper.