HORSE RACING BLUE GRASS STAKES : Summer Squall Holds Off Southland Colt

Before taking on the Mister Frisky question, Summer Squall had to answer the Land Rush question. The gritty little 3-year-old responded with determination, leaving the eighth pole Saturday at Keeneland, pulling away from Land Rush for a 1 3/4-length victory under Pat Day in the Blue Grass Stakes, the next-to-last important prep for next month’s Kentucky Derby.

Mister Frisky, who has won all 16 of his races--including the Santa Anita Derby-- arrived Saturday at Churchill Downs, 75 miles east of here. The Derby will be run May 5.

Another Southland-based colt, Land Rush, ran the best race of his career in the Blue Grass and made Summer Squall work hard for his seventh victory in eight starts.

Unable to beat Mister Frisky at Santa Anita in early March--he was third, beaten by 4 1/2 lengths--and a victim of a bad start when he was fifth in the San Felipe Handicap there two weeks later, Land Rush ensured that trainer Wayne Lukas will have at least one starter in the Derby for the 10th consecutive year.

Land Rush ran in the mud for the first time, trying a surface that Summer Squall loves, and was wide all the way around, but he gave ground grudgingly after taking a brief lead on the far turn.

Said Cot Campbell, who manages the Dogwood Stable syndicate that owns Summer Squall:

“Pat terrifies you. He’s such a patient, heady rider, that you never know what he’s got up his sleeve. He lets another horse get a half-length ahead of him before he lets out a notch, but then that’s Pat’s heady, cool style.”

Said Day: “It’s not terrifying for me. I felt comfortable with this horse at the three-eighths pole, and I don’t mean to put people on the edge of their seats.

“Junior (Angel Cordero Jr.) was outside me on the turn, but I didn’t want to make a premature move with my horse at the eighth pole and then have him falter. I didn’t want to be any worse than a neck back. As long as it was only a head or a neck, I wasn’t concerned.”

Day hit Summer Squall only once through the stretch, with his right hand at the top of the stretch. “He wasn’t at the bottom of the barrel at the wire,” he said. “I think this was all we needed to move on. I have a lot of confidence. It’s difficult not to have confidence in this colt.”

Land Rush, who became Lukas’ leading Derby candidate only after Grand Canyon was injured early in the year, finished two lengths ahead of the late-running Unbridled, the Florida Derby winner. Unbridled had three lengths on Shot Gun Scott and Iskandar Elakbar brought up the rear after trying to press Summer Squall for the pace early in the race.

Summer Squall, earning $185,006, paid $2.60, $2.60 and $2.20, running 1 1/8 miles--an eighth of a mile shorter than the Derby--in 1:48 3/5, 1 1/5 seconds slower than the stakes record Round Table set on a fast track in 1957.

Land Rush paid $5.20 and $2.60 and Unbridled, the second betting choice of the crowd of 22,682, paid $2.20. The $2 exacta paid $14.20.

Summer Squall, breaking from the inside, started more quickly than he had in winning the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park two weeks ago. Iskandar Elakbar, a 51-1 shot making only his fourth start, hounded Summer Squall down the backstretch through a :47 4/5 half-mile, with Land Rush not far behind the first two on the outside.

Iskandar Elakbar, whose handlers brought jockey Richard Migliore from New York for a reported $5,000 mount fee, went ahead of Summer Squall for an instant on the far turn, but then sputtered badly. The real challenge came from Land Rush, who went into the race with only two victories in eight starts.

“There were some footmarks on the track at the first finish line (Keeneland has two) and when he saw those, he lost his action,” Cordero said of Land Rush. “I don’t think he would have won, but he would have made it closer. I got by him just by a head, but then when he saw those tracks, Summer Squall was already by him.”

Having ridden Land Rush at Santa Anita, Cordero has seen both Mister Frisky and Summer Squall. “This horse (Summer Squall) is the one to beat in the Derby,” Cordero said.

“But the way my horse ran today, he certainly deserves a shot. Summer Squall and Mister Frisky are both good, and I’d take either one of them if I had the chance. You can lay anywhere you want with those two horses. It may be decided by who comes up to the race better. The longer stretch at Churchill Downs should help my horse.”

Trainer Carl Nafsger, who scratched Top Snob to save him for the Forerunner, a grass race at Keeneland Friday, didn’t like running his other colt, Unbridled, on an off track. Unbridled will go on to the Derby, and so, probably, will Shot Gun Scott.

Summer Squall’s two 1 1/8-mile races, Saturday’s and the Jim Beam, have been on muddy tracks, and there are trainers who want to see what he will do at a distance on a fast track.

The colt’s trainer, Neil Howard, said the track condition makes no difference.

“This horse has never run a bad race,” Howard said. “He doesn’t have to take his track with him. To be honest, I think he runs better on a fast track.”

Summer Squall should get that chance again. Last year’s Derby was run in the mud, but that was the first off track for the race in 19 years.

Horse Racing Notes

In the last important Kentucky Derby prep, next Saturday’s Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, undefeated Champagneforashley will try for his sixth consecutive victory. . . . Killer Diller rallied from next to last in a field of 11 and won the Garden State Stakes, a minor Derby prep. . . . In another stake at Keeneland Saturday, Randy Romero, on his way to a four-winner day, captured the Elkhorn on the grass with Ten Keys.