Victory Turns Sour as Road to Derby Ends : California Derby: Stalwart Charger wins, but gelding wasn’t nominated to Triple Crown races.

Pico Perdomo should have been happier.

The 50-year-old native of Uruguay had won the biggest race of his training career when Stalwart Charger prevailed by 2 1/4 lengths in the $300,000 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields Saturday.

But when the final deadline for nominations to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes passed March 17, Stalwart Charger’s name was not on the list. There is no provision to make a horse eligible through a late fee to any of the Triple Crown events.

Perdomo blames the oversight on the assumption that the Stalwart Charger had been nominated early in his 2-year-old season, before he was bought by Sidney Factor for $27,500 in March of 1989. When the gelding began to develop, Perdomo proceeded as if he had a Kentucky Derby candidate on his hands--without verifying the eligibility.

“Of course, I’m very disappointed he was not nominated to the Derby,” Perdomo said after Stalwart Charger beat Music Prospector in a near-record 1:46 4/5 for the 1 1/8 miles. “There is no horseman alive who does not dream of winning the Kentucky Derby.”

The son of Stalwart has run only five times, winning four, and appears to be improving. Stalwart Charger prepped for the Cal Derby by winning the 1 1/16-mile Sausalito Stakes by five lengths over the same track two weeks earlier.

Saturday’s race required an extra half-furlong, but it hardly mattered. Breaking from post five in the field of 12, Stalwart Charger headed for the lead and never trailed thereafter. He got some pressure around the first turn from Forty Niner Days and then was challenged on the final turn by Music Prospector. But at no point was jockey Roberto Gonzalez worried.

“Even though Forty Niner Days was right next to him, he was going real easy,” said Gonzalez, who rode Avenging Force to an upset of King Glorious at Golden Gate last year. “Really, I was never worried about anything catching him.”

Said Frank Olivares, who rode Music Prospector: “I got within about a length of the leader at the quarter pole, but that was as close as I ever got.”

Tsu’s Dawning put in a late move to take third, eight lengths behind the runner-up.

Stalwart Charger’s final time was two-fifths of a second off Simply Majestic’s California Derby mark of 1:46 2/5, set in 1987.

Among the disappointments in the field were second choice Tight Spot (fourth), Louisiana Derby winner Heaven Again (eighth) and Baldwin Stakes winner Farma Way (ninth). Forty Niner Days, who had won two consecutive races at Golden Gate for trainer Neil Drysdale, stopped badly and finished last.

But Perdomo felt like the real loser.

The trainer’s voice cracked as he pondered watching the Kentucky Derby on television instead of being there with his horse.

“The thing is, when you spend your life around all kinds of horses, you know when one comes along that is special,” Perdomo said. “And you know you will never have another horse like that one again. Stalwart Charger is that kind of horse.”

What lies ahead for Stalwart Charger?

“Everything is a question mark right now,” Perdomo said. “There is the Swaps Stakes, the Super Derby, the Molson in Canada. And he is eligible to the Breeders’ Cup.

“But he could win the Breeders’ Cup and that still would not be the same feeling as winning the Kentucky Derby.”

Horse Racing Notes

Ron Hansen, the leading rider at Golden Gate who was temporarily ruled off the track earlier this year, equaled the track record by winning six races Saturday. “I’ll bet I leave here with more money than you today,” a jubilant Hansen said to Roberto Gonzalez after Gonzalez won the California Derby. Hansen was reinstated when the California Racing Board found no justification for the track to continue its ban. . . . Sid Factor and his wife, Dorothy, owners of Stalwart Charger, were celebrating their 50th anniversary Saturday and had to miss the Derby victory. . . . It was Stalwart Charger’s third birthday Saturday, as it was for Leticia Gonzalez, daughter of his winning rider. Steve Miyadi, trainer of Cal Derby runner-up Music Prospector, said he might consider running his colt in the Preakness Stakes.