HORSE RACING DERBY TRIAL : Housebuster’s Performance a Gangbuster

Trainer Steve Penrod, whose horse had just been beaten by more than eight lengths in Saturday’s Derby Trial, feels that Housebuster, the winner of the stake, ought to be running in the Kentucky Derby next Saturday.

“My horse (Falling Sky, who finished third) didn’t have any business in this race, let alone the Derby,” Penrod said. “Housebuster’s an awfully fast horse. I think he’d be trouble if he ran in the Derby.”

Owner Bob Levy and trainer Jimmy Croll have both said all year Housebuster won’t be running in the Derby, and they didn’t waver Saturday after the workmanlike colt won the Trial by 5 1/4 lengths over Private School as Churchill Downs opened its season before 21,600 on a gray, rainy afternoon.

“This horse’s sire (Mt. Livermore) was a sprinter, his mother (Big Dreams) was a sprinter and he’s built like a sprinter,” Levy said. “An Eclipse Award (for sprinting) comes first, before everything else.”

Levy did, however, leave the door open for Housebuster to run in the Preakness, the second Triple Crown race, at Pimlico on May 19.

“If Craig (Perret) comes up after the Derby and says that we ought to run in the Preakness, then we would have to think about it,” Levy said.

Perret rides both Housebuster and Unbridled, the Florida Derby winner who will be running in the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby.

On Saturday, when Housebuster hit the top of Churchill Down’s long stretch, Perret looked over his right shoulder and saw no one coming. He looked over his left shoulder and saw no challengers on the inside. Then he looked over his right shoulder again and put away his unused whip.

“I’m not saying he could win the Derby, but he’s done everything we’ve asked of him so far,” Perret said. “I wouldn’t like to see him run in the Derby. But I think he’ll get a distance.”

In the seven-furlong Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 17, Housebuster beat Summer Squall, the Derby co-favorite with Mister Frisky, by one length. Thirty Six Red, another leading contender for the Derby, finished third, seven lengths behind Housebuster.

Housebuster paid $2.40 to win in the Trial, running the mile in 1:37 3/5 on a track that was officially fast, but dead because of intermittent showers.

After Private School and Falling Sky, the order of finish was Five on Five, Spiced Coffee and Bates Castle, with Blue Royal scratched. None of the horses is expected to run in the Derby.

The victory, worth $54,453, was the seventh in eighth starts for Housebuster. He’s been undefeated since he ran third at the Meadowlands last October in his first start.

The Trial was the first time Housebuster ran as far as a mile. Races under consideration for him are all in New York--the Withers at a mile on May 9; the Metropolitan Handicap, also a mile, on May 28; and the Riva Ridge, at seven furlongs, on June 9, the same day as the Belmont Stakes. If Easy Goer runs in the Metropolitan, Levy said that Housebuster would skip that race.

And there’s still the possibility of the Preakness, which is 1 3/16 miles. At Pimlico, Housebuster would be a viable spoiler for any Derby winner trying for the Triple Crown.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Ron McAnally left Silver Ending at Churchill Downs to make a phone call to his barn at Hollywood Park Saturday morning, and while he was gone, the Arkansas Derby winner kicked himself in the right hind leg, sustaining a small cut. Silver Ending was examined by a Churchill Downs veterinarian, and McAnally didn’t feel the injury was serious. Silver Ending was given a painkiller, and McAnally said that the colt will have his final pre-Kentucky Derby workout, as scheduled, today.

“He was being sponged off at the barn when he kicked himself,” McAnally said. “He should have been in his stall when that was being done, instead of outside. If he weren’t putting his weight on the leg, I’d be worried, but he is applying weight, so I believe he’s OK. Isn’t it something? I’m gone for five minutes and this happens.”

Mister Frisky, with the heat gone from his left front ankle, galloped about 1 1/4 miles Saturday morning. X-rays were taken of Mister Frisky’s ankle on Friday and they were negative. Mister Frisky is scheduled to be reshod today and work five-eighths of a mile Tuesday. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye will not ride Video Ranger in the Derby. Delahoussaye, who finished second with Video Ranger to Mister Frisky in the Santa Anita Derby, has often said that he won’t go to the Kentucky Derby unless his chances are good. . . . Summer Squall is scheduled to work a half-mile on Wednesday. . . . Thirty Six Red, the Wood Memorial winner, worked five furlongs Saturday in 1:05 4/5. Trainer Nick Zito said he didn’t want the colt running any faster than that. . . . Trainer Ron Sarazin was not happy with Shot Gun Scott’s six-furlong workout in 1:16 2/5.