THOROUGHBRED RACING : Santos Picks His Derby Mount

Jockey Jose Santos was comparing two horses.

“It would be a tough choice on who to ride if they were in the same race,” he said.

A guess that Santos was talking about Fly So Free and Meadow Star, the 2-year-old champions he rode last year, would only be half right. Santos likes Meadow Star, the undefeated filly, but not to give him his first victory in the Kentucky Derby.

When they play “My Old Kentucky Home” in the late afternoon at Churchill Downs on May 4, Santos has a hunch that he will be on the back of either Fly So Free or Split Run.

Fly So Free figures. The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Eclipse Award winner is responsible for Santos being absent from Santa Anita today so he can ride the colt in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park, the last important prep for the Florida Derby.

But Split Run? Few horseplayers outside of Arcadia know who he is, despite his two victories in as many starts by a total margin of 18 lengths.

“He’s one of the best 3-year-olds I’ve seen,” said Santos, who has ridden Split Run both times. “The three best in California are Excavate, Dinard and Split Run.

“Fly So Free has put on a lot of muscle and now he looks more like a racehorse, but he hasn’t faced much competition back there. Split Run hasn’t beaten anybody, but he’s been so impressive. In his last race (last Monday), he went around two turns and ran the last 5/16ths (of a mile) as fast as any horse at the meet. And this was only the second time he’s run. He looks like a horse who will run all day long.”

Santos, 29, has won five Breeders’ Cup races, has led the country in purses four times, has been voted an Eclipse Award and has ridden Criminal Type, who was voted 1990’s horse of the year, but he has never won the Kentucky Derby. His first appearance at Louisville resulted in his highest finish, a fourth-place run with Cryptoclearance in 1987. In his only other Derby, he finished ninth on Triple Buck, who was 65-1 in 1989.

Scotty Schulhofer, who trained Cryptoclearance, also has Santos riding Fly So Free, even though the Chilean passed up three mounts on the colt early last year. After Santos rode Fly So Free to an 8 1/4-length victory at Belmont Park in his first race, James Bruin took over for a third-place finish at Monmouth Park, and Jerry Bailey rode him the next two times--a victory in allowance company at Belmont Park and a fourth in the Tremont Stakes there.

The first time he was off Fly So Free, Santos had another commitment at Belmont; he was out of town for the first Belmont race, and in the Tremont, Santos’ former agent, Frank Sanabria, signed up the jockey to ride Vermont, a Wayne Lukas-trained colt. Vermont outran Fly So Free, finishing second, but when Fly So Free was going to run in the Champagne in October, Santos wanted another chance.

“Scotty likes me,” Santos said. “He gave the horse back to me.”

Fly So Free hasn’t lost since then. He won the Champagne by 5 1/4 lengths, took the Breeders’ Cup by three, and in his first start as a 3-year-old, he was convincing while winning the Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park.

“You had to like his race the way he made the late move that he did,” Santos said. “He hadn’t run in more than two months, and we just wanted to give him an easy race.

“Until we got to the three-eighths pole, he did nothing. There were five horses in front of us, but they split to give us some room. I wanted to go outside, but Fly So Free wanted to go inside, so I just let him go. He’s classy and he’s smart. Coming off that layoff, he had to be a good horse to do what he did. The Derby distance (of 1 1/4 miles) should be no problem. He’s got a big, long stride, and he covers a lot of ground. The farther they go, the better he should be.”

Santos has a sentimental attachment to Time for a Change, who sired Fly So Free. “I had just come to this country, and I was in Florida, not getting any horses to ride,” he said. “They ran the Flamingo at Hialeah, and Time for a Change won it. It was the first really big race I ever saw, and I will never forget it.”

Santos had been based in New York until he and his wife, Maria, and their two young children moved to California last November. It was a temporary, look-see move, and although his agent, Sanabria, returned to New York, renewing business with Angel Cordero, Santos remained. He has rented a house near Santa Anita and said Friday he will be buying a home after the Del Mar season ends.

“This will be better for the kids,” Santos said. “New York is kind of crazy. I like California. This is my hometown. I’m a California boy now.”

Horse Racing Notes

The California Horse Racing Board received a recommendation from the hearing referee regarding the winner of last year’s Del Mar Derby and made a decision during an executive session Friday. But the announcement of the winner won’t be made until the principals are notified, according to Dennis Hutcheson, the board secretary. Tight Spot finished first in the Aug. 19 race, Itsallgreektome was moved up to first by the stewards on the basis of interference, and Itsallgreektome’s owner, Jheri Redding, was given a second hearing after an initial referee’s decision gave the victory back to Tight Spot.

Garden Gal, who beat Nice Assay by a half-length in the La Centinela at a mile on Jan. 16, will meet her again Sunday in the $150,000 Las Virgenes for 3-year-old fillies at the same distance. Others in the eight-horse field are Island Shuffle, Assombrie, Lite Light, Sawsan and the Wayne Lukas-trained entry of Cuddles and Boots. Garden Gal is one of eight fillies that were nominated to this year’s Triple Crown races. . . . Gary Stevens, who has been riding Farma Way and In Excess, will stick with Farma Way in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 9. Stevens has also picked up the mount on Best Pal, one of California’s leading 3-year-olds. Jose Santos, who has other commitments, and the suspended Pat Valenzuela rode Best Pal last year.

Bill Spawr, Santa Anita’s leading trainer, saddled his 22nd winner of the meeting Friday. . . . There were 11 trainers represented in the sixth race, all of them winless this season except Warren Stute. Steven Scott, trained by Stute, won the race.