Alydavid Wins, ‘Express Is Guilty in Trial : Horse racing: Alydar colt wins by 2 1/2 lengths after unraced horse from Stockton veers into him upon leaving the gate.

The 117th Kentucky Derby might have gained another horse and probably lost one Saturday when Alydavid won the $88,875 Derby Trial and hapless Big Al’s Express ran last, more than 31 lengths behind the winner, at Churchill Downs.

After Alydavid’s 2 1/2-length victory, his trainer, Phil Hauswald, said that he would make a decision by Wednesday about the Derby, which will be run Saturday.

Hauswald’s second and most recent trip to the Derby resulted in disaster in 1987. He saddled Demons Begone, the Derby favorite, but jockey Pat Day had to pull the colt up on the backstretch when he bled profusely from the nostrils.

Day was aboard Saturday as Alydavid, in seventh place after a half-mile, took the lead insidethe eighth pole and won comfortably.

Honor Grades, who was late leaving the paddock after a twisted left front shoe had to be replaced, finished second, a neck ahead of Formal Dinner. A head back, in fourth place, was Discover, and after him came Broadway’s Top Gun, Big Courage, To Freedom, Romiano, Young Daniel, Bobby M. and Big Al’s Express.

Forty Something, who won a race on Friday at Keeneland, was scratched.

Before an opening-day crowd of 22,173, Alydavid ran the one-turn mile in 1:36 2/5 and paid $9.80 to win. To Freedom, the even-money favorite, led the race for three-quarters of a mile, setting a 1:10 1/5 pace before dropping out of contention.

Big Al’s Express, the unraced colt from Stockton, Calif., who arrived here a week ago after a four-day, 2,500-mile van ride, proved to be the hazard many horsemen feared.

After being 50-1 on the the morning line, early money moved Big Al’s Express down to 12-1 before he went off at 27-1.

After leaving the gate, Big Al’s Express slammed into Alydavid and almost forced Day’s colt to go down.

Nate Condie, who rode Big Al’s Express, cleared him to the outside going down the backstretch. Big Al’s Express was in seventh place after a quarter of a mile, but he dropped back rapidly after that.

At the barn after the race, a veterinarian, Oscar Swanstrom, said that the horse was suffering from stress exhaustion and shock. He gave him a cortisone injection and a painkiller.

Swanstrom also said that Big Al’s Express kicked himself, probably at the start, and nicked the inside of his right foreleg.

Nevertheless, Thomas Allen, who trains Big Al’s Express, didn’t rule out the Kentucky Derby. “He had a bad trip,” Allen said. “I really can’t say what we’re going to do. We’ll see how the horse comes out of the race.”

Big Al’s Express went through three days of gate schooling before he was allowed to run Saturday, and the Churchill Downs stewards have broad powers to disqualify him from the Kentucky Derby if they feel he would be a danger to the rest of the field.

After the Derby Trial, the stewards were noncommittal about the possibility of Big Al’s Express running in the Derby.

Alydavid, a son of Alydar and Ambassador of Luck, was a $400,000 weanling purchased by J. David Brillembourg, a Venezuelan banker who owns farms in Kentucky.

Bothered by sore shins as a 2-year-old, Alydavid won his first race at Gulfstream Park in mid-February. He ran third in another Florida race before Hauswald brought him to Keeneland for an allowance victory three weeks ago.

“He was slow those first couple of steps and then he ran behind horses,” Hauswald said. “But once Pat got him outside and clear, he was dynamite. He made up some ground coming home. We’ll take a long, hard look at the Derby, and we’re certainly thinking about the Preakness (at Pimlico May 18) if he doesn’t run in the Derby.

“We hoped to get a good mile into him, and none of the Derby horses will work a mile in 1:36 this week.”

If Alydavid runs in the Derby, Hauswald will have to find a rider. Day, the Hall of Fame jockey who is winless in the Derby in eight tries, has already agreed to ride Corporate Report, the second-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby.

Craig Perret, who won last year’s Derby with Unbridled, is a possibility to ride Alydavid.

“I think we were last coming away from the gate,” Day said. “He didn’t break real alert, and the outside horse (Big Al’s Express) broke in on him and clipped heels. I was able to drop to the fence, and we worked our way forward and he was really wanting to run coming off the turn. I angled to the outside, got the leaders, and then I had to get after him a little to go on by, but he finished up strong.”

Horse Racing Notes

Sea Cadet, a late contender for the Kentucky Derby, worked a mile in 1:37 4/5 Saturday at Hollywood Park and will be flown to Louisville Sunday night. . . . The horses immediately behind Alydavid in the Derby Trial are not expected to run in the Derby. . . . The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas is offering 1,000-1 odds on Big Al’s Express, with the maximum bet $50.

Green Alligator, the California Derby winner, will work seven furlongs today and a decision will be made afterwards about whether he will start in the Kentucky Derby. . . . Bold Forbes, whom the late Laz Barrera trained to win the Derby and the Belmont, has joined the retired Forego and John Henry at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. . . . Chris Antley, who will ride Strike The Gold in the Derby, is serving a 10-day suspension for careless riding in New York that runs through Wednesday. . . . Antley has appealed a five-day suspension in California, the result of an incident last month.