Kentucky Next for A.P. Indy : Horse racing: Son of Seattle Slew defeats Bertrando in the Santa Anita Derby for his fifth consecutive victory.

The Santa Anita Derby probably will account for three horses in the Kentucky Derby a month from now, but none will have more momentum than A.P. Indy, a son of Seattle Slew who convincingly became the best of the West on Saturday.

The $2.9-million yearling, the most expensive sold in 1990, might be worth Japanese businessman Tomonori Tsurumaki’s investment. A.P. Indy won the Santa Anita Derby by 1 3/4 lengths, beating Bertrando and Casual Lies before an on-track crowd of 38,346 with a late stretch move that behooves a 3-year-old who will be asked to run an eighth of a mile farther in Kentucky.

Bertrando, second by a neck over Casual Lies after setting the pace from the start, is another Churchill Downs candidate on May 2, and Shelley Riley, Casual Lies’ owner-trainer, indicated that her colt also would be Kentucky Derby-bound.

Over a track that was listed as fast but was dull from recent rain, the winning time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:49 1/5, two seconds slower than the stakes record and the slowest for a Santa Anita Derby winner in nine years. Still, in the absence of any firepower from the East, A.P. Indy probably will be the second betting choice for the Kentucky Derby, assuming Arazi, last year’s champion 2-year-old colt, has no trouble in his only Churchill Downs prep race on Tuesday near Paris.

“Being second (betting choice) might not be too bad,” said A.P. Indy’s trainer, Neil Drysdale, who will be taking his first horse to the Derby. “I read in the paper where the Derby favorites (since 1980) never win the race.”

The time might have been routine, but the effort was special. “That stretch run was something,” said Bertrando’s veterinarian, Jock Jocoy, standing in the detention barn as the horses cooled off. “Our horse, with his long-striding way, coming to the wire, and that other horse (A.P. Indy) with his head low, coming like a bulldog to catch us.”

Bertrando, who went into Saturday’s race with the same record as A.P. Indy, four victories in five starts, should benefit from the race, according to trainer Bruce Headley. “He needed another race,” Headley said. “He ran a great race today, but was just outrun. He was hard to catch, and it took an all-out effort to beat him.”

Earning $275,000 of the $500,000 purse, A.P. Indy went off as the favorite and paid $3.80.

Bertrando, breaking from the inside post in the field of seven under Alex Solis, took the early lead, with Hickman Creek slightly behind him, Casual Lies in third place and A.P. Indy a close fourth. Riley said Casual Lies broke poorly, a nagging problem for her colt, and lacked running room on the first turn.

Down the backstretch, Bertrando had a more comfortable lead than he did in the San Felipe Stakes, when Hickman Creek pushed him from the start. The half-mile went by in a moderate 46 1/5 seconds.

A.P. Indy was in fourth place, less than five lengths back, far off the fence. “I just kept him out in the clear,” jockey Eddie Delahoussaye said. “We lost a lot of ground, but I didn’t care. I was confident the whole way.”

Bertrando’s six-furlong time was 1:10 2/5. On the far turn, Hickman Creek couldn’t keep up, reducing the issue to a three-horse race. Near the quarter pole, Delahoussaye hit A.P. Indy with his whip twice from the right side.

With an eighth of a mile left, Bertrando and Casual Lies were only a half-length apart. Delahoussaye resisted hitting A.P. Indy again as his mount cruised up to the leaders.

At the sixteenth pole, Bertrando was still in front. Slightly past that marker, A.P. Indy was even. Two more strides and he was ahead, Delahoussaye having gone to the whip again.

“He’s a smart son of a gun,” Delahoussaye said. “He just loafed along, and as soon as he got in front, he just dropped his head and started pulling up. I wish he wouldn’t drop his head as low as he does. But I really like his style and his determination.”

Bertrando’s victory in the San Felipe was his first race in 4 1/2 months, since he had run second to Arazi in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He had suffered from sore shins.

“This was a very tough race,” Solis said Saturday. “Everybody ran after me, everybody kept coming after me and still he fought hard to the end. He had to make three or four moves in the race. That’s too much to ask of a horse. At the half-mile pole I opened up with him, and he stayed strong right until the last part of the race, when he tired.”

There was no second-guessing by Riley about her decision to race Casual Lies on Saturday rather than in the easier California Derby at Golden Gate Fields next Saturday.

“Third is not good enough, but I think we lost two lengths just coming out of the gate,” Riley said. “I think people should stop handicapping the connections (the stable that she runs with her husband, Jim) and handicap the horse. How can I complain? The horse ran terrific. What will an extra eighth of a mile do? I think he’s good enough to go in the Kentucky Derby.”

Horse Racing Notes

Neil Drysdale said that A.P. Indy would be shipped to Kentucky in about a week. . . . The race after the Santa Anita Derby, for maidens, was won by trainer Bruce Headley’s Migrant Worker, with Drysdale’s Capote Magique finishing off the board. Alex Solis rode the winner. . . . “I think he’s a better horse than he showed today,” jockey Alan Patterson said of Casual Lies. “This wasn’t a life-or-death race to win, and it’s another stage in this horse’s development. My horse ran very hard, but I didn’t want to punish him too much. This race will really set him up. He merits the next stop (the Kentucky Derby).”

A.P. Indy has won $722,555. He has won five in a row since running fourth at Del Mar in his first start. . . . Another son of Seattle Slew, Swale, won the Kentucky Derby in 1984. Seattle Slew swept the Triple Crown in 1977.