THOROUGHBRED RACING : Seeking the Sun, Vienna Mulls Moving Gilded Time to Florida

The relentless rain at Santa Anita might force the trainer of Gilded Time, the future-book favorite for the Kentucky Derby, to send his colt to Florida so he won’t miss important training time.

The May 1 Derby at Churchill Downs is about 3 1/2 months away, but already Darrell Vienna is considering options for undefeated Gilded Time, who last ran on Oct. 31 at Gulfstream Park, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and clinching the title for 2-year-old colts.

Gilded Time could be headed for Gulfstream again.

“This is more than idle talk,” Vienna said Friday. “We’ve gone so far as to look into plane schedules. I’ve talked to my friend, Carl Nafzger, who has told me that, even though they’ve gotten some rain in Florida, too, the track was made to handle rain and it’s responded well to it.”

Nafzger, who won the Derby with Unbridled in 1990, is based at Gulfstream.

“Even if we went to Florida, we’d probably still come back to Santa Anita to run,” Vienna said. “David (Milch) very much wants to run the horse at Santa Anita.”

Milch, a producer and writer for television and movies, owns Gilded Time in partnership with Jack Silverman and his son, Mark.

The main track at Santa Anita has been hit by an estimated 11 inches of rain since the season opened. Friday, with more rain falling, two jockeys, Gary Stevens and Corey Nakatani, rode early on the program and asked to be excused. Before the races, Pat Valenzuela and Eddie Delahoussaye called in sick, Valenzuela being absent for the second consecutive day. Friday was the 10th program in a row to be run on an off track. Grass racing has been suspended since Jan. 1, and it’s likely that Sunday’s $100,000 San Gorgonio Handicap will be switched from turf to dirt.

With more rain on the way, the record for most consecutive off tracks at Santa Anita could fall. There were 15 consecutive mud days in 1954 and again in 1983.

Working for the first time since the Breeders’ Cup, Gilded Time went three furlongs last Sunday over a muddy main track. Recent main-track workouts have been restricted to the middle of the track because the inside, 25 feet off the rail, had to be preserved for the races in the afternoon.

Because trainers prefer to simulate racing conditions during workouts, many have been drilling their horses on Santa Anita’s six-furlong training track, which is inside the main track and the turf track. One day this week, about 150 horses worked over the training track--a degree of activity that Tom Robbins, Santa Anita’s vice president for racing, had never seen.

Vienna is hoping he will be able to work Gilded Time today on the turf course, which was reconstructed using a Netlon-mesh foundation in 1989 and has shown exceptional resilience during the winter storms. Robbins said that only continued rain Friday morning prevented the turf course from being opened for training.

“If someone had told me that the turf course was all right before I went out there, I would have said they were crazy,” Vienna said. “But the training track is shot. It’s full of pot-holes because of all the horses that have been working on it. It needs sand badly. The bottom has lost its integrity. So, given what we have, we’re going to have to make some decisions (about Gilded Time) in the next two or three days. We need to get going with him.”

After the Breeders’ Cup, the plan for Gilded Time was to have two races before the Kentucky Derby--the one-mile San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 27 and the 1 1/8-mile Santa Anita Derby on April 3. That would have been an orderly progression toward the Kentucky Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles.

Vienna trainer is now considering the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes on March 14 for Gilded Time’s debut as a 3-year-old. In the last seven years, most Kentucky Derby winners have started their racing campaigns in January or February; the exception, in 1989, was Sunday Silence, who ran his first race on March 2 at Santa Anita. In 1985, Spend A Buck, coming off knee surgery as a 2-year-old, won at Louisville after not starting until March 23.

If Gilded Time is sent to Gulfstream to train, Vienna said that even the site for the colt’s preps could change. The colt has been nominated for the Florida Derby on March 20 and the Santa Anita Derby.

Gilded Time is already well traveled. Before the Breeders’ Cup, his three other victories came at Hollywood Park, where he broke his maiden in July; at Monmouth Park in New Jersey and in the Arlington International in Illinois.

River Special is another leading Kentucky Derby candidate stabled at Santa Anita. Trained by Bob Hess Jr., River Special finished third in the Breeders’ Cup, then won the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 20 for his third stakes victory.

One of the dozens of horses that were sent to Santa Anita’s training track Tuesday, River Special worked a half-mile in 52 3/5 seconds on a surface listed as good. According to the Daily Racing Form, the average time for 64 horses at the distance that morning was 50 3/5.

“The conditions aren’t ideal,” Hess said Friday. “I was planning on working him again on Monday, but with more rain on the way, I might wait until next Wednesday. The training track has tighter turns, compared to the sweeping turns on the (one-mile) main track, and because of a horse’s centrifugal force, I suppose there might be a greater chance for an injury.” The San Rafael has been in River Special’s plans, followed by the Santa Anita Derby.

Horse Racing Notes

Kostroma’s accomplished career will end with a scratch if Sunday’s San Gorgonio Handicap is taken off the grass. Kostroma, a 7-year-old mare, won four of seven starts last year, but lost a chance for an Eclipse Award when she finished third, behind Flawlessly and Super Staff, in the Matriarch at Hollywood Park in November. Overall, the Irish-bred has won 12 of 26 starts and earned $1.2 million. She is high-weighted for the 1 1/8-mile race at 125 pounds. Super Staff is next at 122. This is the 14-horse lineup: Vijaya, Southern Truce, Laura Ly, Oiseau Guerre, Miss Turkana, Marble Maiden, Now Showing, Shadha, Frenchman’s Cove, Super Staff, Kostroma, La Kaldoun, Re Toss and Lite Light. Marble Maiden and Shadha form an entry, and Oiseau Guerre and Miss Turkana are in the mutuel field.

After missing a workout Friday, Navarone won’t run in the San Pasqual Handicap a week from Sunday. . . . Trainer Mike Mitchell’s victory with Lyphing Dancer on Friday was his sixth out of 11 starters at the meet. . . . Laffit Pincay rode three winners, including a mount that opened up when Gary Stevens was excused by the stewards. Another of Stevens’ scheduled mounts, George’s Buster, was ridden to victory by Adalberto Lopez.

In Friday’s allowance feature, consistent Slew the Surgeon sprinted to his 10th victory in 27 starts, increasing his earnings to $349,955. The 5-year-old also has nine seconds and one third.