Horse Racing : Personal Hope Sheds Some Light on the Kentucky Derby Picture

Keeping Personal Hope in the dark might have helped him run to daylight in the Santa Anita Derby.

Trainer Mark Hennig played a trick on Personal Hope on Saturday, and on Sunday, the day after the $500,000 race, Hennig said that the unusual shipping plan contributed to the hyperactive colt’s three-quarters-length victory.

Hennig stables his horses at Hollywood Park, because he believes that that track’s surface is safer. For three earlier races at Santa Anita, he vanned Personal Hope to the Arcadia track in midmorning.

On Saturday, however, Personal Hope’s one-hour van ride from Hollywood Park began at 4 a.m., and later in the morning Hennig jogged the horse at Santa Anita, another departure from the routine for the other races.

“We’ve had trouble keeping the horse from getting excited on race days,” Hennig said. “He’s a smart horse. Every time he’d see that van, he seemed to know that he was going over there to run, and that had a tendency to set him off.

“This time, we vanned him when it was dark, so maybe he wouldn’t realize that it was another race. And then we jogged him when we got over there, just to take the edge off. Maybe he didn’t even know that he had left the other track.”

Personal Hope was back at his barn at Hollywood Park by 7:15 p.m. Saturday after out-dueling the filly Eliza and holding off Union City for a victory that made the colt one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 1.

Personal Hope has been a problem during post parades and has not broken well from the gate in other races.

“In the paddock, he’s been fine,” Hennig said. “We can school him there and in the gate, and we’ve done that a lot of times. But there’s no way you can school a horse for the post parade.”

In the minutes leading up to the Santa Anita Derby, Personal Hope’s composure was the best it has been. “He went to the gate very relaxed this time,” jockey Gary Stevens said. “He broke veryalertly and established the lead very easily. The way he improved in temperament should at least get him half-way ready for Kentucky (where the crowd will be more than 100,000, more than triple what Santa Anita drew Saturday).”

Personal Hope’s next trip will be first class, a flight from California to Kentucky for the Derby. Hennig has scheduled the flight for April 13.

Although horses out of the Santa Anita Derby have a reputation for running well in the Kentucky Derby, Corby or the undefeated Dixieland Heat, if either wins Saturday’s Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, will become the favorite at Churchill Downs. Corby defeated Personal Hope by 2 3/4 lengths in the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 14. That is the only loss the colt has suffered in five starts under Hennig. Personal Hope was beaten in his first race, as a 2-year-old, when Wayne Lukas, Hennig’s mentor for five years, was training him.

“I’d just as soon not be the favorite in the Derby,” Hennig said. “That’s been the kiss of death for a long time.”

A Derby favorite hasn’t won since Spectacular Bid in 1979.

Eliza will run in the Kentucky Oaks for fillies at Churchill Downs on April 30. No Kentucky Derby decision has been made regarding Devoted Brass, who was fourth, beaten by less than three lengths, in the Santa Anita Derby.

In analyzing the opposition, Hennig said: “Besides Corby and Dixieland Heat, Loblolly Stable seems to have strength in numbers. I was at Gulfstream Park, saddling a horse in another race, the day that Bull Inthe Heather won the Florida Derby, and I like that horse, too. . . . Bull Inthe Heather has the pedigree to get the Derby distance (1 1/4 miles), and he’s by Ferdinand, a former Derby winner.

Some people are high on Diazo, but I haven’t seen him run and he’s a horse I don’t know that much about.”

Diazo, who with Corby might give owner-breeder Allen Paulson two shots in the Derby, is scheduled to run in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 17. The probable favorite in that race will be Dalhart, who races for John Ed Anthony’s Loblolly Stable. Anthony also owns Marked Tree, the winner of the Remington Park Derby in Oklahoma on Saturday, and Prairie Bayou, who won the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park in Kentucky on March 27.

Union City is another ticket to the Derby for Lukas, who has started at least one horse in the race for 12 consecutive years. But Lukas must hire another jockey now that Chris McCarron, who rode Union City on Saturday, has told Paulson that he will ride Corby in both the Blue Grass and the Derby.

Eliza, who missed second by a neck in the Santa Anita Derby, will run in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on April 30. No Kentucky Derby decision has been made regarding Devoted Brass, who was fourth in the Santa Anita Derby.