His Hopes Are High for Derby : Horse racing: Jockey Stevens believes that Personal Hope has what it takes to win in Kentucky.

The first time Gary Stevens rode Personal Hope, he dismounted and said to trainer Mark Hennig, “Get this horse a padded stall. This is our Derby horse.”

That was in December, at Hollywood Park. Personal Hope, making his second start, beat maidens at six furlongs by 3 1/2 lengths, and nothing has happened since to change Stevens’ opinion of the big 3-year-old colt, who might be the second betting choice, after Prairie Bayou, for Saturday’s 119th Kentucky Derby.

“I have the same feeling about this horse that I had about Winning Colors and Mister Frisky,” Stevens said. “I went into those races very confident of their chances. If Personal Hope performs like he has, he’ll run a great race.”

Only Pat Day, with three second-place finishes and a victory in 1992 with Lil E. Tee, has a better Derby record than Stevens in the last five years. The 30-year-old California-based jockey won in 1988 with Winning Colors, only the third filly to win the Derby.

After not riding in the Derby in 1989, Stevens and favored Mister Frisky, who might have been in the early stages of an abdominal condition that almost killed him, finished eighth in 1990. The last two years, Stevens has finished second, with Best Pal and Casual Lies at 29-1.

This will be Stevens’ eighth Derby. The first three times, he rode longshots and finished no higher than sixth.

“Those years, I was just happy to be here,” Stevens said. “Just happy to be a part of America’s race.”

Winning Colors, Mister Frisky and Personal Hope won the Santa Anita Derby. Personal Hope led all the way to beat Union City, another probable Kentucky Derby starter, by three-quarters of a length. Personal Hope convinced Stevens that day that he should have the toughness to survive the 1 1/4 miles Saturday at Churchill Downs.

“He was in the worst possible situation in the Santa Anita Derby, and he handled it,” Stevens said. “There was an inside track bias all week long. It was deep and like quicksand, and that’s where Pat (Valenzuela, riding Eliza) put us with an aggressive ride. We were in so tight that my horse had white marks on his hind quarters from where he’d grazed the fence.

“He shook off Eliza and then he held off Union City through the stretch. At first, I had the feeling that Union City might be getting to me. But when I looked at a tape of the race, I realized that my horse was well within himself.”

After riding the opening week at Hollywood Park, which included his victory aboard the longshot Latin American in Saturday’s Californian, Stevens took a red-eye flight here to ride Personal Hope Monday in a five-furlong workout, which was to be the colt’s final major preparation for the Derby. But several days of rain left the Churchill racing strip sloppy, prompting Hennig to postpone the workout until today.

The Santa Anita Derby was Personal Hope’s fourth victory in six starts. He lost at Belmont Park last June, when Wayne Lukas was training him; and to Corby by 2 3/4 lengths in the San Felipe Stakes, three weeks before the Santa Anita Derby.

Stevens concedes that he erred in the San Felipe, trying to restrain Personal Hope early, and he doesn’t plan to repeat the mistake Saturday.

“In the first quarter of a mile, the colt will dictate where we’ll be,” Stevens said. “Wherever he’s comfortable, that’s where we’ll be. I have a colt that doesn’t believe in a slow pace, so we’ll either back off some if they’re going real fast, or we’ll go ahead if we can make an honest pace.”

The Kentucky Derby is seldom won by a horse that sets the pace, but Winning Colors was an exception. She was ahead by 3 1/2 lengths after the first half-mile, had a three-length lead at the quarter pole and then held off Forty Niner by a neck.

“The other trainers in the race underestimated the filly,” Stevens said. “Nobody wanted to go to the front with her, and when they left us alone, that’s exactly what we wanted. Wayne (Lukas) told me before the race to try to open up with her from the three-eighths pole to the quarter pole, and after she did that, it was impossible to catch us.”

And Personal Hope’s chances?

“Everything has to go right,” Stevens said, “from a month before the race until you leave the jockeys’ room Saturday, go into the paddock and ride the race. The odds are against all that happening, even if you’ve got the best horse. You’ve got to be lucky. It’s the toughest race in the world to win.”