SANTA ANITA : Tabasco Cat Outduels Fly’n J. Bryan, Wins the San Rafael

In recent years, horsemen connected with Kentucky Derby winners--owners Paul Mellon, Cal Partee and Frances Genter, and trainers Mack Miller and Charlie Whittingham--have been on the other side of 70, and in 1988 owner Gene Klein won his only Derby with Winning Colors two years before he died.

Trainer Wayne Lukas, who scored his only Derby victory with Winning Colors, said he thought about this last year after Sea Hero gave Mellon, 85, and Miller, 71, their first Derby winner.

“You get the feeling that people are winning this race for a special reason,” Lukas said. “That whoever’s in control of these things is taking care of the people that deserve it.”

If there’s anything to that theory, Tabasco Cat, Lukas’ top 3-year-old, might wind up in the winner’s circle after this year’s Derby.

Tabasco Cat won by one length over Powis Castle in the $157,200 San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday, and not long after the victory, Lukas said: “Nothing would make me happier than standing there in the winner’s circle with this horse on May 7. And there are lots of reasons: Jeff, the owners of this horse and the less-than-kind reporting that was done about a certain issue last year.”

Jeff Lukas, the trainer’s son and No. 1 assistant, was stomped by a runaway Tabasco Cat outside the Lukas barn at Santa Anita on Dec. 15. He suffered multiple skull fractures, might lose the vision in one eye and was hospitalized for about 10 weeks before being moved to a facility in Pomona for a long rehabilitation period.

The breeders and owners of Tabasco Cat are William T. Young and David P. Reynolds, both in their 70s, who flew in from Miami for the San Rafael, but missed the stake because they believed it would be the eighth race on the card instead of the fourth. Young owned Union City, the colt who broke down in last year’s Preakness and was destroyed. Several published accounts about the incident impugned Wayne Lukas’ qualifications as a horseman and his scars remain.

Lukas said that his son would watch Tabasco Cat’s victory on Santa Anita’s replay show Sunday night.

“Nobody around the barn has brought up what this horse did to Jeff,” Lukas said. “It was just a case of a frightened horse running off. Because of what happened, we’re careful now in bathing him and unbridling him. But we don’t want to put any kind of a yoke around him for the rest of his career.”

Lukas has had at least one horse in the Derby every year since 1981.

“Tabasco Cat has more of an upside than any Derby horse I’ve had since Winning Colors,” he said. “I think he’s as grooved in as any 3-year-old in the country this year. He’s won a race in January, he’s won a race in March and I like the 30-day spacing that we’ve got for the Santa Anita Derby (on April 9).”

Fly’n J. Bryan, the 7-10 favorite after two victories in two starts, battled Tabasco Cat for the lead through the first six furlongs, with Powis Castle trailing in the five-horse field. Powis Castle finished 18 lengths ahead of Shepherd’s Field, who ran third, with Fly’n J. Bryan and Fumo Di Londra at the rear. Tabasco Cat paid $5.80, running a mile in 1:36 1/5 over a fast track that was damp from overnight rain.

Tabasco Cat, a son of Storm Cat and Barbicue Sauce, has been ridden by Pat Day for the last four races, which have included a minor stakes victory at Keeneland last year and a third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita last year, then a victory in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows.

“This horse has done everything we’ve asked of him at this point,” Day said before heading back to Oaklawn Park in Arkansas.

“He surprised me when he broke like a shot. He was entertaining that other horse, but he relaxed while he was doing it. We’re not to the bottom with this horse yet. Maybe we can build from here.”

Tabasco Cat gave Lukas his first stakes victory in Southern California since October of 1992. Day is scheduled to ride Chimes Band, another of Lukas’ Derby hopefuls, in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn on Saturday.