THOROUGHBRED RACING : Even at 85-90%, Holy Bull Gives Notice That ’95 May Be His Year

The country’s most popular Bull, now that Michael Jordan is playing baseball, will start his season Sunday afternoon at Gulfstream Park.

Certain to be named 1994 horse of the year late next week and already chosen the top 3-year-old, Holy Bull will run his first race as a 4-year-old in the $100,000 Olympic Handicap at seven furlongs.

Twenty days later, the gray son of Great Above is scheduled to run in the Donn Handicap. Then, if all goes well, he will make his first trip west for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 11.

Given a vacation by owner-trainer Jimmy Croll for the rest of last year after a five-length victory against a top-notch field in Belmont Park’s Woodward Stakes on Sept. 17, Holy Bull finished major preparations for his return Monday morning.

With regular exercise rider Bobby Perna aboard, Holy Bull, who finished 1994 with five consecutive victories after his Kentucky Derby chances were eliminated at the start, went five furlongs in 59 2/5 seconds.

Although there have been days when the colt wasn’t eating quite right, Croll proclaims all is well with his superstar.

“He’s doing fine, very good,” Croll said from his home near Gulfstream Park. “We won’t do anything else with him before the race except maybe a little blowout Saturday morning.

“He’s about 85-90% right now and that’s exactly where I want him. He’s not 100%. It’s a long year and you don’t want a horse to be ready for his best race first time out.

“But, he will run well and the race will do him good. He’ll improve off the race.”

Holy Bull’s presence in the Olympic doubled the purse, and he will begin his year carrying 126 pounds, 11 more than Patton, the colt with the best chance of upsetting him.

Patton, beaten by three-quarters of a length by Holy Bull in the Hutcheson Stakes last winter, returned to action with an impressive allowance victory on Jan. 5. He ran six furlongs in 1:08 3/5 and has won three of four starts at Gulfstream.

Also set to go Sunday is the stretch-running but overrated Birdonthewire, who ended a long losing streak in the recent Kenny Noe Jr. Handicap at Calder Race Course.

“Patton’s the horse to beat,” Croll said. “He’s a good horse and his first race here was excellent. He’ll be tough and we’re giving him 11 pounds.

“After Patton won, in my heart, I didn’t think we could beat him (in the Olympic). But my horse has had two good moves since, and every day I’m getting a little more confident.”

Even if Holy Bull isn’t at his peak, he still will be tough to beat. America’s finest horse since Sunday Silence, he was managed expertly in ’94 by Croll, who earned his share of criticism by not supplementing the colt into the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But he had the colt’s best interest at heart, and Holy Bull had already proved his dominance.

Any detractors he had left were silenced in his final two races. He won at 1 1/4 miles in the Travers, then showed he could rate off the pace when he won the Woodward. Older and bigger physically, Holy Bull could be even better in 1995.

“He’s gotten bigger and he’s a more mature colt,” Croll said. “Sometimes, between the ages of 2-3 and 3-4, a horse will go the wrong way, but he’s gone the right way.”

Seen in Florida, Kentucky and New York, Holy Bull will be playing to a new audience in California if all goes well. Croll seems eager to make the trip and set up the most interesting Santa Anita Handicap in years.

“We’re planning on coming right now,” he said. “It would be a nice trip, a fun trip and it would be a lot of exposure for him. I’ve talked to Tom Robbins (Santa Anita’s director of racing) and Tom Knust (racing secretary) and they couldn’t have been any nicer. We want to come out there.”

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With more rain forecast for the weekend, the field for Sunday’s $200,000 San Pasqual Handicap is in question.

Slew Of Damascus, who arrived from Bay Meadows on Tuesday morning, probably won’t run if it rains.

“If we get some rain and the track is treacherous, I don’t think we’ll run,” trainer Craig Roberts said.

Others who may pass if the track is off are Best Pal, College Town, Del Mar Dennis and Pollock’s Luck.

Ready to begin his sixth year of racing, Best Pal worked half a mile in 48 2/5 Wednesday morning at Santa Anita. With earnings of $5,129,645, the 7-year-old gelding trails only John Henry and Alysheba on the all-time list.

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Making his main track debut, Lit De Justice was an easy winner of the third race Wednesday at Santa Anita, a $53,000 allowance sprint.

Last down the backstretch, the 5-year-old gray son of El Gran Senor began his rally along the inside, collared the leaders early in the stretch under Corey Nakatani and coasted home 2 1/2 lengths in front of Virtuous Regent.

Owned by Evergreen Farm and trained by Jenine Sahadi, Lit De Justice ran the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15 4/5. He now has three victories in five American starts. He could make his next start Feb. 12 in the $250,000 San Antonio Handicap, the final prep for the Santa Anita Handicap.

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Holy Bull’s 1995 debut will be simulcast at Santa Anita. The race will be shown between Sunday’s third and fourth races and post time will be 12:20, 10 minutes earlier than usual.

Golden Gate Fields, which begins its meeting Friday, will have all of its races shown at Santa Anita.

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Timber Country, whose 1995 debut was put on hold when trainer Wayne Lukas elected not to run him in the El Camino Real Derby last Saturday at Bay Meadows, worked five furlongs in 1:01 3/5 Tuesday morning.