SANTA ANITA : Legend Grows After Hip 522 Wins Another

Hip No. 522 was named Grands Echezeaux when he was led into a sales ring at Fairplex Park in Pomona last October and trainer Craig Lewis bought him for $2,500.

Lewis knew right away that the name, which came from a French wine, wouldn’t do, so he renamed the colt Larry The Legend, after his brother. Larry Lewis, manager of the Long Beach teams that won the Little League World Series in 1992-93, had himself been nicknamed by Jeff Burroughs, the former major leaguer who coached on those teams.

“Just about everybody in the family has had a horse named after them,” Larry Lewis was saying Saturday at Santa Anita. “Our father, Seymour, had one named after him, and he did nothing. My wife, Sandy, had a horse named for her and it was the same thing. Our brother Todd had one named after him and I don’t think he won a race.”

So make way for Larry The Legend, a cheaply bought Illinois-bred who won the $156,100 San Rafael Stakes by one length over Fandarel Dancer as Timber Country, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, finished third in a five-horse field.

“This makes him a candidate (for the Kentucky Derby),” Craig Lewis said. “How good a one, I still don’t know. Larry’s been more famous than me because of what he did in Little League. Maybe this horse is helping me catch up.”

Only one Illinois-bred--Dust Commander, in 1970--has won the Kentucky Derby, and Larry The Legend, who has won three of four starts, is a race or two away from his chance at Churchill Downs on May 6. Lewis, who will turn 48 on May 1, has never started a horse in the Derby. When he finishes orbiting from Saturday’s victory, his plan is to run Larry The Legend either once (the Santa Anita Derby on April 8) or twice (the Louisiana Derby on March 19 and the Blue Grass Stakes on April 15) before the Kentucky Derby.

In the one-mile San Rafael, Kent Desormeaux placed Larry The Legend close behind 21-1 shot Fandarel Dancer early, while Timber Country and Pat Day trailed the field. On a dull, drying-out track that was listed as good, the fractions were slow, :24 and :48 4/5 for the first half-mile.

Fandarel Dancer, winless since beating state-breds in the California Cup Juvenile four months ago, gave ground grudgingly under Fernando Valenzuela.

“Fernando scared me,” Desormeaux said. “The track was knee deep to a grasshopper, and as you know, a grasshopper has his knees over his head. Initially, I couldn’t get by (Fandarel Dancer). I had to wear him down, because he had that much horse left.”

Larry The Legend cleared Fandarel Dancer with less than a sixteenth of a mile left. Timber Country made a late move to finish third, beaten by two lengths. He had to take the outside route at the three-eighths pole when Day couldn’t find any room on the rail, where Snow Kidd’n and jockey Corey Black tightened the hole.

“I was in behind a slow pace, and I was powerless,” Day said. “When I tried to get through, Corey had enough horse left to hold me in. Then when I got outside, there was too much left to do and too little time to do it. But I’m not displeased with the horse’s performance. This is a race to build on.”

Timber Country hadn’t run since Nov. 5, when he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs and clinched the division title.

“When we went inside and then came outside, we gave up too much,” trainer Wayne Lukas said. “It was too much on this particular track. He’s not the kind of horse that can stop and start. The thing that was encouraging was that past the wire he was still running well. He didn’t get rubbery-legged through the stretch.

“If we run him on March 19 (in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes), it’ll be a longer distance and he’ll have this one under his belt. That should make a difference. This was the first Saturday in March, not the first Saturday in May.”

Afternoon Deelites, the undefeated future-book favorite for the Derby, is scheduled to run in the San Felipe.

Saturday’s time of 1:37 3/5 reflected the way the track was playing. Larry The Legend paid $7.20 as the second choice and earned $88,600. His overall purses of $163,425 have been a sweet bailout for owner-trainer Craig Lewis, who was stuck for thousands when one of his clients, the owner of Larry The Legend and three other horses, filed for bankruptcy.

To salvage some of his losses from unpaid training bills, Lewis was given a line of credit by a judge to buy the four horses at auction, and they cost $18,000. One of them, Bee El Tee--who in a roundabout way is named after Lewis’ nephews--ran second in a race for $50,000 claimers on Thursday.

“It was a nightmare,” Lewis said. “I don’t think I’ve ever bought a horse for as little as Larry the Legend cost. How high would I have gone for him? As high as the bankruptcy judge would have let me.”

Lewis entered Larry The Legend for the San Rafael on Thursday, but it wasn’t until Friday morning that he decided to run. He could have avoided Timber Country and waited for the Louisiana Derby, a $300,000 race, at the Fair Grounds.

“The situation (at Santa Anita) was in our favor,” Lewis said. “Timber Country was dead fit, but he still hadn’t run in a long time. I ran because there was so much fan interest in my horse and a lot of people wanted to see him run. I felt somewhat of an obligation to go ahead and try him. The track was safe and the rain didn’t bother me. This horse would run on a bed of glass if you asked him.”