Stakes Are Higher If Jumron Impresses : Horse racing: If colt keeps winning, especially at Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby, he might even be entered in the Kentucky Derby.

The rooting section for Jumron in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby stretches all the way to England.

In Surrey, the breeder of Jumron, Mo Upsdell, said that if the colt she has sold twice keeps winning, she might attend her first Kentucky Derby.

Near Epsom Race Course, Jeff Lewis, the trainer who broke Jumron before he was sent to the United States, has the colt’s half-brother in his care.

“If Jumron would win at Santa Anita, that would put greater value on what I have,” Lewis said.

And Tattersalls, the venerable British sales company, is trying to hit the monthly double at Santa Anita: First Urgent Request, then Jumron. Both horses were sold by Tattersalls, and Urgent Request was the surprise winner of the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap last month.

Upsdell called Gary Lewis--no relation to Jeff--in California the other day.

“She wanted to know how the horse was doing,” said Lewis, who will saddle Jumron Saturday in one of the toughest Kentucky Derby preps in years. The 1 1/8-mile race is also the richest prep for Churchill Downs--the $500,000 purse grew to $700,000 when enough trainers with graded stakes winners stayed home to run.

Afternoon Deelites, undefeated in five races and the 8-5 choice on Jeff Tufts’ morning line, didn’t chase anybody away, and neither did Timber Country, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, who’s listed at 2-1. Others in the eight-horse field include Petionville, winner of the Louisiana Derby and unbeaten in four starts; Larry The Legend, who has won three consecutive; and In Character, beaten by only a neck in the Louisiana Derby. Rounding out the field are Lake George, third behind Afternoon Deelites and Timber Country in the San Felipe Stakes on March 19, and Fandarel Dancer, second to Larry The Legend and a length better than Timber Country in the San Rafael on March 4.

In Character may not run. His trainer, Bruce Jackson, has been talking about the $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, and at Thursday’s post-position draw for the Santa Anita Derby, Jackson was wearing a baseball cap that read “Blue Grass Stakes.” The $500,000 Blue Grass, Keeneland’s major Kentucky Derby prep, will be run on April 15, the same day as the Wood. The Kentucky Derby is May 6.

After Jumron won the Golden State Derby at Bay Meadows on March 25, Gary Lewis was also thinking about running in the Blue Grass. But after talking to several trainers at Keeneland, he decided to remain at Santa Anita, where his colt regularly trains but has never raced.

“He only won at Bay Meadows by three-quarters of a length, but I consider it an impressive win, because he didn’t handle the track at all,” Lewis said. “It was too cuppy for him, and I was told that Keeneland would be 10 times worse.”

Jumron, winner of five out of seven and second the other times, has dumbfounded European pedigree analysts. His sire, Sharpo, who died last year, was a champion in England and France, but he was a sprinter and his progeny usually have trouble winning beyond three-quarters of a mile. Jumron has won three times at 1 1/16 miles.

The first time Upsdell consigned Jumron, he was sold as a yearling for about $5,000, at a sale where the average horse was bought for more than $9,000.

“He had a turned front foot, and that put people off,” Upsdell said.

Less than a week later, the buyer returned Jumron to Upsdell, saying the colt was a weaver, a horse that sways while standing in his stall.

At a subsequent sale, Upsdell was obliged to announce Jumron’s condition, but the colt still brought more than $25,000. On his dam’s side, Jumron is out of Flambera, whose sire, Akarad, ran second for the Aga Khan in the 1981 French Derby.

After Jeff Lewis broke Jumron, the colt was sent to Aziz Al-Saud, a Saudi Arabian trainer stabled at Portland Meadows in Oregon. In October, the theme was “always on Saturday” for Jumron.

Between Portland and a Canadian track in Vancouver, the colt raced every seventh day, breaking his maiden by 15 lengths and winning two stakes. He had earned $71,000 when he was sold for the third time, to Charles Dunn of Vancouver for a reported $150,000.

While Gary Lewis gets his 15-1 shot ready for the Santa Anita Derby, that other Lewis, England’s Jeff Lewis, is taking his time naming Jumron’s half-brother, a son of Most Welcome, runner-up in the 1987 Epsom Derby.

“I’m waiting to see how Jumron does,” Jeff Lewis said. “That might have something to do with how we name our colt.”

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Horse Racing Notes

Although his speedy Fandarel Dancer is 20-1 in the 58th Santa Anita Derby, owner Pedro Perez said, “The race is between my horse, Timber Country and In Character. Afternoon Deelites’ best distance is a mile and a sixteenth or less. He doesn’t have that big, long stride like (his stablemate) Soul Of The Matter.” . . . Trainer Richard Mandella said of his Afternoon Deelites, “I’m happy with where we are. The horse has done everything he’s had to do. This is all part of building toward the Kentucky Derby.”

Timber Country’s recent workouts have been exceptionally fast. “We’ve been training him one way and running him another way,” trainer Wayne Lukas said. “But now I think we’ve been put back in a situation that’s more to his liking. And the extra sixteenth of a mile should help.” Timber Country could become the first winner of the race from the outside post since Skywalker won in a nine-horse field in 1985.

Petionville is the only horse to have beaten Larry The Legend, when they raced as maidens on New Year’s Eve. . . . The first race is at noon Saturday and the Santa Anita Derby is the fifth race on the card. Santa Anita officials are expecting a crowd of 40,000 and an overall handle of $20 million, which would be a record for a day other than a Breeders’ Cup.

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Santa Anita Derby

Post positions, with jockeys and the opening lines, for Saturday’s $700,000 Santa Anita Derby:

PP Horse Jockey Odds 1. Lake George Delahoussaye 15 2. In Character Nakatani 10 3. Afternoon Deelites Desormeaux 8-5 4. Larry The Legend Stevens 5 5. Fandarel Dancer F.Valenzuela 20 6. Jumron Almeida 15 7. Petionville Antley 6 8. Timber Country Day 2

* Post time: 2:20

* Weights: 122