TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS : In Character Ran Out of Character

Trainer Bruce Jackson was more angry with himself than the track conditions after his In Character ran sixth, beaten by more than seven lengths, in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby.

“I was stupid to run,” said Jackson, who had considered running in this Saturday’s $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct instead. “(Last) Friday’s track was fair, but it was a different track Saturday. If you had a speed horse Saturday, you would have loved it, but that’s not the way my horse runs. The way the track was playing, I gave the horse too much to do. What I did was pay for a good workout.”

Because the Santa Anita Derby was run as the fifth race, scratch time for the $700,000 event was after the second race. There had been only one dirt race before scratch time to give Jackson an idea of how the track was playing.

“If the Santa Anita Derby had been the eighth race, I would have had more races to look at,” Jackson said. “I’m sure I would have scratched if that had been the case. But I still blame myself. I had looked at the field for the Wood, and saw where there would be no early speed to run with Talkin Man, so I told myself that it would be better to run here than ship.”

In Character came into the Santa Anita Derby after losing by only a neck to Petionville in the Louisiana Derby at the New Orleans Fair Grounds. Jackson isn’t giving up. He said In Character probably will run in the Kentucky Derby on May 6, even though the British-bred colt has won only once in five starts.

Jackson has been knocking the Kentucky Derby for years. “I still think it’s a bull . . . race,” he said. “But the tracks in Louisiana and Kentucky aren’t the same as the track at Santa Anita. I think he’ll run well back there. How he finished Saturday doesn’t affect what I think of this horse. I haven’t lost any confidence in him.”

The most important preps left for the Kentucky Derby are the Wood and the $500,000 Blue Grass Stakes, which will be run at Keeneland, and the $500,000 Arkansas Derby, scheduled for April 22 at Oaklawn Park.

Talkin Man, seven-length winner of the Gotham Stakes, will be the odds-on favorite in the Wood. At Keeneland, Thunder Gulch heads a six-horse field. Also expected to run are Suave Prospect, Tejano Run, Gadzook and the John Ward-trained entry of Jambalaya Jazz and Pyramid Peak.

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THE RATINGS

Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Larry The Legend 5 4 1 0 $548,425 2. Thunder Gulch 8 4 2 1 691,006 3. Timber Country 10 4 1 3 1,043,590 4. Jumron 8 5 2 1 369,380 5. Afternoon Deelites 6 5 1 0 668,125 6. Talkin Man 7 4 1 0 377,967 7. Suave Prospect 13 4 5 1 358,850 8. Serena’s Song 14 8 2 1 1,231,435 9. Eltish 6 3 2 1 377,189 10. Mystery Storm 8 5 0 1 171,420

Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Racing historian Jim Bolus; Trevor Denman, announcer at four Southern California tracks; Tom Durkin, track announcer in New York and Florida; and Dave Johnson, racing telecaster for ABC and ESPN.