THOROUGHBRED RACING : Even at $150,000, Jumron Proves Quite a Bargain

A few days after Jumron won the Ascot Graduation Stakes at Hastings Park in Vancouver, Canada, Charles Dunn approached Aziz Al-Saud, the trainer, and asked if the colt was for sale.

Told that the price was $150,000, Dunn wrote a check on the spot.

“I think he was a little surprised,” Dunn said of the October sale. “It’s the most I’ve ever paid for a horse. But no matter what you pay, you’re going to look either real smart or real stupid.”

Dunn, a 39-year-old computer manufacturer from Vancouver, had seen Jumron win twice by big margins at Portland Meadows. He talked to one of the jockeys who rode Jumron at Hastings, where he had a victory and a second in two tries.

Those four races, the first of Jumron’s career, came during 22 days in October, and already Dunn is looking like a smart man. He turned the English-bred over to trainer Gary Lewis at Santa Anita, and in four starts under new management, Jumron has two victories, one second and a third. In finishing third last Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby, only a head and a neck behind the winner, Larry the Legend, Jumron stamped himself as a contender for the Kentucky Derby on May 6.

“He’s run eight times now, and he’s never had a bad race,” Dunn said. “What I thought I was buying was a good allowance horse or a horse capable of winning some small stakes. But now he’s run very well against the toughest 3-year-olds in the country. He should have no doubters.”

The track was characterized as loose and speed-favoring for the Santa Anita Derby, and trainers of Timber Country and In Character believed their horses might have done better under different conditions, but Jumron had no trouble coming from behind. He was next to last after three-quarters of a mile and made up almost eight lengths in the final three-eighths. The Kentucky Derby will be an eighth of a mile farther than the Santa Anita race.

“You handicap a mile-and-a-quarter race a lot differently than you do 1 1/8 miles,” Dunn said. “But based on the way he finished, there’s no doubt that he can get the Derby distance. And he handled the big crowd perfectly. This was the best I’ve ever seen him in the paddock. He acted like there were only two people there.”

The crowd at Santa Anita was 36,000; there probably will be 130,000 at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.

“The day after the Santa Anita Derby, I felt like we had won the race,” Lewis said. “I was getting more congratulations from other trainers than I get when I win a race.”

Jumron will be shipped to Kentucky on Saturday. Dunn and Lewis have told Vince DeGregory, the agent for jockey Goncalino Almeida, that there will be no rider change for the Derby, even though there are some prominent big-race jockeys without Derby mounts. DeGregory said that Almeida, 39, who has ridden Jumron in his last four races, will fly back to Louisville to work the horse before the race. The last jockey to win the Derby with his first mount in the race was Ronnie Franklin, aboard Spectacular Bid in 1979.

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The going rate for exercising a horse is $8.

“Did Gary (Stevens) pay you the $8 yet?” Craig Lewis asked of Alex Solis the morning after the Santa Anita Derby. Lewis is the owner-trainer of Larry the Legend, who won the race after Solis had worked him. With riding commitments in Hong Kong, Stevens wasn’t able to exercise the colt. He rode Larry the Legend for the first time in the race.

Stevens came by on horseback while Lewis was kidding Solis.

“Hey,” Stevens said, “I’m taking Alex to dinner. All the lobster he can eat, Dom Perignon--and I’ll also pay him the $8.”

Stevens’ 10% share of Larry the Legend’s Santa Anita purse was $38,500.

Horse Racing Notes

Gary Stevens will ride Urgent Request in Saturday’s $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas, then head back to Hong Kong, where’s he under contract to ride until early June. The contract allowed Stevens to miss four racing days in Hong Kong, which has an abbreviated schedule, and those four days will be used up as of this weekend. Stevens expects to receive permission to leave again to ride Larry the Legend in the Kentucky Derby. . . . Trainer Wayne Lukas said there’s better than a 50-50 chance that his filly, Serena’s Song, will run in the Kentucky Derby. . . . Wekiva Springs, third in the Strub Stakes and then unable to run in the Santa Anita Handicap because of a hoof injury, is in a tough spot as he makes his comeback Friday in the $200,000 Commonwealth Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland. He’ll carry high weight of 124 pounds against some other top sprinters from California, Lit de Justice and Cardmania, in the seven-furlong race. Lit de Justice and Storm Tower are next in the weights at 121 pounds apiece. . . . Trainer Nick Zito, who might have two starters in the Kentucky Derby--Suave Prospect and Kresa--won Wednesday’s $82,950 Lafayette at Keeneland with Mr. Greeley, a fast 3-year-old who lacks the staying power to run 1 1/4 miles. Mr. Greeley has five victories and three seconds in eight races at a mile or less, and this time he beat Peaks and Valleys by 1 1/2 lengths at seven furlongs. Both of Zito’s Derby prospects are running Saturday, Suave Prospect in the Blue Grass at Keeneland and Kresa in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. One of Kresa’s owners, Joe Cornaccia, said that his colt would run in the Derby if he finishes at least second in the Wood. Sierra Diablo, who won the Baldwin at Santa Anita in his previous start, finished fifth in the Lafayette as the second choice behind Mr. Greeley, who was ridden by Julie Krone.