Jambalaya Jazz’s Derby Route Runs Through the Blue Grass : Horse racing: Strong showing today at Keeneland would send him to Louisville with stablemate Pyramid Peak.

To compare his two Kentucky Derby candidates, trainer John Ward Jr. used an example that would hit home with many a horseman.

“If you walked into a bar,” Ward said, “Jambalaya Jazz would be the one sitting back in a booth, just watching the goings-on. Pyramid Peak would be the one up front, with his elbows on the bar, right in the middle of everything.”

The life of the party, Pyramid Peak won the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah on April 1 and won’t run again until the Derby on May 6. To qualify for Churchill Downs, Jambalaya Jazz must run a strong race today in the $500,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

At 5-1, he’s the fourth choice on the morning line, behind Thunder Gulch at 8-5, Suave Prospect at 2-1 and Tejano Run at 5-2. Others in the six-horse field are Wild Syn and Gadzook.

In his second start, Jambalaya Jazz broke his maiden at Keeneland in October, then won another race here two weeks later. In November, he won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs, but Ward’s confidence in the colt was tested this winter at Gulfstream Park.

Jambalaya Jazz won there in February but was disqualified by the stewards for interference in the stretch. Then Jambalaya Jazz stepped up in company and was third as the favorite in the Fountain of Youth and sixth, beaten by 10 lengths, in the Florida Derby. Thunder Gulch and Suave Prospect ran 1-2 in both of those stakes.

Jose Santos and Eddie Delahoussaye rode Jambalaya Jazz in his three Florida races, but the son of Dixieland Band and Glorious Morning, a Graustark mare, will be reunited today with Sam Maple, who rode him in his three victories last year.

Under Santos, Jambalaya Jazz was 13-10, the third choice, in the Florida Derby.

“His rear end broke out from under him leaving the gate,” Ward said. “He recovered, but then he was too close to the early pace. He got caught wide in a (10-horse) field. It’s tough to win at Gulfstream when you get caught on the outside.”

Actually, Ward’s wife, Donna, trains Pyramid Peak, and she’s listed as the co-breeder with Jack Oxley, who owns a petroleum company in Tulsa, Okla. Oxley also owns Jambalaya Jazz, a colt he bought twice before he was raced, first with a group of partners for $20,000 and later outright for $85,000.

If you went to a bar looking for Jambalaya Jazz and Pyramid Peak, the Wards might be the kind of people you’d wind up with. They have never run in the Derby, but they are Kentucky-breds through and through. They learned to work with horses as kids and know as much as anyone about getting a horse to Churchill Downs.

“I don’t think we have the fears about Churchill that a lot of trainers, have,” John Ward Jr. said. “I think our hole card with these horses is that we know the myths of Churchill and we’ll be able to separate them from the facts.

“The track you’ll find during Derby week and the track you’ll have there the following week will be two different tracks. You hate to say this, but the biggest competitor a Derby horse has is the guy who drives the grader that levels the track. It’s a major injustice to everybody, including the handicappers, that Churchill changes the track on the big day.”

The Wards train their horses on their 70-acre farm that abuts Keeneland. On one side of the two-lane road is the Keeneland barn area, on the other side the Wards’ place, which is steeped in history. It has one of the original barns, long since renovated, that came from the Keeneland Assn., the track that represented racing in Lexington before the current Keeneland facility opened in 1936.

From this barn came horses such as three-time horse of the year Forego, 1974 Kentucky Derby winner Cannonade, Stop The Music and Summer Tan. Ward’s father and grandfather broke horses that went on to greatness, and Ward’s uncle, Sherrill, was one of the trainers of Forego.

John Ward Jr., 49, learned the game not only from his own family but by working for Woody Stephens, Mack Miller and John Gaver. All three are in the Racing Hall of Fame, as is Sherrill Ward. When Ward applied for his trainer’s license in New York, 26 years ago, Stephens and Lucien Laurin, the trainer of Secretariat, signed for him.

On this morning at the Ward farm, Ward stood at the end of that ancient barn while his wife rode Pyramid Peak around the shed row.

“How long have you been married?” he was asked.

“How long we been married?,” he shouted.

Donna Ward laughed, yelling back over her shoulder: “It seems like yesterday.”

It has been 23 years. They were students at the University of Kentucky, John studying agriculture and Donna majoring in accounting.

She said: “When I got involved in horses, my parents thought that somebody had switched babies at the hospital.”

Especially satisfying was the victory in the Flamingo with Pyramid Peak, a son of Mt. Livermore.

“To go from seven furlongs to a mile and an eighth with a horse that they say is just a sprinter, that was something,” Donna Ward said.

Woody Stephens and his wife, Lucille, were the first to call with congratulations. When Stephens won the 100th Derby with Cannonade, he also ran Judger in the race, and now one of his proteges might have two runners in the 121st Derby.

“It will be exciting,” Ward said. “But without trying to sound arrogant or anything, it won’t ruin our lives if we don’t accomplish it.”

Horse Racing Notes

Kent Desormeaux, one victory away from No. 3,000, missed with three mounts at Keeneland Friday, including a fifth place with Wekiva Springs, trainer Bob Hess Jr.’s horse, who was the 8-5 favorite in the $210,900 Commonwealth Breeders’ Cup Stakes. “I would like to have done it with one of Bob’s horses,” Desormeaux said. “He’s the trainer who put me on the map in California.” Desormeaux will have seven chances at Golden Gate Fields today. One of his mounts is Bee El Tee, Larry The Legend’s stablemate, who is the 4-1 third choice in the $200,000 California Derby.

Desormeaux and Corey Nakatani both reached 100 victories for the Santa Anita meeting Thursday. It is only the third time two jockeys have won 100 races at a Santa Anita meeting. The last time it happened was 1988-89, when Laffit Pincay won 110 races and Gary Stevens 100. Before that, Chris McCarron and Pincay ran 1-2 in the 1982-83 meeting with 135 and 121 victories, respectively. . . . Less than a length separated the first six finishers in the Commonwealth, with Golden Gear, at 12-1, beating 55-1 Turkomatic by a head. Turkomatic was a neck better than Lit De Justice, who had a neck on Storm Tower, the fourth-place finisher. Storm Tower was a head in front of Wekiva Springs, who edged Waldoboro by a head.

The best performance by a horse at Keeneland the day before the Blue Grass Stakes was turned in by Muhtafal, who won a six-furlong allowance in 1:08 1/5, believed to be the second-fastest time at that distance at the track. The track record, 1:07 3/5, was set by Anjiz in 1993. Muhtafal, winning by five lengths with no urging from Mike Smith, had fractions of :21 1/5, :44 2/5 and :56 1/5. The Mr. Prospector colt’s only other start resulted in a 4 1/2-length victory at the New Orleans Fair Grounds on March 27. Trainer Neil Drysdale said Muhtafal, a late nominee for the Triple Crown races, will run next in the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs on April 28, but the Kentucky Derby is out of the question.

Allowed to get away with a slow pace, California shipper Cat’s Cradle was an easy winner Friday in the $250,000 Fantasy for 3-year-old fillies at Oaklawn Park, with Forever Cherokee second and Humble Eight third. Cat’s Cradle, trained by David Hofmans, was second twice to Serena’s Song at Santa Anita this winter. She won the 1 1/16-mile Fantasy in 1:44 1/5 under Chris Antley. . . . Raji is the 3-1 favorite in the California Derby, with Mr Purple 7-2 in a 12-horse field. The 1 1/16-mile race will be run on grass for the first time. Others entered are Alletasso, Captain Video, Acquitted, Tank Ya Folks, Mahryebo, No Fantasy, Fine N’ Majestic, Awesome Thought and Slewker.

Talkin Man, the Canadian 2-year-old champion, is the 4-5 favorite in today’s $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, final Eastern prep for the Kentucky Derby. Shane Sellers will ride. Key Guy, with Herb McCauley, is 4-1, and Moonlight Dancer, with Larry Melancon, is 6-1 on the morning line. Also in the field of eight 3-year-olds are El Alpino, Knockadoon, Is Sveikatas, Candy Cone and Kresa. Each starter will carry 123 pounds. The Wood is 1 1/8 miles.