TRIPLE CROWN RATINGS : Larry The Legend a Victim of Santa Anita Derby Curse

Winning the Santa Anita Derby continues to come with a curse. Larry The Legend will be the third winner of the race in the last five years to miss the Kentucky Derby because of an injury.

Dinard, winner of the Santa Anita Derby in 1991, never won another race. He was in training at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby when an injury knocked him out.

A.P. Indy, who won the Santa Anita Derby in 1992, was scratched from the Kentucky Derby on the morning of the race because of a hoof injury.

A.P. Indy won the Belmont Stakes, but other winners of the Santa Anita Derby in the 1990s had tough luck in the Triple Crown series. Mister Frisky, the 1990 Santa Anita Derby winner; Personal Hope, 1993, and Brocco, 1994, like Dinard, never won another race.

Mister Frisky was unbeaten with 16 victories going into the Kentucky Derby. He was eighth at Churchill Downs, third in the Preakness and then almost died of a large abscess in his stomach. Personal Hope was fourth in both the Derby and the Preakness. Brocco, fourth in the Derby, skipped the Preakness and then was scratched the day before the Belmont because of a foot injury.

Larry The Legend, who has a bone chip in his left knee, will undergo arthroscopic surgery later this week. His career might not be over, but he’ll miss the Triple Crown. He could return to training in about three months and might be racing by early fall.

Stablemates Serena’s Song and Timber Country worked separately in the slop Monday at Churchill Downs, each running five furlongs in 1:00 2/5. “I couldn’t have asked them to go better,” said Donna Barton, who was aboard both horses. “They were like a couple of planes on automatic pilot.”

It’s not likely that Serena’s Song will run against fillies in Saturday’s $300,000 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. Her next race will be either the Kentucky Derby on May 6 or the Kentucky Oaks, a filly race, the day before. It’s possible that trainer Wayne Lukas will enter Serena’s Song in both races before deciding.

“I have three dead fit horses (including Thunder Gulch) to run in the Derby,” Lukas said. “They all have the credentials, so I don’t need to agonize now (about the Serena’s Song decision).”

Eltish, the English colt who is unraced since his second place behind Timber Country in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November, will run for the first time as a 3-year-old Thursday at Newmarket in the Feilden Stakes, which is a straight 1 1/8 miles. Henry Cecil will turn Eltish over to Bobby Frankel, Juddmonte Farms’ principal trainer in the United States, if the colt runs in the Kentucky Derby.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

RATINGS

Horse S 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Talkin Man 8 5 1 0 $677,967 2. Timber Country 10 4 1 3 1,043,590 3. Jumron 8 5 2 1 369,380 4. Afternoon Deelites 6 5 1 0 668,125 5. Serena’s Song 14 8 2 1 1,231,435 6. Eltish 6 3 2 1 377,189 7. Suave Prospect 14 4 6 1 458,850 8. Tejano Run 8 3 2 2 481,147 9. Thunder Gulch 9 4 2 1 716,006 10. Wild Syn 6 3 0 1 344,974

Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Jim Bolus, racing historian; 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.