THOROUGHBRED RACING : It Seems That Thunder Gulch Is Finally Given Due Respect

In 1977, the year Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, co-owner Mickey Taylor turned to a friend on the morning of the race and said, “There’s nothing like going to the Derby with a 1-2 shot.”

But actually there’s something to be said for going to the Derby with a 24-1 shot, as jockey Gary Stevens found this year. Thunder Gulch was obscured by the odds and left closer to oblivion when his trainer, Wayne Lukas, spent most of Derby week talking about stablemate Timber Country.

One morning a few days before the race, Lukas pointed down his shed row at Churchill Downs and blithely said, “There’s the Kentucky Derby winner, getting his bath.” And it wasn’t Thunder Gulch at the other end of the hose.

Stevens didn’t mind all the attention being paid to Timber Country.

“I was able to get some peace and quiet in Louisville,” he said. “It wasn’t like Brocco, the year before.”

Having won the Santa Anita Derby, Brocco was the second choice for the Kentucky Derby, behind Holy Bull, and he wasn’t able to steal into town, as Thunder Gulch did. Thunder Gulch’s last Derby prep was a dreadful performance, a fourth-place finish at Keeneland in a slowly run Blue Grass Stakes.

He was the Florida Derby winner, all right, but the Blue Grass nullified that, and he also had to coexist at Churchill with Timber Country, who wasn’t winning any races as a 3-year-old but whose reputation was still virtually intact. He was the 2-year-old champion, and he was returning to Churchill, the scene of his biggest victory in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup.

The odds in Louisville were 24-1 on Thunder Gulch and 3-1 on Timber Country, who was half of the Serena’s Song entry, and of course the result was Thunder Gulch first and Timber Country third.

“After the Derby, I didn’t think we were the second string anymore,” Stevens said.

The bettors at Pimlico did. Timber Country was again forgiven his shortcomings and made the 19-10 favorite in the Preakness. At 7-2, Thunder Gulch wasn’t even the second choice. That distinction went to Talkin Man, who was 12th, beaten by nine lengths, in the Derby.

Timber Country finally struck that elusive pay dirt, beating Oliver’s Twist by half a length and his stablemate by another neck. Three weeks later, it took the scratching of Timber Country, who was running a fever, for Thunder Gulch to be favored on the day he won the Belmont Stakes.

Thunder Gulch has been favored in only four of his 12 starts, but there will be no mistaking the bettors’ persuasions when Hollywood Park runs the $500,000 Swaps Stakes on Sunday. Track handicapper Russ Hudak has pegged him at 3-5 on the morning line, which looks about right in this seven-horse field.

Mr Purple, second choice at 5-2, is a seasoned performer--he has been running in stakes races since the second start of his career--but he has been campaigned on only the periphery of the big leagues and has been found wanting when he has faced the very best horses. Trainer Ron McAnally’s hope is that it is graduation time.

After Mr Purple, there’s a drop in the odds to Petionville and Dazzling Falls, both at 8-1. The others running are T.J.’s Gold, To Be Khaled and Da Hoss.

“The morning line shows that my horse is finally getting the respect,” Stevens said. “Some of his wins have been by a head and a nose and like that. He’s not an eye-catching horse. But when I get on his back, he impresses me, and that’s what counts. He’s a fighter, he likes the competition.”

He also doesn’t like to be shown what to do.

“He’s got a mind of his own,” Stevens said. “In that way, he’s a lot like Paseana. He’ll dictate to me what we do for the first three-quarters of a mile Sunday. My horse has been through the wars. He’s been caught inside, he’s been banged around, but no matter what happens to him, he’s always fought back.”

In the heady aftermath of the Belmont Stakes, Lukas plotted a two-race summer for Thunder Gulch--the Swaps and the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 13. But this week, the trainer was hedging about the second part of that plan. Cigar, who would probably be a unanimous choice for horse-of-the-year honors if the vote were taken today, could also be running in the Pacific Classic, and now Lukas seems to have talked himself into saving that challenge for a later day.

“My inclination is to keep Thunder Gulch in his own 3-year-old division a little longer,” Lukas said. “The Del Mar race is coming up a little quick after the Swaps. The $1 million is enticing, and Del Mar should be a track that Thunder Gulch will handle, but we’re going to consider all the possibilities, including the Travers [at Saratoga], the Super Derby [at Louisiana Downs] and the Molson Million [at Woodbine in Toronto].

“I don’t think it would make the greatest amount of sense to be taking on Cigar in August. We may wait until one of those Belmont Park [Breeders’ Cup] preview days before we go after him.”

The $750,000 Travers, on Aug. 19, was once penciled in for Timber Country, but after lost training time because of intense heat at Monmouth Park, Lukas would have to send the colt into a 1 1/4-mile race without a prep. There’s a two-month gap between the Preakness, Timber Country’s last race, and the Travers.

The always-available Thunder Gulch would have about a month between the Swaps and the Travers. He is, after all, the only horse in the barn with two victories at 1 1/4 miles and beyond. And horseplayers will never get anything close to 24-1 on him again.

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Horse Racing Notes

Ask Pete, undefeated in two starts at Yakima Meadows in Washington State, won’t run in Monday’s closing-day Hollywood Juvenile Championship because of a stifle injury in one of his hind legs. Ask Pete is trained by Gary Stevens’ father, Ron. . . . Special Price is the only American-bred running in today’s Caesars Palace Turf Championship. Sandpit is a Brazilian-bred, Liyoun and Urgent Request are Irish-breds and Jahafil is from Great Britain.

Of the eight horses that have been odds-on in the 21 previous runnings of the Swaps, Radar Ahead, Valdez and Journey At Sea have won. The biggest disappointments, both at 1-5, were Seattle Slew, fourth in 1977, and Sunday Silence, second in 1989. . . . Undefeated Golden Attraction, whose career started at Hollywood Park, won Friday’s $109,900 Schuylerville Stakes for 2-year-old fillies by 2 1/2 lengths as Saratoga’s season opened. Golden Attraction is trained by Wayne Lukas and was ridden by Donna Barton.