Kentucky Derby Winners, Stevens Face Tough Vote

A strong ballot, which could include four Kentucky Derby winners and jockey Gary Stevens, will be presented to Racing Hall of Fame voters in a few weeks.

The four Derby winners under consideration are Sunday Silence, Needles, Riva Ridge and Winning Colors, who in 1988 became only the third filly to win the race. Needles, who won the Derby and the Belmont Stakes in 1956 and missed sweeping the Triple Crown when Fabius beat him by 1 3/4 lengths in the Preakness, was on the ballot for the modern-male category last year, but was outvoted by Foolish Pleasure, the 1975 Derby winner.

Needles and Riva Ridge may have trouble even qualifying for the ballot this year, because the vote has been reduced from five to three candidates for each category. Riva Ridge, who won the Derby and the Belmont in 1972, has been on the ballot before, but never gained enough support.

Sunday Silence, horse of the year in 1989 after he won the Derby, the Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, is a cinch to make the ballot in his first year of eligibility, and a strong favorite to be elected. Winning Colors, who won the Derby in 1988, was omitted from the modern-female category on the ballot in 1995, her first year of eligibility.

Horses are required to be retired for a minimum of five years before they are eligible. Trainers must be active for 25 years and jockeys must ride for 15 years to be considered. A 13-member selection committee names those on the ballot, and then a vote of 100 turf writers determines the horses, trainer and jockey who qualify for enshrinement. There is only one winner in each of five categories.

Stevens, whose horses have earned more than $131 million, was eligible in 1995--when Jerry Bailey was enshrined--but he wasn’t put on the ballot. Stevens won his first Kentucky Derby with Winning Colors, then won at Churchill Downs again last year with Thunder Gulch, and he’s expected to qualify for the ballot this time.

The contenders for this year’s ballot:

Modern male horses--Cougar II, Exceller, Fort Marcy, High Gun, Manila, Needles, Noor, Riva Ridge, Sunday Silence.

Modern female horses--Bold ‘N Determined, Bowl Of Flowers, Go For Wand, Lamb Chop, Miesque, Mom’s Command, Summer Guest, Winning Colors.

Old-time horses--Borrow, Granville, Endurance By Right, Rey El Santa Anita, Sun Beau.

Jockeys--Russell Baze, Don Brumfield, Earlie Fires, Chick Lang Sr., Jose Santos, Gary Stevens, Milo Valenzuela, Jacinto Vasquez, Jack Westrope.

Trainers--Don Cameron, Jimmy Conway, Tommy Doyle, Bill Finnegan, Carl Hanford, Farrell Jones, Buster Millerick, Willard Proctor, Buddy Raines, Bob Wheeler.

*

“I won’t miss the salary,” Ed Friendly joked when he announced last month that he was resigning as president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California.

Friendly, one of the founders of the group three years ago, didn’t take any pay, but now the owners’ group is going to have a salaried head in John Van de Kamp, the former state attorney general, who will succeed Friendly on April 1.

“This is a big deal for us, getting a man with so much prestige,” Friendly said. “It’s wonderful for our organization and for the entire industry.”

Van de Kamp was a horse owner in the 1970s, but divested his interests when he became district attorney for Los Angeles County. Andrea Van de Kamp, his wife, has recently raced horses in New England, and her husband is a partner in two unraced California-breds.

Van de Kamp, 60, lives in Pasadena and will continue his association with his law firm. One of his first chores for the horse-owners’ group is to find a successor for Drew Couto, the executive director who has become president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Assn. in Lexington, Ky. Friendly will continue as board chairman of the TOC.

*

Dare And Go’s prep for the $4-million Dubai World Cup was downsized from the Santa Anita Handicap into a four-horse minor stake at Santa Anita on Wednesday, and trainer Richard Mandella’s 5-year-old rolled to a 3 1/2-length victory over Lykatill Hil.

Dare And Go, a respectable 8-1 on the Big ‘Cap’s morning line, was scratched Saturday because of a minor ankle injury.

Wednesday’s victory, under jockey Alex Solis, was Dare And Go’s first since the Strub Stakes early last year. Dare And Go and Soul Of The Matter give Mandella two entries in the Dubai race, scheduled for March 27.

Cigar, who missed the Big ‘Cap because of a bruised foot, is still possible for Dubai. The 1995 horse of the year has been galloping this week at Gulfstream Park and is scheduled for a workout Saturday. Trainer Bill Mott had hoped to work Cigar three times before he leaves for the United Arab Emirates a week from Saturday, but the injury has cut that schedule by a third.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Wayne Lukas won’t know until Friday whether Serena’s Song will run Sunday in the $300,000 Santa Margarita Handicap. The 4-year-old filly faded in the last quarter-mile and finished seventh in the Santa Anita Handicap. . . . Lukas’ Honour And Glory beat trainer Ron McAnally’s Matty G by more than 2 1/2 lengths in the one-mile San Rafael Stakes, but the Kentucky Derby distance is 1 1/4 miles. “I like my horse’s chances going long better than I like the winner’s,” McAnally said. “The winner is by Relaunch. I’ve had some Relaunches, and I don’t think they want to go a mile and a quarter.” . . . Helmsman, the Big ‘Cap favorite who finished fourth, displaced his soft palate during the race and will get some time off. . . . Tim Read, assistant general manager at Hollywood Park, has been named director of operations at Del Mar.