A Tip o’ the Derby to Cavonnier

The owner’s wife was back at the hotel, nursing a cold, and the trainer’s wife was with the kids at a baseball game, but there will be another Derby for them to see.

In fact, even before Saturday’s running of the $1-million Santa Anita Derby, Sherry Baffert was thinking about the Kentucky Derby on May 4.

“Do I need to buy a hat?” she asked her husband, trainer Bob Baffert, before he left for the track.

“You’ll know after the fifth race,” he said.

The fifth race was the Santa Anita Derby, and now Sherry Baffert needs a hat and her husband can afford to buy her one. Chris McCarron rode the longshot Cavonnier to a 1 3/4-length win, giving the Bafferts an extra reason to be thinking about a trip to Churchill Downs. Before Saturday, Cavonnier had been the second-string 3-year-old in Baffert’s barn; Semoran, winner of the Remington Derby, may also be Kentucky-bound if he runs well enough in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday.

These are fairly lofty prospects for the 46-year-old Baffert, a former leading quarter horse trainer who can’t get any grayer worrying about his first Derby, because his hair is already completely white. During his short run in the thoroughbred game, Baffert’s gun belt already shows some notches--a win with Thirty Slews in the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and an upset of Best Pal with Charmonnier in the California Cup Classic the year before.

Cavonnier and Charmonnier are sons of Battonier, a stallion who was purchased by Bob and Barbara Walter for $65,000. The Walters, who live in Sebastopol, Calif., mated Battonier with Direwarning, a $20,000 broodmare, to produce Cavonnier. He is only the fourth gelding to win the Santa Anita Derby, he is the first California-bred to win the race since Snow Chief in 1986, and next month he will try to become the first Cal-bred to win the Kentucky Derby since Decidedly in 1962.

“He looked like a mile-and-a-quarter horse today,” Baffert said after the Santa Anita Derby. “I like the way he won, leaving the rest of the field behind. If he ran this race on Kentucky Derby day, I would say that it would keep him in the big picture. My job is to keep him at this level between now and the Derby.”

The Santa Anita Derby produced another viable Kentucky Derby contender in Alyrob, who overcame a traffic jam at the top of the stretch to finish second, 6 1/2 lengths ahead of Honour And Glory, the even-money favorite who ran third. The three stewards disqualified Alyrob to last place for interference near the eighth pole, but trainer Wally Dollase quite easily shook off that decision. Alyrob, who underwent throat surgery in early March to correct a breathing problem, hadn’t run in two months.

“After this race, I’m having trouble breathing, so I know what the horse went through,” an excited Dollase said. “He ran a hell of a race. I loved the way he ran, and he should love the mile and a quarter in Kentucky. He proved today that he’s a horse that can run. He was as good as the winner.”

The Kentucky Derby is 1 1/4 miles, an eighth of a mile longer than the Santa Anita Derby. Cavonnier’s time was 1:48 4/5, a second slower than Larry The Legend’s winning time last year, but faster than Personal Hope, A.P. Indy and Mister Frisky, other winners of the race in recent years.

After winning five of 12 starts and earning $334,157 before Saturday, Cavonnier banked $600,000 in one swoop. He paid $22 to win as the fifth choice in an eight-horse field.

McCarron won the race by not following orders. “If Chris had listened to me, we would have been up close early,” Baffert said. “I’m glad that I do the training and he does the riding. That’s the reason he makes the big bucks.”

Unexpectedly, Super Mining, a 96-1 shot, left the gate flying, and Honour And Glory, a more likely pace-setter, was pushed by Gary Stevens to keep up. Down the backstretch, McCarron saved ground on the rail with Cavonnier, who was in fifth place. Nearing the far turn, Matty G and Prince Of Thieves were in perfect positions, running on the outside, just behind Super Mining and Honour And Glory.

“My horse broke a little lackadaisical,” McCarron said. “Just before I decided to send him hard, I looked over and saw [Chris Antley] vigorously trying to ride [Super Mining]. I thought, good, [Honour And Glory] is going to have company on the front end, so I’ll just lay third. It turned out that Cavonnier was extremely relaxed today, and very cooperative. If he had turned down the backside and wanted to sail out today, I would have been in trouble, because he was right behind horses. But he didn’t do that.”

Super Mining was the first to fade, and Honour And Glory, despite taking the lead with an eighth of a mile left, was laboring. Cavonnier was caught in a cluster before McCarron found room.

“Matty G finally dropped about a neck behind me, and I just floated my horse out and he went,” McCarron said.

McCarron rode Cavonnier for the first time when they finished third in last year’s Del Mar Futurity. He won the California Cup Juvenile with him at Santa Anita in November, and Martin Pedroza rode Cavonnier to victory in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows in January. McCarron was back aboard in Cavonnier’s previous start, a third-place finish behind Odyle and Smithfield in the San Felipe on March 17. McCarron had ridden Alyrob in all four of his previous races, but because Dollase wasn’t sure about running Saturday, he made a commitment to Cavonnier.

“I convinced [McCarron] that my horse was sharp,” Baffert said. “I guaranteed that the horse would run a bigger race than last time.”

Cavonnier led until the final sixteenth of a mile in the San Felipe, then lost by only 1 1/4 lengths. “I think he could have won that day if he had stayed behind horses longer,” Baffert said. “He’s a very lazy horse and now he’s learning to relax.”

Trainer Wayne Lukas, who has won the last five Triple Crown races, had a disappointing day with two of his five Kentucky Derby hopefuls. Besides Honour And Glory, Prince Of Thieves finished sixth, and later an endoscopic examination showed that he had bled from the lungs. Lukas can run him with Lasix, a diuretic that curbs bleeding, in the Derby.

Honour And Glory, who was moved up to second after the disqualification of Alyrob, is also still in Lukas’ Derby plans.

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The Next Level

After Cavonnier and Chris McCarron (right) won Saturday, a look at how the last 10 winners of the Santa Anita Derby have fared in the Kentucky Derby:

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Year SA Derby winner How did in Ky. Derby. 1995 Larry The Legend Injured, did not run 1994 Brocco Fourth 1993 Personal Hope Fourth 1992 A. P. Indy Injured, did not run 1991 Dinard Injured, did not run 1990 Mister Frisky Eighth 1989 Sunday Silence Won 1988 Winning Colors Won 1987 Temperate Sil Sick, did not run 1986 Snow Chief Eleventh

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