A Tip of the Derby to Cavonnier : Alyrob Loses More Than This Race

And the winner of the 1996 Santa Anita Derby, the pride of California, is--just a minute, I’ve got it here somewhere. It’s right on the tip of my tongue. It’s--pssst! Anybody got the name of that horse?

Oh, yeah! Cavonnier!

Whaddaya mean, Who!? You heard me! And I coulda had ‘im!

He’s a Cal-bred, isn’t he? A home boy, for cryin’ out loud. Comes from the ‘hood, fellas!

He’s not trained by Wayne Lukas. He has won a few races, but he hasn’t broken any clocks along the way.

Still, he figured all the way if you studied your figures. Oh, I know he paid $22, but that’s not exactly boxcars. Somebody liked him. He won the Santa Anita Derby like a good thing.

That was his 13th race and his sixth win. We’re not talking a plow horse here. Of course, we’re not talking Cigar, either. Or Citation.

The thing is, now comes the hard part: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont. The majors. He has done the easy part--won the Santa Anita.

Does he join Swaps, Affirmed, Majestic Prince, Sunday Silence and company, the colts who parlayed the Santa Anita Derby into the Kentucky and beyond? Or are we dealing with a Silky Sullivan, Mister Frisky and about 30 other Santa Anita Derby champs who couldn’t keep up with the big boys at Louisville?

In other words, is he another of those “nice little California sprinters” that burn the bettors on Derby Day at Churchill?

He’s a California-bred, and Cal-breds have won the Kentucky Derby as recently as 1962. Won three of them in history, in fact. Out of 122 runnings. We rank just higher than burros in the winner’s circle there.

Cavonnier, you’d have to say, has his work cut out for him.

He’s a nice little animal, but his trainer says he’s not long on ambition. In other words, he does what he’s told. And not much more. “He’s really a lazy horse,” trainer Bob Baffert acknowledges. “He doesn’t want to set the world on fire. He paces himself.”

Sounds like an athlete to me. You know, guys who miss practice if they can. Who won’t get back on defense. Who take a “blow” now and again in a fast-paced game. Not “holler” guys, volunteer types, unsung heroes. Cavonnier doesn’t want to be a hero. Not the type to go in a burning building for a puppy. He does enough to stay on the payroll. He’s not bucking for sergeant. He’ll punch the time clock and carry the hod, but at one minute to six, he’ll take the smock off and put away the trowel, so to speak.

He ran a nice race, professional race. Nothing fancy. Not his style. Trainer Baffert wanted him closer to the front end but jockey Chris McCarron can tell more from a horse’s back than the guy who just cinches the saddle. McCarron has won two Kentucky Derbies and this was his second Santa Anita.

So, McCarron angled the horse a short 1 1/2 lengths behind the front-running Honour And Glory and waited for his tongue to start hanging out. Coming into the stretch, McCarron told Baffert later, “I had a ton of horse, I was just hoping something would open up.” Something did. A small hole.

But enough for the quick-reacting McCarron, who got through and left-handed the whip on Cavonnier the rest of the way to the wire. “He loves left-handed whipping,” Baffert said. Cavonnier was not available for comment.

Apparently, McCarron loves left-handed whipping too, because he southpawed Cavonnier all the way to a length-and-a-half win.

But that was the good news. The bad news concerns a rival colt in the race named Alyrob.

Now, if Alyrob had a distinct advantage on the field it was this: Alyrob’s dad, Alysheba, won the Kentucky Derby (and the Preakness). Since this was a prep for those races and this is a sport where bloodlines are revered, he should have scattered his social inferiors.

He had more bad luck than a guy in a crooked crap game with the rent money. He got off slowly, like a guy who suddenly wonders if he brought his wallet along. He got blocked and steadied. When he wanted to run, there was a wall of horses in front of him.

The field was bunched on him like a Chicago Bear goal-line stand. So, jockey Corey Nakatani did what the Bears would do. He hit the line like a fullback on fourth down. Unlike McCarron, he found no hole there. So, he made one.

He got to make his run too late. Even though he passed the rest of the field by six widening lengths, he couldn’t catch up to Cavonnier. So, he finished second.

But wait a minute! This is a race, not a scrimmage. The stewards studied the pictures of horses bouncing off Alyrob, disqualified him and moved him from second to last.

This is catastrophic. Here is why: To become eligible for the Kentucky Derby, you have to be among the top money earners of the year. Only 20 horses make the grid and money won dictates the eligibles.

This usually means you have to have racked up winnings in the six figures.

Alyrob has won $53,000 to date. If they had left his number up in the Santa Anita Derby Saturday, this would have added $200,000 to it--and comfortably fitted him into the Derby field.

But he was disqualified to last. No money.

With only four weeks left before Kentucky, Alyrob is robbed. Opportunities to pile up eligibility money are almost nonexistent. Next week’s Blue Grass Stakes is too soon to run again. And the Derby Trial is run only one week before the Kentucky Derby. Most trainers today consider that too close.

Besides, its purse is only $75,000. And you have to win to get that.

It’s too early to gauge how big a chunk of history Cavonnier won Saturday. But it’s easy to see Alyrob’s role: big loser. Said his trainer, Wally Dollase. “I’m a little nervous about getting into the Kentucky Derby. Moneywise, he may not qualify. But he deserves to be in that race. I felt he was as good as the winner today and better than anyone else in the race.”

When you finish 6 1/2 lengths ahead of the rest of the field and are gaining on the winner at the wire, you have to feel you have just lost a big pot to a pair of treys.

So he won’t even have a chance to be another Silky Sullivan. Or another Alysheba, Dear Old Dad. He won’t even get a shot at being “another nice little California sprinter.”