‘Santa Anita Six’ Stay in the Running

What are they all doing here? Why are six horses from the Santa Anita Derby--a record-- descending on Churchill Downs to run in the Kentucky Derby a week hence?

Perhaps their trainers are students of history. Gallahadion, who ran 13th in the Santa Anita Derby in 1940, won the Kentucky Derby at 35-1. Less extraordinary, Gato Del Sol was fourth at Santa Anita and first in Kentucky in 1982, and Ferdinand was third at Santa Anita before winning the Derby in 1986.

Charlie Whittingham trained Ferdinand, and he also trains Corker, one of this year’s Santa Anita Six, so that is his excuse. Whittingham is ignoring Corker’s record of only one victory, against maidens, in six starts.

“I know one thing, he’s the right type for the big Derby crowd,” the 83-year-old trainer said. “This colt doesn’t have a nerve in his body.”

Corker ran fourth, nine lengths behind the winning Cavonnier, in the Santa Anita Derby. He was moved up to third, one of the victims of some homestretch roughhousing when Corey Nakatani, aboard Alyrob, tried to get through an impossible hole and wound up with a five-day suspension.

Alyrob bothered Matty G first, but Matty G had already done most of his running and he was running last when Cavonnier hit the wire. Trainer Ron McAnally, who has won scores of big races, has been no better than fourth with eight Kentucky Derby starters, and Matty G doesn’t figure to be his ground-breaking horse here.

“He just hasn’t run back to his Hollywood Park form,” McAnally said.

Matty G, after winning the Hollywood Futurity in December, has exhausted his excuses--bad starts, dirt in his face--while winless in three outings at Santa Anita.

So why is McAnally here?

“I gave the owners [Jack and Joan Goodwin] the pros and cons about running,” he said. “For one thing, it costs about $50,000 after it’s all over with. It’s $15,000 to enter and $15,000 to start, and then there’s the expense of flying the horse here and caring for him and the crew after he’s here.”

Matty G won the Hollywood Futurity on the lead, but he had been ridden to come off the pace in the three subsequent races.

“Maybe he’s just a natural front-runner,” McAnally said. “We’ve tried to rate him, but maybe that’s not the thing to do.”

Before finishing a soundly beaten third, Honour And Glory dragged Gary Stevens along in the first part of the Santa Anita Derby. Stevens, who will be riding another of trainer Wayne Lukas’ colts, Editor’s Note, in the Kentucky Derby, says this about Honour And Glory: “Some changes are going to have to be made to get him to relax. Otherwise he’ll never get the mile and a quarter in the Derby.”

Once clear in the Santa Anita Derby, Alyrob was the only threat to Cavonnier in the last sixteenth of a mile, losing by 1 3/4 lengths. Off for two months, he ran an estimable race, and has the kind of stalker style that should dovetail with this year’s Derby.

But even Alyrob comes with drawbacks. He will be trying to win the Derby after running only five races, and that hasn’t been done here in more than 60 years. In 1933, Brokers Tip, a maiden after five races, survived the roughest Derby ever run and beat Head Play by a nose. Brokers Tip never won another race.

Prince Of Thieves, who bled from the lungs while running sixth in the Santa Anita Derby, came back in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland Sunday and would have won with a headier ride from Pat Day. Of the five horses Lukas will start here next Saturday, Prince Of Thieves and Editor’s Note are his best chances.

Still, the Santa Anita Six--Cavonnier, Alyrob, Honour And Glory, Corker, Prince Of Thieves and Matty G--is historical overkill. Only once--last year--has the Kentucky Derby gotten even five starters out of the Santa Anita Derby. In the last 20 years, the average is two-plus horses going from Santa Anita to Kentucky.

This sextet has won 17 of 47 races, and only seven of 23 races this year. The group has won only five graded stakes races, four of those by Cavonnier and Honour And Glory. If you had to rank the quality of the Kentucky Derby preps, the Santa Anita Derby would be no better than third, behind Unbridled’s Song’s Florida Derby and Skip Away’s Blue Grass Stakes.

So why have they all come to Kentucky? Does “Friends Fly Free” go for horses too? Can six eat as cheaply as one?

Well, this year’s Derby is being characterized as Unbridled’s Song and everybody else, and if that label fits, then this hoary racing axiom applies: If you’ve only got one horse to beat, run your horse. Maybe that’s the reason the Santa Anita Six has converged on the Kentucky Derby.

Horse Racing Notes

The last horse out of the Santa Anita Derby to win the Kentucky Derby was Sunday Silence, who won both races in 1989. . . . Trainer Wayne Lukas, who will have a record five starters in the Kentucky Derby, is running three--Hit The Roof, Wavering Warrior and Dixie Connection--in today’s opening-day Derby Trial at Churchill Downs. Bob Baffert, who also trains Cavonnier, has scratched Semoran from the $100,000 trial, but the horse will still run in the Derby. Martin Pedroza has the mount. Semoran would have been the favorite in the trial. None of the 11 other horses in the Trial is expected to run in the Derby.

Winning Colors, who in 1988 became only the third filly to win the Derby, foaled a colt by Rahy at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky., on Monday. Winning Colors’ first five foals were fillies. She will be bred next to Unbridled, winner of the 1990 Derby. . . . Unbridled’s Song, who worked six furlongs on a sloppy track in 1:14 4/5 at Churchill Wednesday, is scheduled to be schooled in the paddock today.

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Triple Crown Ratings

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No. Horse Starts 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Unbridled’s Song 7 4 2 0 $1,223,000 2. Skip Away 10 3 3 2 587,360 3. Prince Of Thieves 6 2 1 0 157,080 4. Cavonnier 13 6 2 2 934,157 5. Louis Quatorze 8 3 3 0 291,000 6. Alyrob 5 2 0 1 53,000 7. Editor’s Note 14 3 4 2 455,534 8. Grindstone 5 2 2 0 354,710 9. Zarb’s Magic 12 5 4 2 481,916 10. Blow Out 8 2 3 1 106,064

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Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Racing historian Jim Bolus; Tom Durkin, track announcer in New York and Florida; and Chris Lincoln, racing telecaster for ESPN.