King Crimson Didn’t Draw King’s Ransom

When King Crimson makes his stakes debut in the $250,000 San Felipe Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita, it is certain he will be well groomed.

Such was not the case the first time majority owner/trainer Riley Griffiths saw him.

Offered at the 1994 Keeneland November sale, the then eight-month-old weanling resembled a different kind of animal.

“He looked like a bear,” remembered Griffiths. “He hadn’t been clipped and his hair was very long. You couldn’t tell where his mane stopped and his body started. He had a big, hairy head. It looked like he had just been taken from a field and put in the sale.”

Still, even if he was unkempt, Griffiths liked what he had seen. The trainer had bought four weanlings for owner Valerie Naify and told her there was one more he liked--a huge, bay son of Capote out of the mare Winters’ Love.

With Naify as his partner, Griffiths made up his mind to bid on the young colt and was willing to go to $150,000 for him.

Right before King Crimson entered the sales ring, Winning Colors, the 1988 Kentucky Derby winner who was in foal to Storm Cat, had been sold for $2 million, an event that commanded a lot of interest.

“There was so much confusion there and nobody paid any attention to him,” said Griffiths, 50, who has been training for about 25 years, most of them in Northern California.

“The bidding opened at $50,000, and I don’t know what happened before me, but I only made one bid for $65,000 and I got him. When I got a good look at him, everything just seemed to be in the right place. Capote was kind of a cool sire then, but I felt he was going to come back and he has.”

What Griffiths didn’t know was that Naify was on the verge of firing him, and she had decided she didn’t want any part of King Crimson, so the trainer had to come up with the money himself. He now owns 89% of the colt with the remaining 11% divided between Lee Henderson, his father-in-law, and longtime client Allan Weston.

So far, the original investment looks like a bargain. After losing by a nose in his debut last Nov. 24 at Hollywood Park, King Crimson has won twice at the current Santa Anita meeting.

On Sunday, he will try two turns for the first time when he meets Silver Charm, Free House and Holzmeister, to name three, in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe, the final local prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 5.

“He’s doing great,” said Griffiths, who will again have the services of leading rider Alex Solis on King Crimson in the San Felipe. “He worked seven furlongs [in 1:28 4/5] on Monday, and it wasn’t quite what I had in mind because he worked in company and they ended up going off a little too fast and ended up a little slow. But I was trying to get a couple of other things accomplished and we did.”

It will be interesting to see how King Crimson fares going the longer distance.

“He’s got such a long stride, I don’t think distance will be a problem,” said Solis, who has been aboard for both of the wins. “He’s got a lot of talent and a lot of potential, and the good thing is he’s still learning so he should continue to improve.”

As a maiden on Feb. 1, King Crimson won as the 4-5 choice, and in his next appearance easily handled Tru Story, Constant Demand and five others in a seven-furlong allowance race on Feb. 23.

“Because of all the rain, he was only about 60% the day he won the first time,” said the trainer. “He wasn’t anywhere close to being himself that day, and I knew he was going to improve off that race.

“If he runs his race Sunday, it will probably be a good one. I wish the [last race] he won had been a mile [so he would have experience around two turns].”

If King Crimson proves competitive in the Grade II, he could come back in the local Derby, but is also nominated for the Blue Grass Stakes a week later at Keeneland.

If he keeps moving forward, there is also the Kentucky Derby on May 3 and, with that day specifically in mind, a lot of people are looking to buy a 3-year-old heading into the spring.

There was a $550,000 offer, Griffiths said, for King Crimson about three weeks after the colt ran second in his debut. Because it was so late in the year, he was advised not to sell for tax reasons, but told the party to contact him again after Jan. 1 if they were still interested.

Nothing happened on that front, but Griffiths, who has three other horses in training, said there have been other offers. “For the right amount of money, anything is possible,” said Griffiths when asked if King Crimson could be sold. “I’ve been in this game long enough too know that if the right offer comes along, you would be a fool not to take it because these horses are perishable.”

Horse Racing Notes

Gentlemen, who was third as the favorite in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 2, will not make the trip to Dubai for the $4-million Dubai World Cup on March 29. Trainer Richard Mandella said the 5-year-old, whose five-race win streak ended in the Big ‘Cap, will return next in either the Pimlico Special or Californian at Hollywood Park.