His Breeding Is Better Than His Credentials

No 3-year-old will enter the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday with less experience than Classic Credential.

A dark bay son of Sky Classic, who won the 1992 Eclipse award as the nation’s top male turf horse, Classic Credential will be running only his fourth race Saturday.

He began his career with a fifth-place finish in a sprint Jan. 11, came back Feb. 5 to beat the highly regarded Cromwell by five lengths at 1 1/16 miles, then won at that distance again a little over a month later, beating Tiberon by a head.

Despite the lack of seasoning, and the presence of Silver Charm and the filly Sharp Cat, trainer Mike Puype is confident that Classic Credential will be a factor.

“I wouldn’t trade him for any horse in the race,” Puype said. “He’s coming up to the race in good shape. He’s probably the least accomplished horse in there, in terms of earnings, and he hasn’t been in a stakes yet, but we’ve brought him up the right way. We sprinted him the first time and he ran evenly, then he broke his maiden quite easily, and then he ran a very good race against Tiberon.”

What Classic Credential, purchased by Gary Biszantz’s Cobra Farm Inc. for $100,000 a year ago, has going for him is a pedigree that says he is going to improve with longer races. Sky Classic, who earned more than $3.3 million, had no trouble at 1 1/2 miles, and Classic Credential’s dam, Mystical Lass, is a daughter of Balzac, another long-winded horse.

“Even looking past the [Santa Anita] Derby, we know the further he goes, the better he’s going to be,” Puype said. “We’ll have to see what happens this weekend, but a race like the Belmont [Stakes at 1 1/2 miles] is in the back of my mind and that would be excellent for him.”

A little over a year ago, Puype, 30, was in a much different position. Instead of a lightly raced 3-year-old, he and Biszantz had the colt many considered the early Kentucky Derby favorite.

Cobra King had ended 1995 with victories in the Sunny Slope Stakes at Oak Tree and over Hennessy in the Hollywood Prevue, then beat eventual Belmont winner Editor’s Note in the Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park before everything went sour.

The son of Farma Way finished eighth, 16 lengths behind winning Unbridled’s Song, in the Florida Derby and it turned out to be his final race. A tendon injury forced his retirement later in the year.

“It was tough, the toughest thing I’ve ever been through in my life,” Puype said. “He was winning and he was winning with very little effort. . . . I learned last year that you have to appreciate every moment when you have a good horse and that they are not machines. They are horses and they’re going to have bad days.

“I fell hard and I’m not going to fall that hard again. I had a nice stable of horses, but my mind was just on that one horse. When you train for a guy like [Biszantz] and you have that many good horses, you have to keep focused on everything, not just one horse.”

Biszantz--the former chairman of the board and major shareholder of Cobra Golf who sold the company to American Brands for $700 million in late 1995--agrees with Puype that Classic Credential will run in the Kentucky Derby only if he proves he belongs.

“If he’s a Kentucky Derby horse, he’s going to have to be a Santa Anita Derby horse first to know he belongs in the other race,” said Puype, who trains exclusively for Biszantz.

“Gary is never going to want to run a horse in the Derby just to park his car and be in the lot. So many owners just want to be there. We want to go if we belong. . . .

“I’d be tickled to death with a 1-2-3 finish [Saturday]. You’re running on a hard, fast track out here and I think this colt will do better on the deeper tracks back East.”

Classic Credential will be ridden by Alex Solis, who also rides Captain Bodgit, the colt who moved to the front of the 3-year-old class with his victory in the Florida Derby on March 15.

“[Classic Credential] is a horse with a lot of potential,” he said. “He has a lot of ability and he just keeps on improving. He’s developing into something very special.

“His last race . . . I was impressed with the way he finished the last three-eighths [of a mile]. He wasn’t going to let Tiberon get by him.

“He’s still learning. But that is a positive. If he’s running this well now, thinking he can improve off what he’s done is a big plus.”

For all his promise, Classic Credential may not even be the best 3-year-old in Puype’s barn. Star Of Goshen, a Lord At War filly, has rolled to easy victories in her first two starts and could surface next in the Kentucky Oaks on May 2 at Churchill Downs. The trainer already calls her the best horse he’s ever had.

“I know she fits with the colts here,” he said. “I really believe she is very special.”

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Chris McCarron, who suffered three cracked ribs in a spill in the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., last Saturday, has been given his doctor’s approval to ride this weekend and will be aboard Hello in the Santa Anita Derby.

McCarron said he will take today and Thursday off and resume riding on Friday’s card. His mount, Inexcessivelygood, was destroyed after breaking down near the sixteenth pole.

McCarron was wearing a mandatory foam-paneled safety vest.

“If I hadn’t been wearing the vest, I know this injury would have been much more severe,” he said.

Horse Racing Notes

Post times for the two races from Dubai on Thursday have been changed. The $4-million Dubai World Cup, postponed Saturday because of torrential rains, will be run at 7:35 a.m. PST Thursday. The $500,000 Dubai Duty Free will precede it at 6:50 a.m. and Santa Anita will open its gates to bettors at 6:30.

Times staff writer Bill Christine contributed to this story.