DAY OF THE DARK HORSE?

Free House and Bagshot, two of 11 horses trying to win today’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, come from the mold that has produced many of the first 59 winners of this race. They are colts that by rights never figured to be in the position they are now.

Determine, winner of the 1954 Santa Anita Derby, and the Kentucky Derby more than two months later, was an out-of-the-weeds horse, and so was Swaps, who duplicated the Derby double a year later. Neither of Determine’s parents won a race. The sire was a surly sort who wouldn’t train, and the dam was born with a cleft palate. As a 2-year-old, Swaps never ran beyond six furlongs, was beaten in half of his races and earned only $20,000.

Free House did much better than Swaps as a 2-year-old, winning the Norfolk Stakes at 1 1/16 miles, but his stigma was that he’s a son of Smokester, a hard-luck horse on the track and a California stallion that breeders first avoided as though he had a social disease.

“They weren’t exactly lined up to breed to him,” Trudy McCaffery said. “There was no point in setting a [breeding] fee for him, because they wouldn’t have come at any price. We sent some mares to him his first year, but otherwise the only one who bred to him was a gentleman who came forward and paid $500.”

McCaffery and her partner, John Toffan, raced Smokester during his abbreviated, undistinguished career, and they are the breeders and owners of Free House and Bagshot, who as an entry are 6-1 on the morning line. The attention in this Santa Anita Derby is going to the filly Sharp Cat and to multiple stakes winner Silver Charm, but Free House has split two decisions with Silver Charm, and only three weeks ago he beat him in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes.

Smokester’s first crop was only nine foals. Two of them were Free House and Bagshot, and now McCaffery and Toffan have hopes of making their first return to the classics since 1991, when their Mane Minister swept the Triple Crown--to show. Fourth in the Santa Anita Derby, Mane Minister did something unprecedented by finishing third in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

Mane Minister made a belated run in the Kentucky Derby before finishing 3 1/2 lengths behind Strike The Gold.

“The memory of those yellow blinkers at the quarter pole still gets your heart going,” McCaffery said.

She and Toffan can draw encouragement from the fact that the glamour horses don’t always reach the wire first in California’s most important prep for the Kentucky Derby. Last year, another California-bred, Cavonnier, won here, then came within a nose of beating Grindstone at Churchill Downs. In 1995, the Santa Anita Derby winner was Larry The Legend, who was a $2,500 giveaway in a bankruptcy proceeding. Even Sunday Silence, who engineered a Santa Anita-Kentucky Derby double in 1989, was an unwanted younger horse, Arthur Hancock III keeping him when he couldn’t get his price at auction.

No matter how Free House and Bagshot run today, they have put Smokester on the breeding map. His breeding book this year at Cardiff Stud Farms in Creston, Calif., is 65 mares, at $2,500 a mating.

The bandwagon started forming with Free House’s victory last October in the Norfolk, but his owners hadn’t nominated him to the Breeders’ Cup, and the next option was the California Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita in November. A slam dunk turned into a debacle; at 4-5, Free House couldn’t even outrun his lightly regarded stablemate, Bagshot, and finished ninth, beaten by 10 lengths.

Jockey changes, blinkers on, blinkers off--trainer Paco Gonzalez has tinkered with Free House all winter, trying to invade the head of a headstrong horse. After a fourth-place finish in the Hollywood Futurity, the Golden Gate Derby--Free House’s first start as a 3-year-old--was hardly a piece that fit the puzzle. He was seventh at Golden Gate Fields, but in February Gonzalez’s patience started paying off when Free House ran a nice second to Silver Charm in the San Vicente Stakes. Five weeks later, he won the San Felipe, trying to pull himself up while still holding off Silver Charm by three-quarters of a length.

“He’s not a mean horse to be around, it’s just that he hasn’t matured,” McCaffery said. “He’s actually a fun horse to be around, but he’s a big baby. He’s still a kid.”

David Flores, who rode Free House to victory in the San Felipe, has other plans today. He’s riding Isitingood, the 5-2 second choice in the $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap, so Kent Desormeaux has been reunited with Free House. Desormeaux was the rider in Free House’s Norfolk victory, but he was also too close a witness to the colt’s collapse in the California Cup.

“In the last two races, he seems to have really matured,” Desormeaux said. “Before that, he was green as grass. In the Norfolk, I spanked him once left-handed and he switched [lead feet]. Then I hit him right-handed and he changed leads again. He also looked around a lot, but he still handled those horses very, very well. This is a great opportunity, and I’m glad I was chosen to ride him again. It looks like he’s definitely coming around.”

Desormeaux has made two unsuccessful attempts at winning the Santa Anita Derby, the most recent his assignment on Afternoon Deelites in 1995. Afternoon Deelites, who went off at 7-5, was a marquee horse, but Larry The Legend beat him by a head. In the Santa Anita Derby, it has been known to happen.

Horse Racing Notes

Del Mar Dennis, who’s also owned by Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan, will try Sunday to win the San Bernardino Handicap for the fourth time in a row, which would break a Santa Anita record. Del Mar Dennis, who is a 7-year-old, shares the record with John Henry, who won the Oak Tree Invitational in 1980-82. Sal Gonzalez Jr.--Paco Gonzalez’ nephew--won the first San Bernardino with Del Mar Dennis, and Chris Antley and Kent Desormeaux rode him the last two years. Alex Solis has the mount Sunday in the $150,000, 1 1/8-mile race. Del Mar Dennis will carry the high weight of 118 pounds, three to six pounds more than his rivals. Others running are Far Easter, Private Song, Benchmark, Kingdom Found, Region and Big Sky Chester. . . . King Crimson might be scratched from the Santa Anita Derby to run in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland a week from today. . . . Trainer Wayne Lukas feels that Sharp Cat won’t react badly if jockey Corey Nakatani needs to whip her today. “It’s been a learning process for both the horse and the rider,” Lukas said. “The filly wears blinkers and she doesn’t like to be bullied. Nakatani will use his discretion. I think she’ll take the stick and run straight.” . . . Glitter Woman, the best 3-year-old filly east of Santa Anita, is 3-5 in the $500,000 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland today. . . . Trainer Bob Baffert doesn’t feel that Silver Charm’s 1:10 1/5 six-furlong workout Monday is a negative. “I lost a week because the horse got sick,” Baffert said. “When that happens, he gets soft on you very fast. He’s one of those horses that you have to keep in the gym, working hard. He hit the wire in that workout still running but doing it easy. Then he galloped out real strong, and he never does that.”

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Santa Anita Derby Facts

* WHEN: 2:40 p.m. today

* PURSE: $750,000

* DISTANCE: 1 1/8 miles on dirt.

The lineup for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby (a 1 1/8-mile race) in post-position order with jockeys and odds:

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HORSE JOCKEY ODDS Sharp Cat Corey Nakatani 2-1 Hello Chris McCarron 4-1 Silver Charm Gary Stevens 5-2 Free House Kent Desormeaux 6-1 Classic Credential Alex Solis 8-1 King Crimson E. Delahoussaye 15-1 P.T. Indy Robbie Davis 15-1 Bagshot Julio Garcia 6-1 Steel Ruhlr Brice Blanc 30-1 Swiss Yodeler Rene Douglas 30-1 Carmen’s Baby Goncalino Almeida 30-1

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